Dave,The Australian Overland Telegraph was completed in 1872 allowing Australia to connect with the rest of the world. (Western Australia was eventually connected by 1877) Initially, messages were sent via Morse Code, but eventually included the spoken word. The telegraph would have carried news and maybe some urgent business and government communications; personal comms would be almost exclusively hand-written letters sent via ship. Telegrams were expensive in those days and transmitted via Morse Code. Families did use telegrams, but rarely and only for urgent, important stuff such as BM&D. Sailing times were coming down fast around 1880 due to steam travel. For instance, the /Orient/ made the journey from London to Adelaide via the Cape (of Good Hope), in 38 days in 1879.
New Zealand connected to the Australian network, and hence internationally, in 1876. Remember, until 1841, NZ was part of the colony of New South Wales (Australia).
Gordon Early Telegrams, and Morse Key. On 7/05/2022 10:32 pm, dm60--- via CoTyroneList wrote:
Dear friends - especially those out East .... A question please for the historian experts. The date is (say) 1881. How would folks in Australia and New Zealand communicate with relatives back home in Ireland? And how would news items reported in (say) the New Zealand Herald find their way on to the pages of the Belfast Newsletter? My guess is via an old-fashioned physical postal service, real hard-copy letters mostly handwritten - rather than via some form of telegraph or telex. And also, how long would it typically take for news to travel? Any thoughts or views, actual examples? Any s uggestions highly appreciated. Warm regards Dave Mitchell Cape Town South Africa ================================= Send a Message to the List [email protected] List Archive -https://list.cotyroneireland.com/empathy/list/cotyronelist.list.cotyroneireland.com Join the list by sending an email to [email protected] To receive the Digest version, send an email to [email protected] Unsubscribe by sending an email to [email protected] =================================
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