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Life on the Overland Telegraph Line 1878-1903

The following is a quote from Fred's Journal.

"One day a fault occurred between The Shackle and Pine Creek, which meant I had to close the office for two days at the most, and started out to locate the fault."

(Note: At that time The Shackle was being used as a local telegraph office only with one Junior Operator, Fred Goss, in charge.)

"As it happened the telegraph line, which I had to follow, was close to the road track. I met a man coming towards me and had a chat. There was something that seemed foreign to the circumstances. It was clear to me that he and his horse had been working. He wore an open necked cotton shirt with sleeves rolled up, and a slouched felt hat. I noticed a quart pot on his saddle, and yet it seemed that he did not belong to that life.

"After a minute or two he said, as if divining my thoughts, 'I suppose you are wondering who I am. I am the Duke of Manchester.' It was on the tip of my tongue to reply, 'Oh, how do you do! I'm the Prince of Wales.' But something restrained me from doing so. I introduced myself and, after answering a question as to how far he was from the Hotel, we parted.

"The next evening when I returned I found he was the Duke of Manchester - the next issue of the weekly paper from Palmerston (Darwin) settled that beyond a doubt. He was looking for an investment and apparently believed in doing the job himself."

On 1st August 1882, Fred volunteered to take up a vacancy as an Assistant at Powell's Creek. Little did he know that he would be escorting Mr Little, his Boss, from Katherine to Powell's Creek.

The Southern boundary of the northern section was at Attack Creek, about 80 miles South of Powell's Creek. Fred's appointment to Powell's Creek was the one in the Northern Section that was the furthest from Darwin, about 600 miles - a situation that pleased him. He wrote enthusiastically about the place.

"The Station itself is in hilly country... The living at the station was good. There was plenty of good water and the soil was productive. Vegetables were plentiful. Fowls did well and we often had one, sometimes two, for Sunday's dinner. Butter, eggs and milk were also in abundance.

"The staff consisted of a station master, an assistant SM, cook, gardener, shepherd, two linesmen (all Europeans) and a black boy. Later the cook was replaced by a Chinese man and the shepherd by a black boy.

"The whole life with its conditions was new to me and I was thrilled with it. A beautiful comet appeared about this time, a short, but very brilliant one with a long tail. It appeared high in the sky, East South East from the telegraph line. We all turned out about 2am to admire it.

"Bush telegraph was in operation. One morning, about 9am the station boy came in and reported that a man with two pack horses had left Tennant's Creek that morning for the Powell. To check up on this, we called up Tennant's Creek Station master and found the report was correct. The man had left an hour before, 150 miles away. We questioned the boy about the report and he said he had been told it by a bush native. That was as far as we could get. The blacks will not give away their methods."

The happy state of Fred Goss at Powell's Creek did not last for one year. After about 11 months he was sent back North to 'The Katherine', as a temporary Assistant. Records show that he was employed there from 1st July 1883 to 19th April 1884.

Fred described 'The Katherine' thus:

"The Katherine River was a comparatively important place. Traffic from the North, South, East and West must pass through The Katherine settlement. The river is a large one and has been known to rise, silently, seventy feet during the night. A Government boat was kept there in the charge of the Telegraph Staff. A Police Station with two police was there. The river is about 200 miles from Darwin."

The statement '200 miles from Darwin' speaks eloquently of my grandfather's dislike of being too close to the Head Office and authority there.

The fishing and duck shooting were very good pastimes then at 'The Katherine'. They were also used to supplement the 'once a year' store supplies that came from Adelaide by boat around the east coast, and then out bush to the stations (telegraph and cattle), by bullock wagons or horse teams. Try to imagine only putting in a grocery order once a year and then waiting, maybe months, for it to be delivered!

Any gunman who shot down a duck from above Katherine Gorge lost it immediately. The scaly head of a crocodile would break the surface of the water, and with one SNAP the duck would be gone.

Fred's comment about the sudden immense rise in the Katherine River has recently been borne out by the sudden and devastating floods that struck Katherine township in the late 1990s.