The Beginnings of an Outback Town: The Alice Springs Telegraph Station
The buildings of the Telegraph Station at Alice Springs in Central Australia are on a historical reserve. Green grass slopes away from their walls, leading down to a dry riverbed. The gum trees watching over the Telegraph Station wave branches embroidered with flat olive leaves. The Telegraph Station serves as a tangible link to a world that has passed away.
The Telegraph Station was built in 1871 as part of the Overland Telegraph Line which facilitated communication between Darwin on the northern coast of Australia, and Adelaide on the southern. Settlers of European heritage lived at the Station, drawn from other parts of Australia. They braved the isolation and rugged conditions, facing a world little of the rest of Australia's colonizers knew about. Medical facilities were inaccessible because of distance and the comforts of the city remained a fairytale. Yet, this place became a home for the early European people in Central Australia, just as it had been home to the local Arrernte people for thousands of years. This was not without conflict.
In a land of extremes, these buildings have observed different eras come and go. The Telegraph Station was a mark on the landscape by people from foreign shores. Initially called Stuart, the rudimentary settlement birthed from the Telegraph Station is today known as Alice Springs. A vibrant town of 29,000 people, it has swelled in size and is home to a diverse community from all corners of the globe as well as the traditional owners.
Today, when it rains, residents of Alice Springs are drawn to the riverbank at the Telegraph Station to watch the rare sight of a flowing river in the desert. Our footsteps retrace the journey of those who have gone before. Do our eyes see what they saw? Did the brilliant blue sky and the limitless horizon look the same to us as they did to those early pioneers? What will people see in a hundred years’ time? How will life have changed, yet again?
The Telegraph Station is now a tourist attraction. The cafe contains a gift shop full of postcards of kangaroos and wedge-tailed eagles, and assorted books by local writers and classics about the outback. Mountain bike trails lace the surrounding area, and the walking paths range in difficulty. In winter, the sunshine is warm – in summer, it’s too hot to be outdoors for extended periods. The winters and summers of Central Australia have cycled for eons.
Our lives are a blister on the hand of time.
The sun that watches the Telegraph Station now, is the one that
watched it all those years ago when its first foundations were laid. Time moves
on inevitably. We are caught up in it as were those who came before, and there
is no escape. Time is endless, and our lives will fade into it, kept alive only
by memories. It is a sobering thought. It is also the truth.