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Tennant creek telegraph station northern territory sept 2015
The Tennant Creek Telegraph Station is an historical site about 10 miles (16 km) north of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Contents
History
The Warumungu Aboriginal people were the first occupants of the region in and around Tennant Creek.
The Tennant Creek Telegraph Station was built in 1872. It was first a temporary bush timber building but by 1875 had been rebuilt with locally quarried stone. It operated as a repeater station as part of the Overland Telegraph Line and also a government rations depot. By the 1920s it featured a blacksmith shop, cart shed, ration store, meat house, smokehouse and cellar. Warumungu people were employed at the station as cattlemen and slaughter-men. But the 1890s more than 100 Aboriginal people were living at the station. It was declared an Aboriginal Reserve.
The search for gold began from the 1880s. In 1925, a linesman discovered gold, with the discovery quickly leading to the establishment of a township to the south of the telegraph station. In 1935 a post and wireless office became operational in the town of Tennant Creek itself, so that the telegraph station was closed. It then supplied meat to the new town and water from its bore until 1966.
Recent history
Significant restoration work was undertaken on the remaining station buildings in 2012.