Australia Post Marks 150th Anniversary of the Overland Telegraph

Australia 2022-08-23 – 150th Anniversary of the Overland Telegraph

On August 23, 2022 Australia Post released a new stamp marking the 150th anniversary of the Overland Telegraph in Australia. The AUD1.10 denomination single stamp depicts the outline of the Australian continent with a line showing the route of the telegraph with two dots representing the start and end points. In the center of the stamp is a depiction of a hand operating a Morse key. Along the bottom of the stamp are a stylized series of Morse code dots and dashes that spells out “Overland Telegraph”.  The actual telegraph route stretched over 2800 km from Port Augusta in the south to Darwin in the north and was completed on August 22, 1872.  Eleven manned repeater stations constructed along a virtually unexplored route received and sent messages in Morse Code, with banks of chemical batteries at each station providing the electrical power. Communication between the cities of the eastern seaboard, via Adelaide and Darwin, now took minutes rather than weeks. The electric telegraph was invented in 1837 and International Morse Code only adopted in 1865.