Victoria - Colonial: 1854 - 1900.
The Mount Gambier Lines.

The first line to South Australia was constructed from Ballarat through Raglan (Fiery Creek), Streatham, Hexham, Warrnambool, Belfast (Port Fairy) and Portland and thence to Nelson on the Glenelg River and Mount Gambier. The description of the construction of that line is included elsewhere. When the lines were given names in 1861, this line of telegraphs was referred to as the Western or Adelaide line.

In McGowan's Report for 1862 he noted that expenditure had been approved by Parliament on 18 June 1861 for several lines "including the extension of telegraphic communication to Colac and Camperdown". That almost provided a direct link from Warrnambool to Geelong in the east. The line from Melbourne via Geelong had indeed been foreshadowed in the Half-Yearly Report to December 1858 by McGowan where he noted (page 6) the need to improve the telegraphic link with South Australia through the provision of a single wire of line direct from Melbourne via Geelong, Winchelsea, Colac, Camperdown and Warrnambool to connect at Portland with the line from Mt. Gambier. From 1862, this line to South Australia via Colac was given the name the Western Coast line.

The Geelong-Camperdown section was also associated, in part, with the construction of the special security and humanitarian line from Geelong to Cape Otway which linked with the first cable from Tasmania.

As more Telegraph Offices were opened and more lines were constructed, the original route to South Australia was not efficient in linking nearby offices in a required direction. Perhaps the most important change was the change in the line coming from Warrnambool to link to a line from Geelong via Colac and Camperdown rather than from Hexham. That change then allowed the line to Hexham to be extended (without stressing the capacity limits) to Hamilton and Casterton rather to Warrnambool. That redistribution created the basis for (slow) revision of all the lines in western Victoria. Gradually new lines were constructed to meet growing demands, especially from agriculture and mining, and existing Telegraph Offices were assigned to different lines on a geographical or directional basis.

In terms of the names of the lines being used at that time:

The Mount Gambier lines are discussed in the following sections:

  1. Geelong to Colac;
  2. Warrnambool to Colac;
  3. Warrnambool to Mount Gambier.
  4. the Portland to Hamilton line.
  This map extends to the Penola line.  
This map leads to the South Australian Bordertown-Mount Gambier line.

This map extends to the Southern Coast line.

 
This map includes the Cape Otway line.

 

1. The Geelong - Colac line.

As part of the reorganisation foreshadowed in the 1858 and 1861 Reports, the line was brought from Geelong to Winchelsea to Warrnambool. A contract for marking out the 90 mile line from Winchelsea to Warrnambool was let in June 1862 to R. M Harvey at £1 15s per lineal mile - ot a total of £157 10s.

The line was operating soon after and in his 1866 Report, McGowan noted that "the direct western inter-colonial line via Geelonf, Camperdown, Warrnambool and Portland to Mount Gambier has usually worked well but in sections east and west of Portland partial interruptions through heavy sea fogs occasionally occur". On 15 November 1865 however, the telegraphic message of English news from Adelaide was delayed due to the line between Geelong and Colac "being out of working order".

By way of explanaton, the Geelong Advertiser of 4 November 1868 included "In answer to a correspondent, we beg to state that the telegraph posts bearing a blazed mark, on the Geelong and Colac road, are those which the contractor will have to remove and replace by new ones. It is certainly time for the work to be done or some of them, instead of supporting the wires, will be supported by them".

By 1889, this section of the line included five stations - at Geelong, Mount Moriac, Winchelsea, Birregurra and Colac. Two of these stations - Winchelsea and Birregurra - had originally been included in the Cape Otway line.

The branch line to Beeac.

On 24 March 1888, the Geelong Advertiser published: "Tenders are invited through our advertising columns for the construction of a line of electric telegraph from Ondit to Beeac for the Post and Telegraph department". Ondit is on the north side of Lake Colac and so about halfway between Colac and Beeac.

This 8 mile branch line Beeac was added to the Railway telegraphic circuit when a Telegraph Office was opened at the Railway Station in 1889.

 

2. The Warrnamool-Colac line.

The revised Estimates were debated in the Assembly on 20 May 1862 and the amount of £1.200 was approved for the establishment of new stations at Colac, Camperdown and Terang (as well as at Redbank Swan Hill and Smythesdale).

