Western Australia: 1869-1900.
People on the Albany-Eucla line.

Any major undertaking depends on people and the way they react to circumstances which arise.

Some of the people who were associated with the Albany to Eucla line were:

 

Charles Denvers Price.

Charles Price had been born in Bengal on 18 May 1847. His family travelled to Victoria in 1853. While in that Colony he became Gold Warden of the Ovens Goldfields at Beechworth. He was a Surveyor and a Civil Engineer. After the family moved to New Zealand, he met Malcolm Fraser, a Surveyor.

In 1875, both Fraser and Price were in Western Australia and Fraser employed the then 28 year old to be in charge of surveying and constructing the Albany to Eucla telegraph line.

Western Australia,
Public Works Office,
Perth, 21st Sept., 1875.

Sir, When organised you will take charge of the party now about to proceed to the telegraph line for the purpose of deciding on and laying out the route, and making a reconnaissance of the whole country bordering it, taking the coast on the southward, and a limit of, say, 30 to 50 miles on the northward side. This reconnaissance must be executed on proper and scientific basis, and the principal natural features be geodetically fixed, so that they may be utilised when the work is elaborated further. Reserves and town sites have to be defined, harbors and landing places examined, and at Eucla a town has to be laid out, but on this last matter further instructions will be given.

Besides yourself, there will be two assistants, with a party of the comparative strength particularised in your letter of the 17th instant, the contents of which, following generally my verbal instructions to you, are approved of.

You will provide yourself, before starting, with all information possibly obtainable, so that you may not be at fault when far from headquarters.

There must be an agreement signed by the whole party, before starting, binding themselves to remain on the work until discharged.

By every means you will endeavor to cultivate friendly relations with any aborigines you may meet, and avoid, if possible, any collision with them.

If you can from time to time collect any small specimens of rocks, minerals, and other objects of interest, it is very desirable you should, noting the conditions and positions in which they may be found, as these will be valuable as illustrative of the physical geography of the country you reconnoitre. All positions fixed geodetically should be, if possible, distinguished by cairns of stones, or otherwise marked, and so described on your maps.

Besides this first work, the entire charge of the reconstruction of the telegraph line throughout to Eucla will devolve on you, and the present overseer, J. Parish, will be instructed by you. It is necessary therefore that you are provided with copies of all the contracts and other papers connected with this work. The contractors for the erection will be referred to you for direction; it is therefore desirable that you take every opportunity of periodically reporting to me on the progress they make, and also advice on the advances that can be from time to time made safely on each contract.

The selection of sites for the telegraph stations will have to be made by you; on this you had better see Mr. Fleming, as to what requirements are desirable, provided they are obtainable.

Whilst on this service you will be allowed five shillings a day, besides the salary and allowances you now draw.

I believe on other matters the verbal instructions I have given you will suffice.

I am. Sir,

Yours obediently,

(Sgd.) MALCOLM FRASER,
Commissioner of Works.

Price worked professionally over the next two and a half years and successfully competed the Albany-Eucla telegraph line. He was paid a bonus for his efforts of £280. His surveys of the town sites en route still stand.

The Parliamentary Papers for 19 July 1879 record: "a vote of thanks was passed by the Legislative Council, and conveyed to Mr. Price, by the Speaker at the table on the floor of Parliament House.

This was an event without parallel in the annals of Parliamentary procedure in Australia ...

Mr. Brown, in accordance with notice, moved 'that the cordial thanks of this House are due, and are hereby accorded, to Mr. C. D. Price, for the valuable services rendered to this Colony by the manner in which he conducted the duties entrusted to him in connexion with the survey and supervision of the Eucla telegraph line".

Subsequent projects on which Price worked included:

  • 1877-79: the Fortescue River then in the Kimberley including Beagle Bay between Lagrange Bay and De Grey) with Alexander Forrest;
  • 1882: survey of the rail alignment between Beverley and Albany on what would be later called the Great Southern Railway;
  • 1883-85: overseer of the 700 mile Northampton to Roebourne telegraph line so at Roebourne, the Gascoyne River and between Northhampton and Shark Bay;
  • 1885 he was surveying in Geographe Bay, Lyndon River and Exmouth.
  • He was an important Botanist in the Colony and collected over 700 specimens on his surveying trips.

Charles Price died in June 1934, A tribute to his life and to the man was published in the West Australian on 29 June 1934.

 

Jonathan Parish.

Charles Price was appointed by Fleming as Overseer of the Albany-Eucla line and responsible only to Charles Price. His terms and conditions were summarised in a memorandum setting out his duties. The concluding clause of that memorandum is as follows:

To C. D. Price, Esq.,
Surveyor, etc.,
Perth.

...................

7. To interest himself generally in the work:

  • the overseer is expected to interest himself generally in the progress of the telegraph work and, at all times (consistently with his special duties), rather to facilitate the contractors' operations than to throw any obstacle in their way or withhold any information that may be to their advantage.
  • He must be mindful, too, in the discharge of his duties, that his party may suffer sooner or later for any aggressive acts, or rash treatment of natives. He will have to live in, not merely ride over, localities where numbers of perfectly uncivilised natives will be seen and, if from thoughtless conduct, a sulky spirit is raised amongst them, there will be numberless opportunities where any one of the party may be picked up, single and unprotected, and suffer. The overseer should permit but very little, if any, intercourse whatever between natives and his party, make no display of his stores, and whilst watchful, appear regardless of their presence.

J. C. FLEMING,
Superintendent of Telegraphs.
1/2 /75.

Read and approved.
William C. F. Robinson.
4/2/75.

Without question, Charles Price made a major contribution to the development of telegraphy in Western Australia. As in so many instances, a good pairing of kindred souls far exceeds the productivity of the sum of the parts. In this case, Price's efficiency and effectiveness was enhanced by Jonathan Parrish who was, to all intents and purposes, Price's "right hand man".

Jonathan Parish lived for many years in Albany after the Eucla line was completed and he is buried there.