Journal Article

Author

Wells, Samantha

Title

Exhibition review: The overland telegraph line: a transcultural history

In

Australian Historical Studies

Imprint

vol. 54, no. 2, 2023, pp. 359-63

Url

https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2022.2153422

Subject

History of Australian Science - General

Description

From the article: "The twenty-second of August 2022 marked the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line (OTL), a communication wire that travelled across the Australian continent, from Adelaide to Port Darwin, and connected the Australian colonies to the British Empire and to the rest of the world via a subsea cable."

Abstract

From the article: "Historical anniversaries are clearly regarded today with a certain amount of circumspection. However, it is also clear that such anniversaries present the opportunity to raise new questions about much celebrated old history. From whose perspective do history makers interpret the building of the OTL and judge its success? What history matters here? If this story is difficult and hard, how do we tell such history during significant anniversaries? Is it even possible to both recognise the work and achievements of the OTL while acknowledging the major impact it had on Aboriginal peoples and their Country?"

"The Overland Telegraph Line: A Transcultural History is a new online exhibition that tackles such questions head on.Footnote3 At its basic core is truth-telling. Rather than perpetuate the anniversary as an engineering and communications achievement, this exhibition positions the OTL as both a conduit for colonial expansion and a complex zone of cross-cultural contact and exchange."

Source

cohn 2023

Related Published resources

isReviewOf

• Nettelbeck, Amanda (and others), The Overland Telegraph Line: A Transcultural History, [web resource; undated], South Australian Government, South Australia, 2023. https://otlhistory.sa.gov.au/. Details