Telegraph Station

Guess what, still too windy for the ballooning so we did a little more sightseeing.

The Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve marks the original site of the first European settlement in Alice Springs. It was stablished in 1871 to relay messages between Darwin and Adelaide along Australia’s Overland Telegraph Line. This connected Australia’s population in the centre with the north of the country, it also connected Australia with the undersea telegraph network of the British Empire. Prior to 1872, a message back to England would travel by boat and take 3 to 4 months each way. However, after the telegraph line was built, morse code messages travelling through Alice Springs could reach London in as little as 5 hours.Read more