Tennant Creek Telegraph Station
History
The Warumungu Aboriginal people were the first occupants of the region in and around Tennant Creek. The telegraph station is near a very significant sacred site called "Jurnkurakurr", which is home to a Dreamtime being called "Jalawala", a black-nosed python.
The Tennant Creek Telegraph Station was built in 1872. It was first a temporary bush timber building but by 1875 had been rebuilt with locally quarried stone. It operated as a repeater station as part of the Overland Telegraph Line which connected Darwin to Adelaide. It also operated as a government rations depot. By the 1920s it featured a blacksmith shop, cart shed, ration store, meat house, smokehouse and cellar. Warumungu people were employed at the station as cattlemen and slaughter-men. But the 1890s more than 100 Aboriginal people were living at the station. It was declared an Aboriginal Reserve.
The search for gold began from the 1880s. In 1925, a linesman discovered gold, with the discovery quickly leading to the establishment of a township to the south of the telegraph station. In 1935 a post and wireless office became operational in the town of Tennant Creek itself, so that the telegraph station was closed. It then reverted to a rations depot, supplying meat to the new town and water from its bore until 1966.
Postmasters
| Postmasters/Managers | From | To |
|---|---|---|
| Alan M. Giles | 1875 | 1888 |
| Henry Herbert Dixon | 1915 | 1923 |
| J. W. M. Phillips | 1926 | 1927 |
Recent history
The station was listed on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate on 25 March 1986. The station was listed on the Northern Territory Heritage Register on 4 July 2001. The land including the Telegraph Station and its immediate surroundings was originally proposed in 1987 as a historical reserve known as the Tennant Creek Telegraph Station Historical Reserve but progress was delayed by a claim on the land made under Aboriginal Land Rights Act (Northern Territory) in 1980 . The claim was resolved in August 2001 with the historical reserve awaiting official naming in April 2002. Significant restoration work was undertaken on the remaining station buildings in 2012.
References
- ^ "Tennant Creek Telegraph Station". NT Heritage Register. Northern Territory Government. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
- ^ "Tennant Creek Telegraph Station Historical Reserve" (PDF). Northern Territory Government. Northern Territory Government. Retrieved 6 October 2016.
- ^ Ingram, David; Elcoate, Christine. Teachers' Handbook: Tennant on the Line. Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory.
- ^ "The Search for Gold". The Express and Telegraph. Vol. XXIII, no. 6, 715. South Australia. 12 May 1886. p. 5 (Second Edition.). Retrieved 10 December 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "TENNANT CREEK". Northern Standard. No. 48. Northern Territory. 21 June 1935. p. 9. Retrieved 6 October 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Miles, Margot (1988). The Old Tennant.
- ^ "THE NORTHERN TERRITORY". Evening Journal. Vol. XX, no. 5695. South Australia. 26 November 1888. p. 3 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved 10 December 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Tennant Creek Telegraph Station Complex, Stuart Hwy, Tennant Creek, NT, Australia- listing on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate (Place ID 13878)". Australian Heritage Database. Australian Government. 25 March 1986. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ^ "TENNANT CREEK TELEGRAPH STATION HISTORICAL RESERVE Draft Plan of Management" (PDF). Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory. April 2002. p. 1. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- ^ Brain, Caddie (17 May 2012). "Rebuilding our history stone by stone". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC Rural. Retrieved 6 October 2016.