THE OVERLAND Telegraph THE OVERLAND Telegraph

Episode 4Completion

In June 1870, the South Australian Superintendent of Telegraphs, Charles Todd, appointed as the head of the enormous Overland Telegraph project, probably sat and pondered Aesop’s (260 BC) phrase, “Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!” In less than two years, starting with no staff or construction teams, he had to build 3200km of telegraph line over mountains, deserts, swamps, and country that flooded every year. As well, there was the challenge of tribes of hostile Aborigines, determined to defend their territory. It was to consist of about 36,000 telegraph poles, with insulators, connected by a single iron wire. To make it operational, he needed to build a repeater station every 250 km, each complete with huge batteries, and telegraph key electrical switches, to be manned 24/7 by trained operators to receive and transmit text messages in morse code. Apart from the 36,000 poles placed 80m apart, everything else had to be ordered from England. To add to this incredible challenge, the contract stipulated a total cost of no more than £128,000 and the construction was to be completed by 1st January 1872, after which monthly penalties would apply. Crossing Australia from south to north had only been achieved twice, costing the lives of Burke and Wills, and leaving John McDouall Stuart a broken wreck on his return. Charles discussed the enormity of his undertaking with Alice. As ever, Alice gave him encouragement and a pledge to help him in any way needed. Charles knew that he would have hundreds of men spending months in the hostile country, most leaving mothers, wives and children behind in Adelaide. Alice told Charles that she would provide the support needed for these families, both in morale and existential needs. Charles planned the project. He divided the route into three sections, each of 970 km. The northern and southern sections were to be managed by private contractors, and the remote central section was to be constructed by his own department. He devised a timetable to complete the immense project on schedule.

In July 1870, Todd appointed John Ross to lead an exploration party that would survey the central route, linking waterholes and areas with sufficient supplies of timber for the telegraph poles. Ross generally followed Stuart’s trail, which was itself a traditional trade route created and travelled by Aboriginal people for millennia.

On 11th March 1871, surveyor William Whitfield Mills arrived at the MacDonnell Ranges and was successful in finding a

By Al Finegan

pass, about 50km east of Stuart's track. He then followed numerous waterholes and springs, reporting that, “… the principal of which is the Alice Spring which I had the honour of naming after Mrs Todd.” Sadly, it was not a natural spring. It was actually a permanent water hole that remained after the river had flowed in the wet season, then became mostly a dry riverbed for the rest of the year. The river he named after his boss, “Todd.” Alice Springs began its modern history as the township of Stuart until 1933, when it was renamed “Alice Springs”, in recognition of the part played by Alice in the project.

Darwent & Dalwood, who had won the contract for the northern section had arrived in Port Darwin aboard SS Omeo in September 1870 with 80 men, 80 draught horses, bullocks, equipment and stores. The northern line was progressing well until the onset of the wet season in November 1870. 250mm of rain a day waterlogged the ground and made it impossible for work to progress. On 7th March 1871, the men went on strike, with rancid food and disease-spreading mosquitoes amongst their complaints. While the northern section remained bogged down, the southern and central sections were completed within the time stipulated. A frantic Todd headed north, and after discussion with Overseer of Works William McMinn, he cancelled Darwent & Dalwood's contract and sent all the workers back to Adelaide on the basis of being well behind schedule. Todd was now forced to construct an extra 700km of line, and threw every available resource into its completion, including the purchase of horses and the hiring of men from NSW. It was another six months before reinforcements, led by engineer Robert Patterson, arrived in Darwin.

Charles spent most of his time on the track, supporting and encouraging his men. He also wrote to Alice each day. Each letter started out with, “My Dearest Alice.” He talked of his life in remote places, and his troubles with getting the telegraph lines across, “… some of the most rugged and isolated terrain on earth.” From the Roper River, near a particularly difficult part of the construction, he wrote, “I wish you could see it, especially at sunset, when the tints and reflections on the water are most beautiful.” The strength of Charles and Alice’s relationship shows through in those letters, feelings growing stronger from the foundations laid all those years earlier in that family home in Cambridgeshire. “All who knew my mother loved her,” her daughter Lorna later wrote, “and no one could look into my mother's blue eyes, which always had a twinkle of fun in them, without being sure of her enjoyment of life, and her deep love of my Dad.”

