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- MORSE:
Telegraph operators’ wives & families
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- The
Repeater Stations built along the route of the
overland telegraph line from Port Augusta to
Port Darwin offered secure jobs for telegraph
operators and linesmen from the 1870’s. A
few brave women agreed to accompany their
husbands, or applied for jobs as governesses or
ladies' companions. Sisters often travelled
together for support such as Cornelia Rains who
first arrived in Central Australia in 1883 as a
companion to her sister Tryphena Benstead. The
latter was newly married with a young baby and
travelling from Adelaide to Stirling Creek,
close to Barrow Creek Telegraph Station, both
all-male domains. Cornelia later married OTL
Inspector Joseph Skinner in 1886 but their first
child, born at Barrow Creek only survived 30
hours. Their second child Maud was born at Alice
Springs Telegraph Station where her husband had
been transferred. Other wives of Telegraph
Stationmasters at Alice Springs followed in
Cornelia's footsteps: Mrs Amelia Gillen; Mrs
Atalanta Bradshaw; Mrs Ida McKay and Mrs Isobel
Price while Mrs Bessie Allchurch was the last
woman to live at the Telegraph Station before
the Post Office was moved into the town of
Stuart.
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 - Mrs
Atalanta Bradshaw (back row, left), with her
children’s governess Miss Elsie Conigrave
(seated, centre) holding 1 of her 6 children,
Don. Alongside are 2 other Alice Springs
Telegraph Operator’s wives, Mrs Harris
(back row, centre) and Mrs Bessie Allchurch
(Atalanta’s sister in law: front row, left)
and 2 women living in nearby Stuart, Mrs Annie
Meyers (Bessie’s sister: back row, right)
and Miss Deckert (companion to Mrs Charles
South, hotelier at the Stuart Arms: front row,
right). These 6 women, along with Mrs Charles
South who is not present, made up the entire
white female population of Stuart and the Alice
Springs Telegraph Station at the time (June
1903).
- Courtesy:
National Trust (NT)
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- MRS
BRADSHAW’S STORY
- Aged
33, Atalanta arrived at the Alice Springs
Telegraph Station in 1899 along with her 4
children aged from 8 to 18 months, a young
governess and her husband, Thomas Bradshaw the
postmaster, who had met them at Oodnadatta.
During their 9 years at Alice Springs, Atalanta
gave birth to 3 more children, attended only by
her close friend, the local saddler’s wife,
Mrs Annie Meyers whose sister was married to her
brother Ernest. Three more governesses as well
as a number of efficient and loyal Aboriginal
housemaids such as Amboora, Runge and Amelia
supported Mrs Bradshaw. Amelia later married
Harry (Trot) Kunoth, an ASTS linesman, their
granddaughter being Rosie Kunoth-Monks, star of
Australia’s first colour feature film Jedda
(1955).
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 - Amelia
Maud Besley photographed in South Australia
before her move to Alice Springs in
1891.
- Courtesy:
Mrs Jill Braithwaite
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- MRS
GILLEN’S STORY
- Amelia
(Minnie) lived at Alice Springs Telegraph
Station from 1891-1899. Married to Postmaster
and renowned anthropologist, Francis (Frank)
Gillen, the young 22-year-old bride left Mount
Gambier to accompany him to the Centre which
involved reaching Oodnadatta by train and then
journeying by a horse and buggy, camping out
each night. She had her piano transported by
camel while the latest books were sent to her by
Baldwin Spencer from Melbourne. Her first child,
Brian was born down south but her second son,
Jack was delivered at the Telegraph Station with
the help of a Hergott Springs woman. Two
Aboriginal girls, Polly and Dolly (Aritcheuka)
gave Minnie domestic help and she became fluent
in Arrernte, taking great interest in her
husband’s anthropological
research.
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