The Pacific Cable Station was built in 1902 in Southport, Gold Coast City, Queensland, Australia. It continued to operate until the 1960s. It has been listed in the Gold Coast Local Heritage Register.
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Current use
The Pacific Cable Station is currently being used by The Southport School as their music department.
History
In the 1870s a proposal was put forward to lay a submarine cable between North America and Australia. 1879 Sir Stanford Fleming, chief engineer of G.P.R. suggested the trans Pacific Cable should be linked to the railway system across Canada to bring Britain into contact directly with the greater colonies. Discussion ensured at a Colonial and Telegraphic Conference. Approval was given at the Postal and Telegraphic Conference held in Brisbane in 1893. The Pacific Cable Committee was formed in 1896 with representatives from Britain, Canada and Australia. A survey of the route from Vancouver began in 1899. The Imperial Court passed the Pacific Cable Act in 1902 authorizing the construction of the cable link between Australia and New Zealand, to the United Kingdom via Canada.
The cable ship "Colonia" was built for the project at a cost of 1 million pounds sterling. They began laying cable from Bamfield, Vancouver Island, Canada, to Fanning Island, Suva, Norfolk Island and Southport, Queensland, Australia. The Cable Station landfall was at Main Beach, Cable Street passing under the river to the station at Bauer St, Southport. In October 1902, the cable was completed costing 2 million pounds sterling. The first message was sent on 31 October and opened for the public on 7 December 1902.
The site of the cable station in Southport was selected by R. E. Peake who was a member of Clarke, Ford and Taylor, the engineering firm responsible for the overall project and tasked with drawing up the plans and specifications of the cable station. Peake arrived in Australia in April 1901 to establish a location for the cable terminus in Australia and, on 30 May 1901, he visited Southport with the Acting Deputy Postmaster General, T. C. Scott. At the same time, a temporary cable station that had been previously constructed in England and dismantled for shipment to Australia was transported to Southport on the Maid of Sker and erected in the beach at Southport to act as a test house and temporary buildings for the equipment. At the end of July it was reported that a three-acre two rood site bordered by Bauer Street, Chester Terrace and Lenneberg Street had been selected for the station buildings. An additional eight-acre site bounded by Brighton Parade and the Nerang River was acquired for the cable landing.
In late 1901 the commonwealth government called for tenders to construct three buildings, including a central building housing the cable and land lines, with facilities for staff, and two separate houses to accommodate the cable superintendent and the land line superintendent. In April 1902, the tender was awarded to E Boyle to construct the wooden buildings within six months for a sum of £4,574 within. By the end of 1902, it was reported that the building to house the cable and land lines was near completion and the instruments housed in the test house on the beach were about to be relocated. The houses to accommodate the superintendents were not as well advanced. The cable station officially opened on 4 November 1902.
The cable station was in operation for sixty years, finally closing in 1962. There was only one serious interruption to the service during World War I, in 1914 when the Nurnberg, a German cruiser, cut the cable at Fanning Island. During World War II, following the raid on Pearl Harbour by the Japanese in December 1941, the Australian authorities, aware of the importance of the cable as the only link Australia had with the United Kingdom other than the Overland Telegraph and Middle East Route, straddling potentially hostile countries and aware of the possibility of enemy action, declared that schools in the Southport area should not open at the beginning of 1942. Some schools were evacuated to country areas. Following success in the Battle of the Coral Sea, it was felt this part of the country was safe from invasion.
In 1964 the property was sold to the de la Salle Brothers. Some of the equipment was used by The University of Newcastle-on-Tyne, The Royal Society, R.A.N. and C.I.S.R.O. When the brothers decided to redevelop the area they offered two of the buildings to The Southport School. There was a long association between the school and the cable station. C. E. Goff was in charge of the Cable Station trainees, and Mr T.C. Judd an early superintendent encouraged sporting contests between the school and the Cable Station. The major prize for Senior Mathematics was named the Goff Prize in honor and recognition of C.E.Goff. The buildings were divided into 12 sections and moved to The Southport School. Ron Burling, the school architect, re-erected the buildings. The building was reopened at The Southport School on 12 September 1982. The National Trust listed the building because of its historical and architectural significance. In 1983 The Southport School was awarded the John Herbert Award for the relocation and sympathetic restoration of these historic buildings.