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Ships transporting the new Government team lead by Robert Patterson, with Charles Todd, the man responsible for the line, also on board, set sail for Port Darwin, arriving on August 24 1871, loaded with 200 men, 170 horses, 500 bullocks plus plant and equipment.

Both line supervisor Charles Todd and northern section leader Robert Patterson wanted to head for the Roper which runs into the Gulf of Carpentaria, as the end of the line was now much closer to the head of the river than it was to Port Darwin. But politics dictated that they should land at Port Darwin to help increase the local prosperity. That was where it all came terribly unstuck.

In the dry season water was scarce and teams heading south suffered severe stock losses. Todd sent a ship with supplies to the Roper in hope they could get the supplies upstream, but it was wrecked.

Todd sent a message to Adelaide for more supplies, or they would have to withraw to the Roper with the wet arriving again. To make matters worse, Todd received news that the ships carrying the submarine cable had arrived in Port Darwin and on November 19, several hundred men brought the cable ashore. Todd would now be responsible for heavy penalties since his part of the bargain - the completion of the line - had not been met on time. Things could not have been worse. Or could they?

Patterson arranged for a second ship, the Bengal, to carry stores up the Roper. His men were bogged in now flooded country so he left them to make his way up the river, reaching it on December 31, 1871, the day the line should have officially been completed.

In desperation Patterson made a boat from a wagon, taking the wheels off and covering the sides with canvas. The river was swollen and running fast but he knew he must go downstream in the hope of meeting the Bengal.

They were 145 kms from the mouth. They launched the boat and miraculously just over a day later spotted the masts of the Bengal through a gap in the trees after a hair-raising trip of 50 kms.

Safely on board Patterson found out that Todd was on his way on the Omeo which landed downstream on January 27. But the steamer Todd had bought to ferry the stock and supplies up the river hadn't arrived. The stock would surely die as he had no means of landing. He was indeed a desperate man. Who called for desperate measures.

Todd decided to take the thousand-tonne ocean going steamer up river himself. The captain slowly edged the ship over the sand bar and with men taking soundings on both sides, entered the river.

Three days later, she had joined the Bengal and from there Todd sent a boat back to the mouth where they found the small steamer as well as the Young Australian waiting for the arrival of the Omeo, unaware the Omeo had ventured into the river.

A few days later all the ships were safely at Patterson's camp, the Omeo making a strange site; a thousand tonne ocean steamer deep in the forest of the Northern Territory and 145 kms from the sea. But it was raining harder than ever and they couldn't move the supplies out to the Overland Telegraph Line construction site. Patterson and Todd could only hope the men were still alive.

The Omeo left her crude makeshift jetty on February 13 and a few weeks later the jetty which had been 7 metres above her decks, was 3 metres underwater. It wasn't until March 25 when the rain subsided, that a team could leave the camp.

The wet ended as abruptly as it started and the men - who had only just survived waiting for supplies - got to work again. These men had spent months camping on high mounds, trying to pass the time.

Many of them were camped at Providence Knoll 132 kms west of the Roper bar, huddled in misery on the knoll, surrounded by water and the animals that had survived the floods. One group passed the time playing euchre. With soggy cards? No way. They'd fashioned a whole set of tin cards from their bully beef tins.

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