Reviewed by Richard Tutin
When someone wishes to pursue a momentous project at all costs they are often regarded as being obsessive. If they manage to complete it well, they are then called visionary.
Such is the situation with Charles Todd whose greatest achievement was the completion of the Overland Telegraph in 1872.
David Dufty has provided a comprehensive account of how Charles Todd accomplished the remarkable engineering achievement of connecting Australia to the rest of the world. This was done by navigating some of the most challenging terrain in the colony of South Australia, which at that time included the Northern Territory. Todd secured the contract for South Australia, prevailing over other colonies such as Queensland which had proposed routing the telegraph line through Normanton and then along the East Coast to Brisbane. As part of his agreement with the owners of the undersea cable being laid between Singapore and Port Darwin, Todd was required to meet a specific deadline.
In the process Dufty introduces us to Todd the person who like many of us tried hard to balance his professional life as well as his responsibilities as a husband and father. It would have taken great courage for someone to bring their young family to the newly founded colony and settle them in the still fledgling town of Adelaide. The significant impact of geographical isolation has historically influenced, and continues to influence, the formation of Australian society as well as international perceptions of Australia as a nation.
Todd’s unwavering desire to see South Australia as well as the other colonies connected telegraphically had its ups and down as he fought to overcome government inertia and discouragement. What he envisaged was a costly enterprise and it was sometime before he was given the mandate to go ahead and begin construction. By the time the Overland Telegraph was begun to be built sending messages via morse code to different parts of the world was becoming more common place. The technology to achieve it had been in use for some time and was constantly improving. What was different for Todd and his construction teams was the unknown terrain between Adelaide and the newly instituted Port Darwin at the top end of the continent.
Many obstacles needed to be overcome. The biggest was certainly the weather especially when the wet season began make its presence felt through heavy rain and floods.
For Australian history buffs it is a glimpse into the biggest inland project of the time. It is a great study of how the conditions affected those who travelled many miles, often on foot, to prepare the route, erect the poles, string the wires and eventually make it all work. The fact that it did work and supplied a worthwhile service to the nation for almost one hundred years is a minor miracle.
Today little remains of both the line and its stations. It has though left some reminders. If we go to Alice Springs, that was named in honour of Todd’s wife, we can visit the Old Telegraph Station standing as it does beside the Todd River. This museum is a constant reminder of Todd’s vision and his obsessive determination to see it completed. The Overland Telegraph serves as an excellent example of the perseverance required to overcome significant obstacles and attain exceptional outcomes.
David Dufty is an historian and researcher. He is the author of Nabbing Ned Kelly, The Secret Code Breakers of Central Bureau and Radio Girl.
Charles Todd’s Magnificent Obsession – the epic race to connect Australia to the world
by David Dufty
(2024)
Allen & Unwin
ISBN 978 1 761471 35 3
$34.99; 354pp