Australia - International.
The Eastern Extension Offices in Australia.

When the Eastern Extension Company established itself in Australia, it acquired office space in most of the Colonial - and later State - capitals. The offices described below are:

These Offices had various purposes:

In regard to the third of these purposes, the Eastern Extension (in any of its guises) continually requested Governments permit them to deal direct with the public. Indeed, that condition was made essential when, in 1900, the Company was offering to construct a line fom Durban in South Africa to Perth and then on to Glenelg in South Australia and to reduce tariffs in return for "the privilege of directly delivering and collecting its international telegrams to and from the public". Finally, when the Governments of South Australia and Western Australia signed the cable contract on 14 April 1900, the Eastern Extension was given permission to deliver its own messages as part of that agreement in those two Colonies.

In May 1900, there was a meeting between the Postmaster-Generals of New South Wales (Mr. Crick) and Victoria (Mr. Watt). That meeting agreed on several matters which were to be put to the respective Parliaments including that "the Company shall have the right to deal directly with the public upon the laying of the Imperial Pacific cable".

Sydney.

The Office in Sydney was first established in ... at ...
The Eastern Extension Telegraph Office in Sydney about 1920.
Adelaide.

The Eastern Extension office in Adelaide was originally located in the General Post Office building in King William Street. It was the head Office for the Company's operations within Australia.

In June 1901, Mr. J. E. Squier, the Sydney representative of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company was in Adelaide to make arrangements to complete the lease for a cable depot at Port Adelaide and to secure suitable offices for the Adelaide headquarters of the company.

The Government was building a wharf on the Port Adelaide River, at the expense of and for the use of the company. On this wharf, the company established its depot and the repairing Steamer, which would attend to the line along the southern coast and the cables to Tasmania and New Zealand, made Port Adelaide its home port.

In 1902, advertisements for Eastern Extension listed its offices as being at the National Mutual Building in Victoria Square and at 23-23a, Royal Exchange. All the necessary apparatus for dispatching and receiving messages were installed there.

 

 Adelaide office
Source: State Library of Adelaide.
PRG/280/ 1/ 28/ 293.

The new cable from South Africa reached the Grange in October 1902. A subterranean line connected with the Adelaide office. Under agreement with the Australian Government, the company could not do business direct with the public until some competing line (i.e. the Pacific Cable) was established. The messages were handed in by the public at the Government Telegraph Office, and those to be sent over the new cable were taken to the company's office in a sealed box.

A cable depot and wharf were constructed at Port Adelaide at about this time. It was intended that one of the Extension Company's repairing steamers would be permanently stationed there. To meet the requirements of its considerably augmented cable system, the company ordered two new repairing steamers and those were under construction during 1902.

On Tuesday 25 February 1902 The Eastern Company announced that Mr. W. Warren, the general manager of the company in Australia, would remain in Adelaide to attend the opening ceremony for the new cable. Mr. H. W. McPhereon will be in charge of the Adelaide office until the end of the month, when he will be succeeded by Mr. Webster.

The staff included two supervisors and eight operators. Four of the latter had arrived by the R.M.S. India from London on Sunday, two had been locally engaged and the others came from Melbourne.

The Adelaide Chronicle of 1 March 1902 (page 42) published a photo of the Eastern Extension staff.
Adelaide stamp
Eastern handstamp for Adelaide Station
from the postcard below.		  
Adel PC
Front of a 1d printed postcard sent from the Adelaide Office of Eastern Extension to Stirling East in 1907.		 Adel PC rev
Reverse side of the 1d printed postcard with a message about a cable to Bangkok. Has the above handstamp for the Adelaide Station.

Melbourne.

The Eastern Extension office in Melbourne was located at

Mr. J. E. Squier was the Acting Manager of the Eastern Extension, Australasian and China Telegraph Company Limited in 1900.

In March 1903, "The Prime Minister granted the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company permission to open business offices in Melbourne in anticipation of the agreement between the Commonwealth and the Company being ratified by Parliament. The Company would, therefore, proceed with the opening of offices, which will involve the employment of a special staff, at the earliest possible date.

On 8 April 1906, given the failure of the Company to accept the proposal, the Eastern Extension Company announced that "Mr. Warren had announced the Melbourne office would be closed, adding that legal opinion as to the right of the company to open public offices in Melbourne was being taken. They will keep open to code messages, but will not collect them".