Important news got around by telegraph in the 19th
century, but ‘telegraph’ has a variable meaning. Around the world, there are a
number of places called Telegraph Hill: at least six of them in Britain, three
in the USA, two in Australia, one in New Zealand, and there is even one
Telegraphenberg in Germany.
In each case, these telegraphs had nothing at all to do
with wires, because any telegraph on top of a hill was a mechanical system
known technically as a semaphore. Tasmania had a system of these in operation
as early as 1836, covering the Port Arthur peninsula, and used mainly to warn of
convict escapes:
…any occurrence may be known, question asked and answer
returned within the whole range of the peninsula, which is above a hundred
miles in circumference in the course of a few minutes. This is accomplished at
present by means of only nine signal stations and we are happy to learn that
the line is forthwith to be extended to Hobart town, which can be done, we
believe, by the erecting of only two more semaphores, one on Betsy island and
the other at head quarters on Macquarie point.
The advantage of this simple mode of intelligence is so great
and the cost attending it so small, we are only surprised in a colony
circumstanced as this is, that a line has not long ago been established across
the island from Hobart town to Launceston…[1]
The system had one big weakness, which showed up in 1859,
when 14 convicts rushed the gate at Port Arthur, assaulted the Deputy Superintendent, Mr Browne, and ran off. An alarm
bell was rung and a body of constables and watchmen chased after the runaways.
The Commandant asked Lieut. Dowman, the officer commanding
the military at Port Arthur, to “write” to Lieut. Lloyd, at Eagle Hawk Neck. In
modern terms, he was asking Dowman to send a semaphore signal, but the day was
so wet and cloudy, the semaphore failed them, as the Launceston Examiner reported.
Surmising also that the object of the men might possibly be
to seize the boat at Norfolk Bay, the Commandant deemed it desirable to proceed
thither on horseback in order to get in advance of the convicts. Mr. Boyd
selected, when passing the Railroad Station, some of the best men for temporary
acting constables, and despatched them to Norfolk Bay. On his arrival there the
Commandant made the necessary arrangements for the security of the boat, and
proceeded to Eagle Hawk Neck, where he personally arranged with Lieutenant
Lloyd, the officer commanding the detachment, for additional sentries, &c.,
being placed in the most effective position. [3]
By the time the newspaper went to print, eleven of the
escapees had been recaptured, but the authorities would have been happier, once
there was an electrical telegraph in place. Still, at least the Tasmanians
never had to rely on smoke signals, as the good folk of Melbourne did in its early
days. William Kelly quoted an 1838 advertisement from the short-lived Melbourne Advertiser which reflected
this very method:
The undersigned begs to inform the public that he has a boat
and two men in readiness for the purpose of crossing and recrossing passengers
between Williams town and the opposite beach.
Parties from Melbourne are requested to raise a smoke, and
the boat will be at their service as soon as practicable. The least charge is
five shillings, and two shillings each when the number exceeds two. [4]
There was a
different sort of signal station near Macquarie Light in Sydney. This used a
complex system of flags, sending signals to and from the city to notify the
authorities of ships arriving or leaving the port.
An elegant building of white freestone, called Macquarie
Tower, on the southern side of the entrance to Port Jackson, the entrance to
which it points out by day and night, the revolving light being visible at ten
or twelve leagues distance: by its side, is a telegraph and signal post, to
communicate to Sydney every thing relating to vessels entering or leaving the
harbour. [5]
The other end of the system was in what remained of Fort
Phillip, a fort which was started but never completed, on top of what became
Observatory Hill in the 1850s. Describing Sydney as it was in 1839, James
Maclehose described Fort Phillip this way:
The situation commands the whole of the town of Sydney, its
Cove, and Darling Harbour. The north face looks onto Dawes’ Battery, at about
400 yards distance; the east on Fort Macquarie about 800 yards, and is now only
used as a telegraphic station. [6]
Melbourne also had a telegraph station at the heads of Port
Phillip, though by the time Kelly published his book, this may already have
been connected to Melbourne by an electric telegraph, because gold-rich
Victoria was usually ahead of the other colonies in matters that involved being
“modern”.
The entrance to Port Phillip is about the same width as that
leading into the bay of San Francisco, but is not nearly so deep, and is
altogether wanting in that majestic grandeur imparted to the portals of the
Golden Horn by the lofty mountains of the great coast range. On the top of the
projecting cliff to the westward stood the lighthouse and telegraph station. [7]
[2]
Ludwig Becker, SLV H30987 public domain.
[4]
William Kelly, Life in Victoria or
Victoria in 1853, and Victoria in 1858, vol 1, 97.
[5]
Robert Burford, Description of a View of the Town of Sydney, 1829, 12.
[6]
J. Maclehose, Picture of Sydney; and Strangers’ Guide in New South Wales for
1839, 1839, 122.
[7]
William Kelly, Life in Victoria or
Victoria in 1853, and Victoria in 1858, vol 1, 25.
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