Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve - Alice Springs, NT, Australia
Posted by: 
denben
S 23° 40.349 E 133° 53.237
53K E 386534 N 7381591
The Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve preserves the original stone buildings of the Telegraph Station, which have been restored with furnishings and artefacts from the early 1900s.
Waymark Code: WMVDCG
Location: Northern Territory, Australia
Date Posted: 04/04/2017
Views: 4
The Alice Springs Telegraph Station National Park is significant to the Eastern Arrernte people as part of their tradition. The reserve contains ceremonial grounds and places significant to women (eg. Werlatyetherre). In addition, there are significant waterholes, and natural features where, during the creation time, ancestral beings left their essence and mark. These sites may also be significant to neighbouring Aboriginal communities when their associated story is part of a longer journey by an ancestral being.
Set against the magnificent MacDonnell Ranges, the reserve is a popular place for a walk, picnic and wildlife observation.
The Alice Springs Telegraph Station is the best preserved of the 12 stations along the Overland Telegraph Line, which was established in 1872 to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide.
The reserve marks the original site of the Alice Springs settlement, which took its name after the waterhole a short distance to the east of the station. The Station operated for 60 years, then served as a school for Aboriginal children.
The marker inscription reads:
"HISTORIC ENGINEERING MARKER
THE OVERLAND TELEGRAPH, ADELAIDE TO DARWIN, 1872
The 3178 kilometre line was built in less that two years and joined on 22 August 1872. It linked Australia to an undersea cable from Indonesia that came ashore at Port Darwin and made communication between Australia and the rest of the world possible in hours rather than weeks. The project was under the direction of Sir Charles Todd, KCMG, MA, FRS, FRAS, FRMS, FSTE, Superintendent of Posts and Telegraphs. The first telegraph messages from overseas were relayed through this station which was first linked to Adelaide on 3 Janaury 1872.
DEDICATED BY THE INSTITUTION OF ENGINEERS, AUSTRALIA, 1999"
The coordinates are from the Historic Engineering Marker.
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