65-709: The Bulloo Developmental Road is an outback road in Queensland , Australia . It is part of the Adventure Way , a route from Brisbane to Adelaide via the Australian outback. It commences at Cunnamulla and travels approximately west for 361 kilometres (224 mi) until it meets the Cooper Developmental Road at 27°21′31″S 142°34′18″E / 27.3587°S 142.5718°E / -27.3587; 142.5718 . A project to widen and seal sections of
130-402: A central section which would be constructed by his own department. The telegraph line would comprise more than 30,000 wrought iron poles, insulators, batteries, wire and other equipment, ordered from England. The poles were placed 80 m apart and repeater stations separated by no more than 250 km, a major criterion being year-round availability of water. Todd appointed staff to whom
195-505: A linesman. The job of a telegraphist was to record each message received, with the time of day, and to re-send (relay) it further along the line. Within the first year of operations 4000 telegrams were transmitted. Maintenance was an ongoing and mammoth task, with floods often destroying poles, and a range of other incidents disrupting the line. In the 1880s, wooden poles were replaced with Joseph Oppenheimer's patented telescoping poles . The line proved an immediate success in opening
260-470: A long way from anywhere, or a long way away. The well-watered north of the continent is often called the " Top End " and the arid interior "The Red Centre", owing to its vast amounts of red soil and sparse greenery amongst its landscape. The outback is criss-crossed by historic tracks. Most of the major highways have an excellent bitumen surface and other major roads are usually well-maintained dirt roads. The Stuart Highway runs from north to south through
325-459: A low human population density, a largely intact natural environment and, in many places, low-intensity land uses, such as pastoralism (livestock grazing) in which production is reliant on the natural environment. The Outback is deeply ingrained in Australian heritage, history and folklore . In Australian art the subject of the Outback has been vogue, particularly in the 1940s. In 2009, as part of
390-524: A team of men for his central section: surveyors, linesmen, carpenters, labourers and cooks. The team left Adelaide with horses, bullocks and carts loaded with provisions and equipment for many weeks. The central section would be surveyed by the explorer John Ross and Alfred Giles , his second-in-command. The southern section from Port Augusta to Alberga Creek was contracted to Edward Meade Bagot . He contracted Benjamin Herschel Babbage to survey
455-585: Is a major component of national tourism incomes. Tourism Australia explicitly markets nature-based and Indigenous-led experiences to tourists. In the 2015–2016 financial year, 815,000 visitors spent $ 988 million while on holidays in the Northern Territory alone. There are many popular tourist attractions in the Outback. Some of the well known destinations include Devils Marbles , Kakadu National Park , Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), MacDonnell Ranges and Uluru (Ayers Rock) . Other than agriculture and tourism,
520-452: Is claimed that the saloon, named after the nearby Black Stump Run and Black Stump Creek, was an important staging post for traffic to north-west New South Wales and it became a marker by which people gauged their journeys. "The Never-Never " is a term referring to remoter parts of the Outback. The Outback can also be referred to as "back of beyond" or "back o' Bourke ", although these terms are more frequently used when referring to something
585-607: Is considerable. Major mines and mining areas in the Outback include opals at Coober Pedy , Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs , metals at Broken Hill , Tennant Creek , Olympic Dam and the remote Challenger Mine . Oil and gas are extracted in the Cooper Basin around Moomba . In Western Australia the Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberley was once the world's biggest producer of natural diamonds and contributed approximately one-third of
650-430: Is full of very important well-adapted wildlife, although much of it may not be immediately visible to the casual observer. Many animals, such as red kangaroos and dingoes , hide in bushes to rest and keep cool during the heat of the day. Birdlife is prolific, most often seen at waterholes at dawn and dusk. Huge flocks of budgerigars , cockatoos , corellas and galahs are often sighted. On bare ground or roads during
