The York-Yilgarn telegraph line.
Western Mail 10 October 1891, p. 7.
TO THE EDITOR.
SIR, - Are you aware, and are the authorities aware, that the telegraph line to Yilgarn is being laid along the centre of the York road, right in the track made by the one horse teams of South Western Australia? If not, I would fain draw your attention to this alarming fact ere it be too late. The York road is just half the width of the streets of Southern Cross. As the people will not move out of the way of the teams, many of them suffer from extreme prostration, and many more will share the same fate. Certain frequent telegraphic interruption is a sufficiently bad fate to look forward to, but there is a worst possible. During the summer time, it is not uncommon for travellers to prefer travelling by night rather than by day. 'The nights are often dark, especially in a narrow road surrounded by thick brush on either side. What more likely to occur, under the circumstances, than accidents arising from the entangling of the wheels of a buggy with a telegraph pole, set where it had no business to be, or from a horseman suddenly striking his knee or his head against the same obstacle? "Keep in the middle of the road*" is 'generally considered a fairly safe rule in most countries (outside towns), but it is not so on the Yilgarn road, as the wire is going at present. Can you not, Sir, lend your influence to make that rule equally advisable for us to follow?
.I am, & etc. JUPITER,
Southern Cross, September 28.
[While we give publication to the above letter, it is hardly possible that our correspondent can be serious. ยป Such a proceeding could never be tolerated by the Works Department. ED]
Western Mail 24 October 1891, p. 12.
TO THE EDITOR.
SIR, - I am obliged by your insertion of my letter of the 26th ult., respecting the erection of the telegraph poles in the centre of the York and Yilgarn road and am not surprised at the incredulity expressed in your footnote. I can, however, assure you that what I stated in that letter was correct, as could be easily proved by questioning the contractor himself. The poles are not even consistently in the middle of the road. They straggle. The road is only one chain wide - none too wide for a bush track. The road between Kimberley and Johannesburg, a distance of 460 miles, covered by the weekly express coach in fifty hours, is a quarter of a mile wide in places. The Yilgarn road will be divided by the telegraph line into two tracks, from which there will be no escaping. Coaches, buggies and carts, will all have to travel in the great rate made by the teams, and all vehicles will always travel exactly on the same track with the persistency of tram cars. Fast travelling will become impossible, and in the wet season, the road will become practically impassable. The goldfield will be thrown back at least a year, for it is evident to everyone interested, that nothing is more important to the development of this field than rapid transit for passengers and goods. We cannot afford to sit and wait for the railway, and our road must not be cut up.
I am, & etc. JUPITER,
Southern Cross, Oct. 10.
In 1892, gold was being discovered at Yilgarn only 25 miles from York. The Telegraph line from York to Yilgarn was completed on 8 Jan 1892.
By 1893, there were additional problems noted in the Western Mail of 9 Dec 1893:
THE YILGARN TELEGRAPH LINE.
TO THE EDITOR.
SIR, - As any traveller on the York-Yilgarn road cannot fail to notice, the fast increasing destruction by white ants of the telegraph posts along the line, it is surprising that public attention has not been called to the subject. On a recent excursion of mine in that direction, I was convinced that quite one fourth of the poles are being rapidly destroyed, and that much farther neglect will involve the total reconstruction of the line, and the consequent serious cost and inconvenience to the public
Yours.,HENEY MANSELL.
York 28 November 1893.