Address & Contact
95 Gorge Rd
Lansdowne NT 0850
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The
Overland Telegraph Line from
Port Augusta to Port
Darwin was Australia’s most significant
infrastructure project of the 19th Century. It connected Australia to the rest of the world via submarine telegraph cable reducing communication times from
Adelaide to London from 100 days to a few hours.
The line reached
Katherine by Christmas 1870 and crossed the “
Katherine River” at this location. Pylons were built in 1898 – 00 to solve the problem of floodwaters interfering with the wires during the wet season and for the added telegraph traffic.
The 1899 towers are 9.1 metres stone
Cairns with two 15.2 metre steel poles in each. The towers are 400 metres apart across the
Katherine River.
During WW11 the line was upgraded, rebuilt and transferred to the 1926 Railway
Bridge. The old telegraph line at this location continued in service until 1967, almost 100 years after it was built.
On the 10th July 1996, the two pylons were declared a
places of national
heritage.