Welcome to The Peake
Introduction | Special Dates | Centenary of Federation
Aboriginal Connections | Photo Gallery

Charles Todd arrived at The Peake on November 10, 1871 and spent a month there. While he had hoped to be able to start back south earlier, there was so much to do before the construction parties could move further north. The men were busy shoeing horses, preparing the bullocks and repairing and maintaining equipment.

Ross, the surveyor went on ahead, north from The Peake on November 16 and a few days later came across a 'half-wild and excited' Aboriginal who spoke a little English. He said he'd been killing other Aboriginals and asked the party to shoot more for him so that he could break their legs. He refused.

A few weeks on and the party soon discovered how harsh the summer temperatures were this far north, compared to their more southerly travels. Water was hard to find. Pushing on, they travelled 50 kms during the extreme heat of the day and still found none. Ross decided to go on ahead to find water. Seeing smoke later that afternoon the party headed towards it to find a relieved Ross with news of good water ahead. They had been without water for 36 hours.

By the end of June 1871, the Southern Section had been poled to within 15 kms of The Peake, a distance of nearly 650kms.

A repeater station was sited at The Peake because of the mound springs, suppling the electricity for the Overland Telegraph Line. The electricity was generated by banks of large batteries enclosed in glass containers, each over 25 cm high and 10 cm in diameter.

About eighty of these batteries were needed at each repeater station to provide the necessary voltage for sending telegraphic messages onto the next repeater station. They each produced 1.5 volts of electricity.