RB
rosamund burton
writer | journalist
Whispering Wire book cover

Whispering Wire

Tracing the Overland Telegraph Line through the Heart of Australia

by Rosamund Burton

Interweaving history and travel adventures, this is a funny, sometimes sad, but always intriguing account of tracing the 3200km Overland Telegraph Line from Adelaide to Darwin.

Despite being slow and unfit, Rosamund Burton cycles with a friend 800km from Adelaide through the Flinders Ranges to the deserted outback town of Farina, pedalling through piercing winds and pelting rain. She continues with her husband by 4WD along remote dirt tracks in her search for derelict repeater stations, before in a race against time she delivers a large unwieldy rental campervan from Alice Springs to Darwin.

This journey follows in the footsteps of the explorer John McDouall Stuart and his attempts to reach the north coast of Australia to ascertain if a telegraph line could be built across the continent. The now largely forgotten repeater stations and old telegraph poles tell the story of the bespectacled civil servant, Charles Todd, who came from England to South Australia with his wife, Alice, and was responsible for the successful construction between 1870 and 1872, against all odds, of the Overland Telegraph Line. With the line’s completion, Adelaide became Australia’s communication hub, connecting the continent with the rest of the world and heralding the dawn of the era of instant communication.

Also running through the narrative is how this new telegraph technology benefited the cattle king Sir Sidney Kidman’s gigantic pastoral empire. Kidman, his managers and stockmen telegraphed about rainfall, rich pastures and stock prices. The line meant up-to-date information and the ability to make better business decisions.

But the explorers, telegraphists and pastoralists put an end to the age-old Indigenous way of life. Charles Todd’s strict guidelines ensured Aboriginal people were respected during the construction of the line, but its establishment quickly led to tragic deaths and loss of lands and freedom. Whispering Wire includes conversations with Adelaide-based Aboriginal woman Rosemary Wanganeen, of Kaurna and Wirangu heritage, who is the founder of the Healing Centre for Griefology; the Arabunna co-author of Talking Sideways, Reg Dodd, whose ancestors assisted the surveyors for the Overland Telegraph Line; and a traditional healer from Alice Springs, whose parents lived in the Alice Springs Telegraph Station when it was a home for mixed race children.

This is a journey through the country’s many layers of narrative – the voices of the land, its First Peoples and its later immigrants – tracing a single strand of wire that ran through the heart of Australia.

Whispering Wire: Tracing the Overland Telegraph Line through the Heart of Australia by Rosamund Burton is published by Wakefield Press in October 2022.

Ros at Tennant Creek Telegraph Station
castles follies cover

Castles, Follies & Four-Leaf Clovers

Rich in history, castles and larger-than-life characters, St Declan's Way is one of Ireland's best kept secrets.

Rosamund's adventures begin when she is lent a map of the ancient highway and pilgrim route St Declan's Way. Intrigued, she returns to Ireland. Setting off from the famous Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary, she travels through small towns and villages, across the beautiful Knockmealdown Mountains, to the town of Lismore with its spectacular castle, where her family used to live, and then on to the fishing village of Ardmore in County Waterford.

Battling the rain as she follows narrow country roads, little-used tracks and overgrown paths, she traces the footsteps of St Declan. From a day at a horse fair to climbing mountains and tracking down fairy forts, she captures perfectly the local characters and castles, miraculous wells and talking statues, the broken dreams and local legends. Stories of goddesses, ghosts and fairies are intertwined with the eccentricities and daily lives of everyday people - this is a journey full of the surprises that only Ireland can offer.

Read Bruce Elder's review of the book in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Hear Geraldine Doogue on Saturday Extra, ABC Radio National, interviewing Rosamund about her book.

Read the review of the book by Clare Calvet from Tony Delroy's Night Life program on ABC Radio 702.

Read the review of the book by Peter Smith of Abbey's Bookshop.

Read Ros's answers to Ten Terrifying Questions at Booktopia.

Hear Sarah Knight on Afternoons 720 ABC Perth and ABC WA talking to Ros about Castles, Follies and Four-Leaf Clovers.

Read ‘Luck of the Irish’ in Prevention Magazine.

Read ‘The Irish Camino’, Ros's story in Good Reading about how she came to write her book.

Read a review of the book by Walter Mason, author of Destination Saigon.

 

About Rosamund Burton

Born in Ireland, Rosamund grew up in England until her father got a job with the Duke of Devonshire. Ros and her family then moved back to Ireland into the East Wing of Lismore Castle, possibly Ireland's most spectacular castle (Lismore is on St Declan's Way). Rosamund was able to immerse herself in this forgotten corner of Ireland with its mix of derelict mansions and larger-than-life locals. In 1994 Rosamund came to Australia to work for and later manage the Mind Body Spirit Festival Sydney. For the last few years she has worked as a freelance journalist and writes for a wide range of newspapers and magazines.

Castles, Follies and Four-Leaf Clovers: Adventures Along Ireland's St Declan's Way by Rosamund Burton is published by Allen & Unwin.