Australian Overland Telegraph Route

We take the following from a description of the Overland Telegraph Route, which appears in the Australasian: — "Barrow Creek is the prettiest station on the overland line, but it is in a perfect hotbed of hostility. The building, like that at Charlotte Waters and Alice Springs, is of stone, and forms three sides of a square, with high walls and a strong iron gate across the back. In front of the house there are four windows, well protected with iron bars; there are also loopholes all round the house, but no other openings to the outside. All the doors open into the yard, the house is roofed with iron, and when the iron gates are closed it is a perfect fortress, which could be successfully held by three or four men against very great odds. There are six men all told at each of the interior stations, and sometimes the work is warm enough for them. The natives pull the wire down and cut away great quantities of it, for the purpose of arming the points of their spears; they also smash the porcelain insulators and use the sharp-edged pieces to scrape their spear-blades into shape."