Eyre – The most remote place in the world
Most of you are aware that I have travelled across the country to WA & Perth, for most of my life. My first crossing in January 1970 and have since then done the trip across by road hundreds of times.
On the very first trip I could not help but notice the telegraph poles of the Inter- Continental Telegraph line across the continent. The Telegraph line primarily followed the route taken by explorer Edward John Eyre. The Eucla telegraph station being officially opened on the 9th of December 1877 joining the East to the West.
In the pre federation days WA used International morse code while SA used American Morse code. This meant the telegraph operators sat opposite each other, with a small wall between them representing the border between SA & WA. Each message was decoded & then passed through the pigeonhole in the border wall.
With my interest in the Telegraph line, it has always been my intention to drive East - West under the old Telegraph line as much as possible. Needless to say, with life and its complications this has not completely happened.
In 1994, we managed to do the section from Eucla to Eyre. Like anything else in the outback, it has to be carefully planned, to ensure you know where you are going & what you are likely to encounter. We did not have GPS then, so maps, and talking to locals who give you up to date information were important. At the time we did this section no one had been through for 3 or more months... so basic supplies for survival and recovery gear need to be carried as well.
We weaved our way from Eucla telegraph station, which is now nearly completely covered by sand, along the line, following the steel poles of the old line located to the south of Wylie scarp, past the Burnabbie ruins, a disused settlement, which at the time our then children were fascinated to rummage through the relics, exploring to see what they could find.
The location of the Eyre Telegraph station is where Eyre & his party found fresh water. They camped there for a month before proceeding on their journey. It is located 50 ks to the south of Cocklebiddy, or looking at a map of Australia halfway in between the SA - WA border and Esperance on the coast... Coming from Cocklebiddy you travel south to Wylie Scarp, descend the steep incline & then have to travel over 26klms of Sand Dunes .. which requires a good 4x4 & making NO mistakes.
When we arrived at Eyre we were greeted by the resident caretakers, and then shown around the Telegraph station. The original building was weatherboard with corrugated iron roof, but in 1897 they completed a new limestone & corrugated iron roof building which stands there today. This was restored in 1977. It is a magnificent building with high ceilings & and a number of large rooms...
Its primary use today is the Eyre Bird Sanctuary, which is an educational, scientific & recreational facility in the Nuytsland Nature Reserve. Over 245 species of birds have been recorded in the surrounding reserve.
One of the most fascinating things to me about Eyre is the library. During the cold war, there was an American multi-millionaire who was so worried that there would be a nuclear holocaust, and the world as we knew it would be destroyed, that he looked for what he considered to be the most remote place in the world, one that would survive & he chose Eyre. He sent a book on every subject to Eyre so the survivors of the holocaust had all the information and knowledge that had been learned by man & therefore could rebuild a new world. There are 3 rooms in the Eyre Telegraph station, approximately 25 feet long, 10 feet wide & 12 feet high, and the books go floor to ceiling. This fascinated me.
We had to draw short our stay & did not continue our trip under the Telegraph line, as our daughter became quite ill ... so it was back to the road over the sand dunes to The Bitumen Eyre Hwy & off to the Norseman hospital
Maybe now I have finally stopped work ... I might be able to continue this journey one day soon.
Great to see Rowan back and looking so well