Welcome to Oodnadatta
Introduction | Special Dates | Centenary of Federation
Aboriginal Connections | Colourful Characters
Connecting the Kids | Photo Gallery | WebCam
Repeater Station (Archived Chats and Forum)

Oodnadatta kids talk about life in their community

From 6 weeeks to less than a second, Lynnie from Oodnadatta discusses how far communication speeds have come.

Eddie from Oodnadatta talks about the "party line"

John McDouall Stuart explored this region in 1859, and the Overland Telegraph Line adopted his route as its own. To the north of Oodnadatta stand some of the old telegraph poles which cut through the incredible loneliness of this outback area.

This area also marks the upper reaches of Ned Bagot's Southern section of the Overgraph Telephone Line. North of Oodnadatta, the beginning of the A section of the central section of the line heralded the part of the line that Charles Todd knew would be the most difficult.

While the artesian water was tapped at Oodnadatta providing relatively luxurious conditions for the construction site, an arduous task lay ahead. One that would soon be heavily punctuated with calamity.

The construction party for the first section of this northern section comprised of 19 men, 15 horse wagons, 17 bullock drays, 1 bullock wagon and 5 express wagons. In all, around 165 horses and 210 bullocks.

The repeater station was eventually moved from The Peake to Oodnadatta and later the telegraph line was relocated beside the railway track.

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