By the end of the year, and the deadline looming, there was still over 300km of the northern line to erect. Todd, ever the man of initiative, started the equivalent of the American Pony Express, sending messages by horse and camel across the incomplete section. During this time, Todd began visiting workers along the line to lift their spirits. A message he sent along the incomplete line on 22nd May 1872, took 9 days to reach Adelaide. Todd concentrated much of his resources in the north. To his great relief, on 22nd August 1872, the southern and northern lines were connected at Frew Ponds, near Daly Waters, NT, only seven months behind schedule. Todd sent this message to Adelaide and London:

“WE HAVE THIS DAY, WITHIN TWO YEARS, COMPLETED A LINE OF COMMUNICATIONS

TWO THOUSAND MILES LONG THROUGH THE VERY CENTRE OF AUSTRALIA, UNTIL A FEW YEARS AGO A TERRA INCOGNITA BELIEVED TO BE A DESERT”

It was a defining moment. It changed the way Australia related to the world. The country’s extreme isolation was broken. After the first messages had been exchanged over the new line, Todd rushed to return to Adelaide.

Meanwhile in Adelaide, word spread at a furious pace that the line was completed. For the last 18 months, Alice had been wearing black, but on this day, she put on her best lilac satin dress and followed the crowds the half mile to the post office, there to watch the first messages come through. On the outside was a notice board, where the daily weather reports from the colony were posted. Right at the top was Darwin, “Fine, Warm, and Clear.” One year and eleven months after the first time Charles had left, Alice breathed a huge sigh of relief. She now knew that the line was complete.

Still only thirty-six, her mind kept returning to the image of Stuart, his hair turned white, hobbling down the street after his epic trek. She worked her way into the crowded new GPO that had just been completed on King William Street. In the crowd, she recognised many as the wives and mothers of men who had laboured in the isolated, horrendous conditions of the outback, and with whom she had commiserated and supported over the past two years. Being instantly recognised, the huge crowd parted to let her through. A few began to clap. Then more joined in. Soon everyone was cheering, and the roar spread to those gathered outside. An overwhelmed Alice quickly realised the enormity of Charles’ achievement.

Sending a telegram was still prohibitively expensive with each word costing the equivalent of a day’s wage for a labourer. However, the service was an instant success, transmitting over 4000 telegrams, mainly for business and government, in its first year of service.

Newspapers printed sections by-lined, “By Electric Telegraph,” and businesses clamoured for news from the European markets. Telegraph offices, especially in rural areas, became centres of trade where information and banking were transacted, and orders placed. The telegraph line also opened up the centre of the continent. Within a year of its construction, gold was being mined around Pine Creek near Katherine, and within 10 years, the cattle industry had been established in the Northern Territory. Prospectors and graziers used the repeater stations as centres from which to explore and stake claims on the land. Alice Springs, which was established as a repeater station, became the administrative hub for central Australia.

Life returned to a semblance of normality for Alice and Charles. The couple had two sons and four daughters and were regular churchgoers as well as prominent members of Adelaide society. They were rarely seen outside each other’s company.

In 1885, Charles and Alice attended the international telegraphic conference at Berlin. The following year they travelled to Great Britain where Todd was made an honorary MA of the University of Cambridge. In 1889 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, London. He was also elected as a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Meteorological Society and of the Society of Electrical Engineers. During this time he was knighted, completing his honours, KCMG FRS FRAS FRMS FIEE.

In 1898 when Alice was 62, she suffered a stroke and her increasingly frail physical state was matched by a fragile mental condition. She made one last public appearance, at Government House. In descending the stairs to dinner on the arm of the governor of SA, Sir Francis Buxton, she managed a smile, dressed in a grey evening dress with a soft pink front, while she watched her youngest daughter whirl the night away in a white lace coming out dress, surrounded by the cream of Adelaide’s society.

The next day, Alice lapsed into a coma. About a month later, Charles received a message at the GPO saying that his beloved wife Alice was dying. Charles rushed home. Afterwards, Lorna wrote that, “I looked at my father, so broken and rudderless, and realised more than ever, the part my mother had played both in his public and private life. She was the one who kept encouraging him when everyone else gave up. She believed in him absolutely. Mum had kept the family going through Dad’s frequent absences and laughed at his puns when he returned. Her favourite motto was, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” Lorna continued, “How often she must have said to this to herself as she battled alone with her life during my father's frequent journeys away from home.”

The Premier, Chief Justice, and the Treasurer all came to the funeral. The observatory and their staff were never the same. Lorna said that, “My mother had been the strong centre of not only our lives, but strength for so many others.”

Todd continued in his duties to SA, until the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia took over all such services. On 1st March 1901, Todd became a federal public servant at the age of 74. He retired in December 1906, having been over 51 years in the service of the SA and Commonwealth governments.

Twelve years after losing Alice, Charles Todd died of gangrene at Semaphore, SA. His last thoughts surely must have been the memory of a 12-year-old Alice Bell, who, from behind a chaise longue, announced firmly, “I will marry you, Mr Todd, if no one else will.”