715-505: Is in Outback Australia, was fully certified as organic farm production, making Australia the largest certified organic production area in the world. Tourism is a major industry across the Outback, and commonwealth and state tourism agencies explicitly target Outback Australia as a desirable destination for domestic and international travellers. There is no breakdown of tourism revenues for the "Outback" per se . However, regional tourism
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#1732877215749780-604: Is relied on for mail delivery in some areas, owing to sparse settlement and wet-season road closures. Most outback mines have an airstrip and many have a fly-in fly-out workforce. Most outback sheep stations and cattle stations have an airstrip and quite a few have their own light plane. Medical and ambulance services are provided by the Royal Flying Doctor Service . In 2024 two Regional, Rural and Remote air lines collapsed, namely Bonza and REX . Overland Telegraph The Australian Overland Telegraph Line
845-473: The Gulf of Carpentaria in 1860. Although the route was traversed, the expedition ended in disaster. The South Australian government recognised the economic benefits that would result from becoming the centre of the telegraph network. It offered a reward of £2000 to encourage an expedition to find a route between South Australia and the north coast. John McDouall Stuart had meanwhile also been endeavouring to cross
910-545: The Northern Territory ; gold discoveries were made in several places along the northern section (in particular Pine Creek ), and the repeater stations in the MacDonnell Ranges proved invaluable starting points for explorers like Ernest Giles , W. C. Gosse , and Peter Egerton-Warburton who were heading west. In February 1875, a small contingent of Overland Telegraph employees left Port Darwin for Adelaide on
975-633: The Q150 celebrations, the Queensland Outback was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "natural attraction". Aboriginal peoples have lived in the Outback for at least 50,000 years and occupied all Outback regions, including the driest deserts, when Europeans first entered central Australia in the 1800s. Many Aboriginal Australians retain strong physical and cultural links to their traditional country and are legally recognised as
1040-543: The Woomera Prohibited Area . Mineral exploration continues as new mineral deposits are identified and developed. 2002 was declared the Year of the Outback. While the early explorers used horses to cross the Outback, the first woman to make the journey riding a horse was Anna Hingley , who rode from Broome to Cairns in 2006. The paucity of industrial land use has led to the Outback being recognised globally as one of
1105-679: The Darwin– Burketown route. The final contract was secured in 1870 when the South Australian government agreed to construct 3200 km of line to Darwin, while the British-Australian Telegraph Company promised to lay the undersea cable from Banyuwangi , Java to Darwin. The latter was to be finished on 31 December 1871, and severe penalties were to apply if the connecting link was not ready. The South Australian Superintendent of Telegraphs, Charles Todd ,
1170-549: The Federal Government. While small areas of the outback consist of clay soils the majority has exceedingly infertile palaeosols . Riversleigh , in Queensland, is one of Australia's most renowned fossil sites and was recorded as a World Heritage site in 1994. The 100 km (39 sq mi) area contains fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene and Miocene age. The largest industry across
1235-416: The Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a number of climatic zones, including tropical and monsoonal climates in northern areas, arid areas in the "red centre" and semi-arid and temperate climates in southerly regions. The total population is estimated at 607,000 people. Geographically, the Outback is unified by a combination of factors, most notably
1300-401: The Outback, culminating in successfully reaching the north coast of Australia and returning without the loss of any of the party's members' lives. This contrasts with the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition in 1860–61 which was much better funded, but resulted in the deaths of three of the members of the transcontinental party. The Overland Telegraph line was constructed in the 1870s along
