SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



109 



have ' stuck up ' the stations occasionally and killed operators, they have never 

 interfered with the wires. While the line was being constructed the operators 

 gave every black who visited them the opportunity of enjoying a gratuitous 

 electric shock. The peculiar sensation vividly affected their nerves and their 

 imagination, and thus a wholesome awe was engendered of what they called 

 ' the white-fellow's devil.' The illustration given on this page represents 

 Peake Telegraph Station, situated over seven hundred miles north of Adelaide. 

 The large building in the centre is the telegraph station and Government 

 buildings ; to the right is a cattle station. The hills in the background are 

 mostly of a stony character common to Central Australia, with a slight 



Peake Overland Telegraph Station. 



growth of bushes here and there. Round about the station there are large 

 numbers of blacks camped, and the officers have to go about heavily armed. 

 The station at Barrow Creek, farther north, was ' stuck up ' by the blacks a 

 few years ago, and two of the officers killed. At every station there are 

 usually two operators and four line repairers. As the adjacent station is 

 150 or 200 miles away, and there are no nearer neighbours, the little 

 garrisons lead a lonely life. Whenever a breakage occurs two men start 

 from either station between which the fault exists ; each party takes, besides 

 a supply of wire, a field instrument, and at every thirty miles a • shackle ' is 

 put down, and the party communicates with its own station, and so each 



