Now if I had seen this sign first, I may not have gone exploring through the ruins! Well, perhaps not! Anyone would realise that this is the sort of place that snake would love to hang out, but I did think it was nice of the National Heritage Trust to warn us and perhaps take any responsibility of their shoulders! (Maybe that’s a bit cynical!)
The Telegraph station was associated with the Albany to Eucla telegraph line and operated from 1877 to 1896. (the same line that goes to the west of Esperance, which I refer to in Blue Skies.)
It is quite strange, that a piece of history as important as this doesn’t have a lot of information easily found. Even in Esperance’s own history book ‘Faith, Hope and Reality’ the mention of the telegraph station is restricted on a couple of lines in a chapter, buried at the end. A ‘Google’ search netted mainly weather reports! Gale warnings, mostly. Not all that surprising!
What I found fascinating, was the width of the walls and how hard it must have been to build this place. There is an old jetty in the bay that assisted in the building – the boats carried cargo such as the pole for the line and supplies for the early settlers.
The bush is so thick and to walk through it, let alone clear a large piece of ground, dig foundations and so forth, must have been a huge effort – but look how well built it is! 113 years later, with a small amount of renovation, it still looks like this!
