The Old Telegraph Station

This was the origin of the name Alice Springs, named in honour of Charles Todd's wife. It is not really a spring at all it is just a depression on the river bed where water gets trapped between the granite.

The Old Telegraph Station in Alice Springs was opened as a museum in the 1960s. It closed its operations in 1932. Construction of the Overland Telegraph from Port Darwin to Adelaide is recognised as one of the great engineering feats of the nineteenth century. Prior to telgraph, news and letters from Europe took at least 2 months to reach the Australian colonies.

The OTS was the first white settlement in Central Australia. The first telegraph message was sent on 23 January 1871 from Alice Springs to Adelaide. The "singing wire" was strung across 3000 kms of country that was largely unexplored. It was constructed within two years and completed in 1872.

Nothing to do with the telegraph. Just a plane used by the Flying Doctor Service, another great pioneering feat.