1365-666: The Outback, in terms of the area occupied, is pastoralism , in which cattle, sheep, and sometimes goats are grazed in mostly intact, natural ecosystems. Widespread use of bore water, obtained from underground aquifers, including the Great Artesian Basin , has enabled livestock to be grazed across vast areas in which no permanent surface water exists naturally. Capitalising on the lack of pasture improvement and absence of fertiliser and pesticide use, many Outback pastoral properties are certified as organic livestock producers. In 2014, 17,000,000 hectares (42,000,000 acres), most of which
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#17328772157491430-460: The SS Seine . The operation took only 10 days and was completed on 26 February 1889. These were all British companies. Cable Beach is named after this cable that connected Java to Cable Station, that served this purpose until March 1914. After operating for 25 years it closed due to the opening of more competitive, cheaper-to-run stations; most cables were subsequently recovered. Cable Station
1495-633: The Traditional Owners of large parts of the Outback under Commonwealth Native Title legislation. Early European exploration of inland Australia was sporadic. More focus was on the more accessible and fertile coastal areas. The first party to successfully cross the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney was led by Gregory Blaxland in 1813, 25 years after the colony was established. People, starting with John Oxley in 1817, 1818 and 1821, followed by Charles Sturt from 1829 to 1830, attempted to follow
1560-416: The adverbial phrase referring to the back yard of a house , and came to be used meiotically in the late 1800s to describe the vast sparsely settled regions of Australia behind the cities and towns. The earliest known use of the term in this context in print was in 1869, when the writer clearly meant the area west of Wagga Wagga , New South Wales . Over time, the adverbial use of the phrase was replaced with
1625-559: The cable from Singapore via Java to Port Darwin. In 1873, three British companies, The British India Extension Telegraph Company, The BAT and The China Submarine Telegraph Company were amalgamated to form the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company (EET Co). The driving force behind the British cable companies was a Scottish born entrepreneur Sir John Pender , founder of Cable and Wireless . On 19 November 1871, Australia
1690-517: The centre of the continent, roughly paralleled by the Adelaide–Darwin railway . There is a proposal to develop some of the roads running from the south-west to the north-east to create an all-weather road named the Outback Highway , crossing the continent diagonally from Laverton, Western Australia (north of Kalgoorlie , through the Northern Territory to Winton , in Queensland. Air transport
1755-545: The communication time with Europe dropped from months to hours; Australia was no longer so isolated from the rest of the world. The line was one of the great engineering feats of 19th-century Australia and probably the most significant milestone in the history of telegraphy in Australia . By 1855 speculation had intensified about possible routes for the connection of Australia to the new telegraph cable in Java and thus Europe. Among
1820-516: The continent starting from the northern Flinders Ranges , and was successful on his sixth attempt in 1862. Stuart had the proposed telegraph line in mind as he travelled across the country, noting the best places for river crossings, sources of timber for telegraph poles, and water supplies. On 24 July, his expedition finally reached the north coast at a place Stuart named Chambers Bay , after his early sponsor, James Chambers . South Australian Governor Richard MacDonnell gave his strong support to
1885-564: The contractors would be responsible: Explorer, John Ross ; Surveyor, William Harvey ; Overseer of Works, Northern Territory, William McMinn ; Sub-Overseer, R. C. Burton ; Operators , James Lawrence Stapleton (murdered 1874 at Barrow Creek ) and Andrew Howley. Surveyors and Overseers, central portion of line: A. T. Woods , Gilbert McMinn , and Richard Randall Knuckey ; Overseer, James Beckwith; Sub-Overseers, J. F. Roberts (perhaps J. Le M. F. Roberts ), Stephen Jarvis, W. W. Mills , W. Charles Musgrave , and Christopher Giles . He assembled