In the Gazette of 5 August 1862, a tender with E. L. Crowell was announced for £373 for clearing the telegraph line between Warrnambool and Colac

In McGowan's Report for the year ending December 1862, he noted on his first page that expenditure had been passed by Parliament for, inter alia, "the extension of telegraphic communication to Colac and Camperdown" from Warrnambool.

The construction of this new line was undertaken in 1863. The Geelong Advertiser of 10 January 1863 reported "The laborers engaged putting up the telegraph posts on the line from Warmambool towards Geelong have arrived near Colac with their work. It is thought the line will he open in about three months". The line was completed later in 1863 with two intermediate Telegraph Stations opened at Colac in August and at Camperdown in October. At that time, the line ran direct to Geelong although, on 25 February 1874, the Telegraph Office at Winchelsea was opened near the point where the 1859 line ran through to Cape Otway.

In 1884, the original line of telegraph was taken down and a new line erected along the railway line by Mr. Mullane from Daylesford.

The Camperdown to Lismore branch.

The Age of 9 October 1883 reported that "during the last few weeks, the Postmaster-General has been interviewed by several deputations requesting telegraphic extensions to various parts of the colony. Mr. Berry, after conferring with the heads of the department, has sanctioned the erection of telegraph lines from Maryborough to Timor, from Lintons to Snake Valley and from Camperdown to Lismore" This 23 mile branch line only included the two endpoints. Lismore was added to the Mount Gambier lines in March 1884.

The Camperdown to Port Campbell branch.

This 35 mile branch line extended between the two places and also included Cobden.

 

3. The Warrnambool to Mount Gambier line.

The line from Warrnambool to Mount Gambier was part of the first line to South Australia and is discussed in that context. No additional major changes were made to that section.

It is however relevant to note that the propensity for people - especially the young - to try to damage the telegraph lines continued (and probably still does gicen the number of sneakers seen suspended from the electric wires. As an example, the Ballarat Star reported on 9 December 1882 that

"For some time, the Electric Telegraph Department has (says the Argus) been subjected to inconvenience, as well as expense, owing to the destruction of insulators along .he line, near Killarney, between Belfast and Warrnambbol. About a fortnight ago, a boy named O'Neil was imprisoned for damaging the line. On Thursday, a lad named Osborne, of Killarney, was charged with destroying insulators by throwing stones. The case was proved and the offender sentenced to one month's imprisonment. The magistrates complimented the Belfast police on the vigilance they had exhibited in tracing the guilt home to the offenders. Within a distance of three miles, no fewer than 120 insulators have been broken of late".

The Portland to Cape Nelson branch.

This 6 mile branch extended between the two places with no intermediate station. Although the 1887 Report shows this branch line as beginning at Ballarat, it has been included here because geographically (as opposed to technically from a line connection point of view) it makes a better fit.

The Argus of 30 July 1884 revisited a common theme for rocky outcrops along the entire Victorian coastline - the absolute necessity of having security for maritime shipping:

"The article in The Argus of yesterday on the importance of making Cape Nelson lighthouse a station for signalling vessels has evoked from the Post and Telegraph authorities an intimation that negotiations are proceeding between the Customs and Postal Departments with a view to the erection of a telegraph line from Portland to Cape Nelson. We learn from the Customs that the suggestion offered in yesterday's issue, as to despatching the news by telephone from Cape Nelson lighthouse to the telegraph office at Portland, was made to the postal authorities some three months before the completion of the new lighthouse by the Minister of Trade and Customs but this proposal failed to find acceptance, and hence the delay".

 

The 1890 classifications.

By 1890, increased construction and a re-configuring of the linkages meant that there were 2 lines defining the Mount Gambier line. Those lines were:

Line 1: Melbourne through Newport Test Box, Werribee, Geelong, Colac, Camperdown, Terang, Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Portland across S.A. border to Mount Gambier.
Line 2: Melbourne through Newport Test Box, Werribee, Geelong Cattle Yards, Geelong, Colac, Camperdown, Terang, Garvoc, Panmure, Cudgee, Allansford, Warrnambool, Koroit, Port Fairy, Yambuk, Portland, across the S.A. border to Mount Gambier.
Line 105: Geelong through Mount Moriac Railway, Winchelsea, Winchelsea Railway, Birregurra, Birregurra Railway, Colac to Colac Railway (used by Railway Department, connected to their Port Fairy Line).
Line 106: Camperdown to Lismore.
Line 157: Camperdown through Cobden to Port Campbell.
Line 191: Colac to Beeac.

Line 146 was a telephone connection between Portland and Cape Nelson.