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See also the "telegraph romance" novels.
Training for women in telegraphy.
See reference in Point Lonsdale, Vic.
The Mount Alexander Mail of 1 March 1861 reported:
"A SENSIBLE STRIKE.
A young lady is undergoing a course of instruction in the use of the Electric Telegraph instruments for the purpose of taking charge of a telegraph station in Tasmania. This is looked upon as an innovation by the young men operators who, with a view to check the system sought to be introduced, have banded themselves together to get her married as soon as possible that she may be removed from the department".
After its opening in 1870, the Industrial and Technological Museum in Melbourne (later the Science Museum and now part of Museum Victoria) ran a telegraphy course that became so popular with women that a separate class for ʻGentlemenʼ was introduced.
On 13 May 1873, The Ballarat Courier released the following pleasing results: "The following students have passed the third examination in telegraphy at the Industrial Museum:
Mrs Bunn, Miss Mary Ann Carpenter, Miss Mary Greet, Mrs Gamble, Miss Grace McKay, Miss Sarah McInnes, Miss Julia Riordan, Miss E. Allison, Miss Mary Kelly, Miss F. Andrews,
Miss Kate Andrews, Mrs Scott, Mrs D'Arcy, Mrs Paterson, Miss Hannah Wilson, Miss M. Burke, Miss Mary Boland, Mrs Larrett, Mr F. W. Wilcox and Mr Henry G. Dean".
In 1874 the Ballarat School of Mines (now the University of Ballarat) began to admit women students to its telegraphy course.[17] The Star reported on 4 June 1874 "The class for instruction in telegraphy at the School of Mines, which was opened on Tuesday evening, has proved to be a great success. Twenty pupils - eighteen ladies and two gentlemen - began the course of instruction, that being the full number for which there is at present accommodation".
On 10 December 1874, the Ballarat Star followed up this initiative further:
"A very interesting affair took place at the close of the instruction given at the class in telegraphy at the School of Mines on Wednesday evening. There were nineteen students present and Mr Kyran John O'Dee, on behalf of the students in the first class, presented Mr Bechervaise, the manager of the local Electric Telegraph Office and instructor in the telegraphy classes, with a handsome gold locket, on which was the following inscription: 'A slight token of esteem to W. P. Bechervaise, Esq., from the first class in Telegraphy, Ballarat, 9th December, 1874.' In making the presentation, Mr. O'Dee complimented, his instructor on the admirable manner in which he had imparted to the students the instruction in telegraphy. A feeling response was made by Mr Bechervaise".
The Leader reported on 15 December 1883 that "The examination of the telegraphy class in connection with the Industrial and Technological Museum was held on Wednesday when the following students passed in the order as named, the first four with credit:
Miss Marfleet, Mr. Andrews, Miss Dockery, Miss Kerrigan,
Miss McLean, Miss Broadbent, Miss Irwin, Miss Raven, Miss Hickey, Mrs. Maddan, Miss Bacon, Miss Cole, Miss Wilson".
Employment preferences.
At Newstead on the Swan Hill line in Victoria, the daughter of the Post and Telegraph Master was, in 1869, to become Postmistress and Electrician. The possibility of generalising that approach to employment was then raised.
In Victoria, "The Post Office and Telegraph Department opens up a field for the employment of females as clerks and operators. Their services have already been made available to some extent, there being seven females on the Civil Service list. Whenever a suitable opportunity presents itself, the Government intends to add to the number. They were asked Wednesday if the young ladies would be placed on an equality with the male clerks and operators but Mr. Francis declined to commit the Government beyond the statement that they would enjoy the same leave of absence from duty annually" (Weekly Times, 20 May 1871).
The Fremantle Herald of 15 February 1873 addressed the question of the possible employment of women as follows:
"PLACE AUX DAMES.
A gallant friend of ours has suggested to us the desirability of throwing open vacant appointments in suburban Telegraph and Post offices to the fair sex and calls from us a word or two on the subject.
For ourselves, we see nothing incongruous in a woman sorting letters or despatching and receiving messages by the telegraph. Indeed the innovation is a slight one upon the business of measuring tape or selling out yards of ribbon which was thought to be the prescriptive mission of the sex till the doctrine of women's rights was preached and gave them more ambitious notions of their capabilities to compete with men.
Of all the occupations and professions that women have insinuated themselves into since the dawn of the John Stuart Millennium, there can be no question, we should say, that the least objectionable are those which are associated with the discharge of clerical labour. The post office and the telegraphic departments of most countries have, by a sort of common impulse, been recognized as places where the digital dexterity and mental orderliness of the sex may be turned to good account.
In some towns in America, we believe, female operators are the rule. If the public can get its letters despatched and its messages wired for it by its lady members, they have as much right to earn its patronage as any of the other sex and we see nothing to say against such an arrangement on the score of either sentiment or economy".