1950-520: The environment, so time and money is spent eradicating them in an attempt to help protect fragile rangelands. The Outback is home to a diverse set of animal species, such as the kangaroo, emu and dingo. The Dingo Fence was built to restrict movements of dingoes and wild dogs into agricultural areas towards the south east of the continent. The marginally fertile parts are primarily utilised as rangelands and have been traditionally used for sheep or cattle grazing, on cattle stations which are leased from
2015-686: The ill-fated SS Gothenburg . A few days later, at least ten were among the hundred-odd who lost their lives after she encountered a severe storm, and was driven into the Great Barrier Reef and sank. The southern section of the line included repeater stations at Beltana , Strangways Springs and the Peake . Traces and remains of these repeater stations can still be seen today along the Oodnadatta Track in South Australia. The central section of
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2080-548: The lack of proper medical facilities and trained personnel. In many outback communities, the number of children is too small for a conventional school to operate. Children are educated at home by the School of the Air . Originally the teachers communicated with the children via radio, but now satellite telecommunication is used instead. Some children attend boarding school, mostly only those in secondary school. The term "outback" derives from
2145-612: The largest remaining intact natural areas on Earth. Global " Human Footprint " and wilderness reviews highlight the importance of Outback Australia as one of the world's large natural areas, along with the Boreal forests and Tundra regions in North America, the Sahara and Gobi deserts and the tropical forests of the Amazon and Congo Basins. The savanna (or grassy woodlands) of northern Australia are
2210-498: The largest, intact savanna regions in the world. In the south, the Great Western Woodlands , which occupy 16,000,000 hectares (40,000,000 acres), an area larger than all of England and Wales, are the largest remaining temperate woodland left on Earth. Reflecting the wide climatic and geological variation, the Outback contains a wealth of distinctive and ecologically rich ecosystems. Major land types include: The Outback
2275-585: The line from Java reaching Darwin on 18 November 1871 and being connected the following day. Because of the problems still facing the northern section, the Queensland Superintendent of Telegraphs called for the abandonment of the project, and for the line to connect to the terminal at Burketown , but Todd was adamant and pressed on. By the end of the year there was still over 300 km of line to erect. A storm system impacting South and Central Australia caused significant interruptions on
2340-528: The line in January 1872. By May 1872, the line was substantially in use with horse or camel carrying messages across the uncompleted section. During this time, Todd began visiting workers along the line to lift their spirits. The message he sent along the incomplete line on 22 May 1872, took 9 days to reach Adelaide. Running more than seven months behind schedule, the two lines were finally joined at Frew's Ponds on Thursday, 22 August 1872. Todd
2405-492: The line included repeater stations at Charlotte Waters and Alice Springs . Charlotte Waters was operational until the 1930s; today there is very little left at the site. The northern section of the line included repeater stations at Barrow Creek , Tennant Creek , Daly Waters , Powell Creek , Katherine , Yam Creek and finally a terminus point in Darwin . In Darwin, there was also considerable infrastructure to manage and maintain
2470-460: The line, and lightning strikes were not uncommon. These breaks were as nothing compared with the flooding event involving the Peake and Strangways Springs stations in 1895. On 20 January the telegraph line was washed away by the Warrina Creek, a few miles north of Strangways Springs, and full service was not restored until 24 January. Improvised communication included carrying paper copies of
2535-658: The line, and sites at Beltana, Strangways Springs and the Peake were identified as sites for repeater stations. Charlotte Waters , just north of the South Australian border in the Northern Territory, was surveyed in 1871 by Gilbert McMinn and Richard Knuckey and a repeater station built in 1872. Darwent & Dalwood , who won the contract for the northern section of 600 miles (970 km), arrived in Port Darwin aboard SS Omeo in September 1870 with 80 men, 80 draught horses, bullocks, equipment and stores. Stephen King Jr.
