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Ocean

Before the NBN and Snowy 2.0

2025 PROGRAM

Before the NBN and Snowy 2.0

DATE: 

Saturday 29th March

LOCATION:

Darley Smith Building

COST:

$22

The construction of 3,000 kilometres of overland telegraph from Adelaide to an undersea cable in Darwin Harbour is seen as the most remarkable feat of engineering in 19th-century Australia. Still, it nearly collapsed in the face of monumental obstacles. The year was 1870, and mail took six weeks to get to England by sea. Graziers had to wait three months to learn what their wool clip was worth in London. Australians hungered for the speedy communication a telegraph connection would bring. Engineer Charles Todd said he would complete it in eighteen months. David Dufty’s engaging account of the epic race against time in Charles Todd’s Magnificent Obsession is a tale of passion, heroism, violence, tragedy, and a cracking yarn.

Host: Darren Mara

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY

The Manly Writers' Festival acknowledges and thanks the original storytellers on the lands on which our events take place, the Gameraygal people of the Eora Nation. We acknowledge and respect their continuing connection and culture, and we pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past and present, as well as emerging leaders.

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