Discovery trail
A wire through the wilderness
Messages across a continent
The Overland Telegraph linked Port Augusta with Darwin in 1872. Explore an existing port, relay stations and settlements that later grew through gold, transport and government services. Stops follow the corridor south to north; they are a selection, not every station.
THE STOPS
Port AugustaThis port already served inland pastoral trade. At the head of Spencer Gulf it became the southern starting point of the overland line, rather than a town founded by the telegraph.
Alice SpringsA waterhole supported a telegraph relay station. The separate township was named Stuart; rail and government services later enlarged its role, and it became Alice Springs in 1933.
Tennant CreekThe telegraph station preceded the modern town. Gold discoveries in the 1930s drew the prospectors and businesses that established the later mining settlement nearby.
KatherineThe telegraph helped a settlement develop at Knott’s Crossing. The railway bridge later prompted a new town site, while roads and regional services supplied further work.
DarwinPalmerston was surveyed in 1869 before the line was completed. The cable link towards Java connected the continental telegraph to overseas communications; port, administration and defence supplied other reasons to grow.