Centenary of Federation - Connecting the Continent

KATHERINE - Click here to
see a Quicktime VR Scene
KATHERINE - Click here to
see a Quicktime VR Scene
KATHERINE - Click here to
see a Quicktime VR Scene
KATHERINE - Click here to
see a Quicktime VR Scene
KATHERINE - Click here to
see a Quicktime VR Scene
KATHERINE - Click here to
see a Quicktime VR Scene
KATHERINE - Click here to
see a Quicktime VR Scene
KATHERINE - Click here to
see a Quicktime VR Scene

Connecting The Kids is an opportunity for you as a student or teacher - to be involved in an event like no other.

A Day in the Life of Katherine School - Click here to see a Quicktime movie

I still call Australia home - Click here to see a Quicktime movie

Sunset at Katherine South Primary School - Click here to see a Quicktime movie

Katherine School of the Air - Click here to see a Quicktime movie

It was an incredibly wet, wet season. In December they had received over 500mm of rain and up until January 24, 450 mm. Not surprisingly, when the Overland Telegraph Line construction party reached the Katherine River it was in flood and although they would be able to build rafts, they knew the flooding meant it was impossible to move supplies down from Port Darwin to reach them.

The men became fed up and on March 7, the first industrial strike in Northern Territory occurred. They had only poled as far as the King River.

By mid march the Supervisor, McMinn, warned the contractors that work was unsatisfactory before he set out to meet surveyor John Ross, who had been trying to forge a route through to the Roper River. A route through to the river which ran into the Gulf of Carpentaria, meant supplies could be shipped much closer to the end of the construction line, rather than try to navigate the flooded terrain south of Port Darwin.

But when McMinn returned to the party on May 3, he found work had been abandoned. The men had refused to go any further and had withdrawn to Katherine.

McMinn panicked and cancelled the construction contract and left with the men for Adelaide on June 6. Their arrival back in Adelaide meant the chance of finishing the Overland Telegraph Line on time was slight.

Charles Todd rushed to put together a government team headed by Robert Patterson and three weeks after McMinn returned to Adelaide, Patterson's team left by boat for Port Darwin.

But not before all the best weather of 1871 had passed without so much as one more pole being erected on the Northern Section.

Click on the maps above to view MAP DETAILS or use the map on the left to go directly to a location.

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© Centenary of Federation SA 2001