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Charles Todd's Magnificent Obsession

Charles Todd's Magnificent Obsession

The epic race to connect Australia to the world

by David Dufty
Paperback
Publication Date: 03/09/2024

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The construction of the Overland Telegraph in 1870 is an extraordinary feat of engineering and a wild gamble that nearly went terribly wrong.

It was the greatest feat of engineering in nineteenth-century Australia, but it very nearly collapsed in the face of monumental obstacles.

The year was 1870, and mail took six weeks to get to England by sea. Australians hungered for the speedy communication a telegraph connection would bring. Engineer Charles Todd promised that he could string up wires on poles from Adelaide over 3,000 kilometres to an undersea cable in Darwin harbour in just eighteen months. It was a wild gamble that became an epic race against time.

This is the extraordinary story of the building of the Overland Telegraph. Three teams of workers crossed deserts, mountains, and rivers in flood, following the rough maps that John McDouall Stuart had brought back from his final expedition. They encountered Aboriginal people who had never seen a European, and battled crocodiles, mosquitoes, mysterious illnesses and starvation. Drawing on original letters and journals, historian David Dufty has uncovered never-before-published details about this groundbreaking project.

This is a tale of obsession and heroism, violence and tragedy, and above all, it's a totally compelling yarn.

ISBN:
9781761471353
9781761471353
Category:
Biography: historical
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
03-09-2024
Publisher:
ALLEN & UNWIN
Country of origin:
Australia
Pages:
368
Dimensions (mm):
234x153mm

'A gripping story'
- David Hill

'A tale of endeavor and perseverance'
- Roland Perry

'Meticulous research and Dufty's monster writing skills shape a cracking retelling of Charles Todd's race to stretch a single strand of telegraph wire across 3000km of remote Australia from Port Augusta to Darwin'
- Glenn Morrison

'A good read, and speaks of the man and his team, illustrating the talents of a rare achiever'
- Mac Benoy

David Dufty

David Dufty is a Canberra-based writer and researcher.

He completed a psychology degree with honours at the University of Newcastle, has a PhD in psychology from Macquarie University, and has worked as a statistician and social researcher at the University of Memphis, Newspoll, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

His previous book, How to Build an Android, described modern developments in robotics and artificial intelligence.

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