2022 $1 150th Anniversary Australian Overland Telegraph Line Uncirculated Carded Coin

Life in Australia was forever transformed with the opening of Charles Heavitree Todd’s Overland Telegraph Line, an extraordinary engineering achievement. Spanning 2,839 km from Port Augusta to Darwin, the line passed through uncharted and hostile terrain, supported by 36,000 poles.

This 2022 $1 Uncirculated Coin commemorates the 1872 completion of the line and Australia’s historic connection to the rest of the world via telegraph.

In 1872, the South Australian Government finished the Overland Telegraph Line, linking Port Augusta to Port Darwin, where it connected to an undersea cable stretching to Europe. Despite the challenges of arid, largely unexplored central Australia, Postmaster-General Charles Heavitree Todd vowed to complete the project in 18 months. He led three large workforces, comprised of engineers, surveyors, and explorers, to install 2,839 km of galvanized fencing wire on 36,000 poles.

Though the line was completed seven months behind schedule, it was finally joined at Frew’s Ironstone Ponds, NT. At 12:10 P.M. on August 22, Senior Telegraph Officer J.A.G. Little transmitted the first Morse code message from Port Darwin, which reached Adelaide just 50 minutes later.

Soon after, Australia was in daily electric communication with London in just seven hours, overcoming the ‘tyranny of distance’ and forever altering life in Australia.

The coin’s reverse marks the 150th anniversary of the Overland Telegraph Line.