New movie charts the major project that helped make the Territory
A new Territory film will debut on Thursday night highlighting the mighty Overland telegraph. Read why it was so important.
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A pivotal moment in the Northern Territory’s history is captured in a new documentary screening Thursday night at Darwin’s Deckchair Cinema.
Territory historian and author Derek Pugh has teamed with local filmmakers Andrew Hyde and Ian and Jennifer Richards to produce Twenty to the Mile, the remarkable story of the Overland telegraph construction.
Twenty to the mile points to the potential for the Territory to develop major projects at a time when the economy was crying out for capital investment on the scale of the telegraph.
Twenty to the Mile is a feature length documentary showcasing Derek Pugh’s journey across the entire length of the line as he researches material for his 15th book on Territory history.
Produced in partnership with Andrew Hyde’s Exposure Production and Ian and Jen Richards’ TV Works, Twenty to the Mile explores the line’s history and the enormous impact its arrival had on Australia.
Mr Pugh said when the line began operating in 1872, it was as significant for South Australia as it was for the Territory because for the first time it connected the southern colonies with the world via the fledgling settlement at Port Darwin.
Before its completion, any news that reached Australia came by ship and could take three months. With the telegraph’s connection to Java via an undersea cable, news from London could arrive in Sydney in less than seven hours.
“It was as significant as the arrival of the internet and was just as impressive, inspirational on all corners of society,” Mr Pugh said. “It changed the Australian nation completely.”
“The impact the overland telegraph had on Australia cannot be overstated. Newspapers could run international news of the day for the first time and commerce boomed. It was revolutionary.”
Charles Todd led the exhibition that built the telegraph line 10 years after Australia’s greatest explorer, John McDouall Stuart, had blazed the trail from Australia’s south to the top of the Northern Territory.
It took two years and hundreds of men to construct the line from Port Augusta to Port Darwin and used 36,000 poles placed at “20-to-the-mile” to support the precious telegraph line.
Producer Andrew Hyde said the Territory’s history could have been fundamentally different had the line not been built.
“Competition to build the telegraph line was fierce,” Mr Hyde said. “Queensland had already invested substantially in a proposal to run the line from Java to Normanton, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. This was a shorter route.
“Had the Queensland plan succeeded, the history of the Northern Territory would be vastly different. In 1872, the emergence of Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek, and Alice Springs was by no means a certainty. The map of modern Australia might have been shaped very differently.”
Twenty to the Mile has its worldwide premiere at the Deckchair Cinema on 28 September, at 7pm.
To view a teaser, see htps://www.facebook.com/twentytothemile
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