2600-522: The main economic activity in this vast and sparsely settled area is mining. Owing to the almost complete absence of mountain building and glaciation since the Permian (in many areas since the Cambrian ) ages, the outback is extremely rich in iron, aluminium, manganese and uranium ores, and also contains major deposits of gold, nickel, copper, lead and zinc ores. Because of its size, the value of grazing and mining
2665-520: The messages by rail between the Peake and Oodnadatta. The flood at the Peake was unprecedented, but Todd authorised replacing the 23 ft (7.0 m) steel poles with 30-footers, set in concrete and reinforced with struts. When Darwin was bombed in World War II the line was deliberately cut just before the attack. The line was replaced in the early 1970s by a chain of microwave radio relays through Mount Isa . In 2008, its engineering heritage
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2730-587: The present day noun form. It is colloquially said that "the outback" is located "beyond the Black Stump ". The location of the black stump may be some hypothetical location or may vary depending on local custom and folklore. It has been suggested that the term comes from the Black Stump Wine Saloon that once stood about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) out of Coolah, New South Wales on the Gunnedah Road. It
2795-506: The project. In 1863 an Order in Council transferred the Northern Territory to South Australia, aiming to secure land for an international telegraph connection. Now with a potential route, South Australia strengthened her position for the telegraph line in 1865 when Parliament authorised the construction of a telegraph line between Adelaide and Port Augusta, 300 km to the north. This move provoked outrage in Queensland amongst advocates of
2860-464: The road, at a cost of $ 4.5 million, was due to commence in October 2021. From east to west: Vincent James Dowling This Australian road or road transport-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia . The Outback is more remote than the bush . While often envisaged as being arid ,
2925-435: The route identified by Stuart. In 1865, the surveyor George Goyder , using changes in vegetation patterns, mapped a line in South Australia , north of which he considered rainfall to be too unreliable to support agriculture. Exploration of the Outback continued in the 1950s when Len Beadell explored, surveyed and built many roads in support of the nuclear weapons tests at Emu Field and Maralinga and rocket testing on
2990-466: The routes under consideration were either Ceylon to Albany in Western Australia , or Java to the north coast of Australia and then either onto east coast, or south through the centre of the continent to Adelaide. Competition between the colonies over the route was fierce. The Victorian government organised an expedition led by Burke and Wills to cross the continent from Menindee to
3055-410: The signal. The repeater stations contained two primary batteries : the line was powered by a (c. 120 V) bank of Meidinger cells — a variation of Daniell cell , "recharged" by replacing the electrolyte — as well as Leclanche cells for the local equipment. Although repeater stations have been run by a single telegraphist, usual staffing was four to six, including a station master, telegraphists and
3120-495: The undersea cable/s to Europe. Numerous interruptions to service occurred in the early days. Tribal Aboriginals discovered that splendid fishing hooks could be fashioned from the galvanised iron wire conductors (same as #8 fencing wire), spearheads and other implements could be made from shards of insulator, and hatchets from iron baseplates attached to some of the poles, keeping the linemen busy. Atmospheric disturbance from solar flares induced interfering signals in some sections of
3185-486: The westward-flowing rivers to find an "inland sea", but these were found to all flow into the Murray River and Darling River , which turn south. From 1858 onwards, the so-called "Afghan" cameleers and their beasts played an instrumental role in opening up the Outback and helping to build infrastructure. Over the period 1858 to 1861, John McDouall Stuart led six expeditions north from Adelaide, South Australia into
3250-446: The winter, various species of snakes and lizards bask in the sun, but they are rarely seen during the summer months. Feral animals such as camels thrive in central Australia, brought to Australia by pastoralists and explorers, along with the early Afghan drivers . Feral horses known as ' brumbies ' are station horses that have run wild. Feral pigs , foxes , cats , goats and rabbits and other imported animals are also degrading
3315-415: The workers back to Adelaide, on the basis of insufficient progress (they had erected poles to a distance of 225 miles (362 km) and strung wire for 129 miles (208 km) to that date) and the insurrection of the men. This last, the workers claimed, was exaggerated; they only refused to work after they had been sacked. These actions were certainly within his powers, and spelled out in the contract, but he
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#17328772157493380-482: The world's major manganese mines. Aboriginal communities in outback regions, such as the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands in northern South Australia, have not been displaced as they have been in areas of intensive agriculture and large cities, in coastal areas. The total population of the Outback in Australia declined from 700,000 in 1996 to 690,000 in 2006. The largest decline
