Equipment used for laying telecommunication cable, Darling Downs, 1978. Slide by Neville Sim Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland.

© Neville Sim and the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Operator using the manual telephone exchange, photographed as the auto-exchange was being completed, Talwood, 1965. Slide by Jim McDougall, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland.

© Jim McDougall and the Centre for the Government of Queensland

The Arrilalah Telephone Exchange, the last telephone exchange in Queensland, 1986. Slide by Doug Rumsey, Collection of the Centre for the Government of Queensland.

© Doug Rumsey and the Centre for the Government of Queensland

Women telephonists in Queensland, who commenced at the Brisbane telephone exchange on 5 June 1899. Collection of the National Archives of Australia

Back row, left to right: Kate Sheldon, Annie Murray, Edith Aulsebrook, Amy Abraham, Edith Hawker, Sarah Gallagher, Alice Hibbert. Front row, left to right: Mary Armstrong, Ada Warburton, Frances Wall, Mrs Dick (Supervisor), Eleanor Ferguson, Annette Bowler, Lil McDonnell

Collection of the National Archives of Australia

Women telephonists at the Brisbane magneto telephone exchange, Elizabeth Street, Brisbane, 1910. Collection of the National Archives of Australia

Collection of the National Archives of Australia

Members of the Postmaster General's Department, Queensland, 1900. Collection of the National Archives of Australia. Left to right, W H Whale, E P Scott, H Nelson, S A Thorn, F B Jefferies, F Walker, J W Palmer, P Gourgard, Mrs Dick, F Watson, S H Smith, J R Bradford, John Hesketh, J Power, G Matthews, F Reisz, J W Sutton, J Lawton. 

In 1896 John Hesketh (1868-1917) became Chief Electrical Engineer for the Queensland Post and Telegraph Department. He was the first British Post Office engineer to be recruited to an Australian Post Office. In Queensland he laid the way for several reforms including the adoption of underground metallic wires (by 1910 practically all city-lines were running underground), the provision of standard telephones and the setting of telephone rates. In 1901 he was nominated as the Queensland delegate for the Departmental Electrical Committee which reported on the communication system in the newly established federal government. Through an inspection of the Brisbane telephone system he concluded that Queensland’s telecommunications system was the best within Australia and therefore did not require major reforms. Five years later Hesketh became Chief Electrical Engineer of the Commonwealth Government’s Postmaster General’s Department and in this function he supported the idea of automatic switching and started to set up automatic exchanges for the Australian capital city networks. This was a bold decision. At this time only two large networks in the world had an automatic exchange - Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Collection of the National Archives of Australia

Telegraph pole at the front of the Mackay Post and Telegraph Office in River Street Mackay, c1920.  Mackay was connected to Brisbane and Bowen by telegraph by 1866. Collection of Mackay Regional Council

Collection of Mackay Regional Council

Interior of Brisbane Central Telephone Exchange, Brisbane, 1903. Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

Collection of John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland image 16249

The first telephones used in Brisbane were imports from the USA, namely Edison-Bell and wall telephones (Edison Carbon transmitter and bell with a Bell receiver or telephone) and were adju

Collection of the Queensland Museum

Railway, postal and telegraph map of Queensland, 1888

QLD
Australia
1 January 1888
19 August 2010
19 August 2010

Location

QLD
Australia
Sydney & Melbourne
Picturesque Atlas Publishing Co

Collection of the National Library of Australia

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