Some exciting developments have recently occurred at the Old Telegraph Station in Barker Street, Castlemaine. In December, the building was connected to the NBN bringing the historic station into the 21st century.
In January 1857, the building had been connected to the Sandhurst telegraph line.
The introduction of the electric telegraph in Castlemaine, and other areas of Australia, had a huge social impact by reducing the country’s geographic isolation from the rest of the world.
Telegraph equipment transmitted electrical signals over a wire laid between stations using the dots and dashes of Morse code with other offices in Sandhurst, Kyneton and Gisborne. Before the telegraph was introduced in Australia, it took roughly three months for a message to reach England, but this was reduced to seven hours.
Telegraph stations became hubs of activity, with people placing orders and exchanging marketing and banking information.
In 1875, the telegraph equipment was moved next door to the newly built post office. In 1891 the Castlemaine Pioneers and Old Residents Association, founded in March 1880, leased and in 1893 obtained a Crown Grant for the land and property. They demolished the northern timber part of the station and built Faulder Watson Hall in 1895.
Castlemaine Pioneers and Old Residents Association Inc secretary, Wilson Bunton, said the association’s initial aims included loan assistance to members, the promotion and advancement of native-born Victorians and the promulgation of facts concerning the district’s early history.
“While the association was not formed as a formal heritage-collecting organisation, it gathered information concerning the district’s early history and acquired historical items through its members over time,” Mr Wilson said.
Local curator and conservator, Kirsten McKay, has recently completed a major significance assessment of the collection.
Mr Bunton said the association was pleased to draw upon Kirsten’s substantial knowledge of local history obtained while curator at the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum for more than 16 years.
Ms McKay said she had found the collection had strong links to the diversity of people and cultures that came to the early goldfields and developed Castlemaine and the district.
In the report, she concludes that the collection provides tangible evidence that Castlemaine played a vital part in not only Victoria’s but Australia’s development.
The association will use the assessment to apply for state and federal funding to further its curatorial and digitisation programs.
Now that it is connected to the NBN the association will be able to source online information on collection management and promote its collection nationally and internationally.
Community members can pay a visit to the Old Telegraph Station on Wednesdays between 10am and 3pm. Further information on the association and its collection can be found on their website castlemainepioneers.org or obtained from Wilson Bunton at castlemainepioneers@gmail.com