3445-507: The world's natural supply, but was closed down in 2020 due to financial reasons. The Pilbara region's economy is dominated by mining and petroleum industries. The Pilbara's oil and gas industry is the region's largest export industry, earning $ 5.0 billion in 2004/05 and accounting for over 96% of the State's production. Most of Australia's iron ore is also mined in the Pilbara and it also has one of
3510-496: Was an electrical telegraph system for sending messages the 3200 kilometres (2000 miles) between Darwin , in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide , the capital of South Australia . Completed in 1872 (with a line to Western Australia added in 1877), it allowed fast communication between Australia and the rest of the world. When it was linked to the Java -to-Darwin submarine telegraph cable several months later,
3575-462: Was another six months before reinforcements led by engineer Robert C. Patterson arrived in Darwin. As the central and southern sections neared completion, Patterson decided to take a different strategy with the construction of the northern section. It was divided into four sub-sections with the majority of the men on the most northerly section. The undersea cable was finished earlier than expected, with
3640-434: Was appointed head of the project, and devised a timetable to complete the immense project on schedule. Todd had built South Australia's first telegraph line and extended it to Melbourne. The contract stipulated a total cost of no more than £128,000 and two years' construction time. He divided the route into three sections, each of 600 miles (970 km): northern and southern sections to be handled by private contractors, and
3705-402: Was connected telegraphically with the rest of the world after a cable was laid by BAT from Banyuwangi (Banjoewangie), at the eastern end of Java, to Darwin. This coincided with the completion of the construction of the overland telegraph cable from Adelaide to Darwin. The first message sent directly from London to Adelaide occurred on 22 October 1872. A second submarine cable from Java to Darwin
3770-501: Was dismissed on his return to Adelaide in July 1871. Joseph Darwent had protested the original appointment of McMinn, who had submitted a losing tender, but was overruled. William T. Dalwood was eventually awarded compensation of £11,000. The South Australian Government was now forced to construct an extra 700 km of line, and threw every available resource into its completion, down to purchasing horses and hiring men from New South Wales. It
3835-488: Was given the honour of sending the first message along the completed line: After the first messages had been exchanged over the new line, Todd was accompanied by surveyor Richard Randall Knuckey on the return journey from Central Mount Stuart to Adelaide. The requirements of nineteenth century telegraphy meant the Overland Telegraph Line required repeater stations, a maximum of 250-300 km apart, to boost
3900-528: Was in the Outback Northern Territory , while the Kimberley and Pilbara showed population increases during the same period. The sex ratio is 1040 males for 1000 females and 17% of the total population is indigenous. The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) started service in 1928 and helps people who live in the outback of Australia. Previously, serious injuries or illnesses often meant death owing to
3965-473: Was laid in 1880 to provide redunancy. The site in the intertidal zone where the cables come ashore in Darwin, where they are still visible during very low tides, was heritage listed in 2020. On 9 April 1889 a third undersea telegraph cable opened for business, running from Banyuwangi , Java to Cable Beach , Western Australia and continuing overland to Perth , to complement the two cables already laid in 1871 and 1880 from Banyuwangi to Darwin. This cable
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#17328772157494030-629: Was laid to increase security in communications by avoiding disruption from seismic activity that kept breaking the Banyuwangi to Darwin cables. The contract for the cables called for the manufacture of 970 nautical miles of cable containing a single galvanised copper core with 220 nautical miles being brass sheathed, laid by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company for the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company , by
4095-654: Was left empty, and in 1921 it was purchased and transformed into its current use as the Broome Court House , which was placed on the Western Australian State Register of Heritage Places in 2001 as it is the only station that is still standing in Australia. In the 1930s Cinesound Productions announced plans to make a movie about the Telegraph based on a script by Frank Clune . This emeged as Clune's 1955 book Overland Telegraph . In 2007,
4160-756: Was recognised by the installation of markers provided by the Engineers Australia 's Engineering Heritage Recognition Program at a location in Darwin near the place where the cable reached the shore, the Alice Springs Telegraph Station and the General Post Office in Adelaide . In 1870 the British Australia Telegraph Company (BAT) was formed to link Australia directly to the British telegraphic cable system, by extending
4225-561: Was their surveyor and explorer. The northern line was progressing well until the onset of the wet season in November ;1870. Heavy rain of up to 10 inches (250 mm) a day waterlogged the ground and made it impossible for work to progress. With conditions worsening, the men went on strike on 7 March 1871, rancid food and disease-spreading mosquitoes amongst their complaints. On 3 May 1871, Overseer of Works William McMinn cancelled Darwent & Dalwood's contract and sent all
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