January 2022

Cable Station Walk is the name for a set of stairs scaling the cliff at Flinders. Though not the actual location of the original pathway it still gives a fair idea of the climb.

In 1869 a submarine cable was laid between Flinders, Victoria, and Low Head (near the mouth of the Tamar River) in Tasmania. This meant that Tasmanians were now able to quickly communicate with mainland Australia. In 1872 the undersea cable from Darwin to Java was completed connecting our forebears to the rest of the world. In today’s mobile phone era it is hard to imagine that a hut on the Flinders foreshore would receive the Morse code message pass it to a staff member who would then run up the cliff face to the Telegraph Station at the top. One wonders how many of these ‘runners’ were involved in the process of sending a message to London and it explains why there was no need for gymnasiums back then.

Note: One wonders how many people strolling along the jetty chatting on their phones realize how hard it once was to send the briefest of messages.