Some people would hold the view that Government - especially the Postmaster-General in Victoria - could have used even more positive strategies to encourage young women to enter the telegraphic service. On 6 May 1875, for example, the Ballarat Star published the following information at the request of the Hon. the Postmaster- General for the benefit of young ladies who contemplate qualifying themselves for the position of telegraph operators with a view to obtain employment under Government:
"At present there are no less than sixty-two applicants on the books, all of whom have passed the necessary examination and are eligible for employment but their chance of obtaining employment is necessarily remote owing to the infrequency with which vacancies occur. There are 200 more young ladies whose names appear on the class lists at the Technological Museum as students in telegraphy and whose chance of ever obtaining employment is even more remote than that of those first mentioned. Besides these, there is a class in operation at Ballarat and another is about to be formed at Sandhurst, so that the supply of lady telegraphists is likely for some time to come to be much greater than the demand and many who think they have only to pass their examinations in order to obtain almost immediate employment are doomed to be disappointed".
One might even contemplate - on the basis of this significant information provided by the Postmaster-General - that there is a possibility that the number of applications might increase significantly. On the other hand, there is also a possibility that the number might not increase.
The Post and Telegraph Department began banning the appointment of married women to offices that had residences attached to them in 1892. Married women employed in the Department were dismissed in 1896.
In a number of newspapers there was regularly a column allocated to a question and answer session. Usually the newspaper would answer the questions but sometimes readers would submit their suggestions. In the Australian Town and Country Journal of 8 October 1881, such a column was printed with about 50+ questions and their answers. S.T. (Post Office, Paddington) asked:
Women are cheaper to employ.
"The experiment of employing ladies in the Post and Telegraph Department has been attended with very significant results. Not only have the Government been able to afford many deserving women the opportunity of earning a respectable maintenance for themselves and the families dependent upon them, but a considerable saving has been effected. In every case where a Post and Telegraph mistress has been appointed to take charge of a station, she receives a much smaller salary than would have been given to a male official. Telegraph Offices have been opened at several places such as Birregurra, Winchelsea and Brighton where the amount of business would not have justified the appointment of a telegraph master. No reduction has taken place in the remuneration of operators since 1860 and the Government have recently issued a departmental order authorising the payment of a bonus in some cases amounting to 50% upon the salaries paid to officers of either sex who have shown ability and energy".
The cost-savings by employing women as operators is highlighted by the operation of the Railway Telegraph Office at the Victorian town of Huntly in 1892.
Quality of work.
The South Australian Chronicle of 27 June 1874 referenced the note in the Perth Inquirer which had stated that "on the line of telegraph between the Western Australian metropolis and Champion Bay, all the operators are females and that one of them is a half-caste native, trained and educated at the New Norcia Mission. She mastered the code with the greatest ease and is one of the smartest telegraphists of the department".
On 6 March 1875, the Freeman's Journal in Sydney reported:
"Female Telegraph Operators.
Eighty applications have been received from ladies who are desirous of seeking employment in the telegraph department. Six have been selected as probationers and arrangements made for their accommodation and instruction.
The number will, we believe, be shortly increased".
Whether a follow up to that recruitment drive or not, the Wagga Wagga Advertiser of 25 October 1876, published the bland statement that "Lady telegraph operators are not turning out a great success in Sydney".
Nevertheless, on 8 November 1896, the Sydney News referenced female telegraph operators in New South Wales in the following terms: "As the ladies engaged in the Telegraph Department had to do exclusively with the automatic method of telegraphy, the discontinuance of it, which took place recently, has resulted in their not being actively employed at the present time. They are, however, now being instructed in the use of the Morse instrument in common use throughout the colonies. Hitherto, so it is stated, the ladies have not been so expert as telegraph operators as it was expected they would be but it is hoped they will soon became efficient in the use of the Morse instrument".
Women were not bad workers - but not as good as men 1880 Vic Report p.22.
The Brisbane Courier on 7 November 1889 reported on an exchange in the House on the Estimates, Mr. Donaldson presented the considerations of the Postmaster-General. In part they discussed the reply by Mr. Donaldson as to the employment of women:
"Mr. Donaldson's reply as to the employment of women in the Telegraph Department was not satisfactory. Surely there is some mistake as to women not being a success in the Southern colonies. In America, in Great Britain, in France, women have approved themselves the most expert and trustworthy of operators and even of counter clerks, and we are quite certain that there would be far less of "leakage" of confidential news than now unhappily prevails and which threatens to become a public scandal. Moreover, why should not our Post and Telegraph Office offer a career to the young women of Queensland as the corresponding departments do in other countries?"
At this stage, it is probably relevant to read about the appointment "of a female" at the Clarence Heads Telegraph Station in March 1874.
References to be reviewed and included as relevant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_telegraphy#Women_telegraphers_in_Australia
Margaret, Susan (2001) Passions of the First Wave of Feminists, books.google.com.au/books?isbn=0868407801
***** See also Louisa Dunkley http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dunkley-louisa-margaret-6047