A wire around the world
3 weeks ago

A wire around the world

ABC  

Robyn Williams: This is The Science Show, a special program called 'A Wire Around the World', how something that preceded the internet 152 years ago changed Australia completely. Paul Davies: Mary, your opposite number here in Alice Springs at the Telegraph Museum is Bruce McCrea and he'd like to have a few words with you. Paul Davies: Even today, the journey across the continent isn't easy, as Alice Thompson found when tracing her ancestors for her book The Singing Line, the name the Aboriginals gave to the telegraph. Alice Thompson: They were beginning to really panic and they didn't know what they were going to do and that's when they came across the springs, and when they came across the springs and they realised there was water, they realised that they would be able to then go from one end of the country to the other and they'd found the link through the MacDonnell Range. Paul Davies: By this time the undersea cable was repaired and Australia was truly part of the world's telegraph network.

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