Oppenheimer pole

The poles were used in the construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line in 1872, which ran from Darwin in the north to Port Augusta in the south.

[1] The initial order for 6,000 poles[2] may have been made in Germany by Oppenheimer and Company (it is not certain) but later production took place in England under licence.

[3] Many of these poles were carried overland into the Australian interior by camel trains imported from Egypt, complete with their Egyptian drivers.

[5] Initially, Oppenheimer was an agent for Meyers and Co. in Melbourne, where he tendered for everything from water works and cast iron parts to telegraphy.

[8] This line, which would stretch more than 3200 kms (or 2000 miles), required 36,000 poles, huge quantities of wire and insulators, and the latest in battery technologies and telegraphic equipment.

The so-called Oppenheimer poles were produced in Manchester and shipped to Australia throughout the 1880s and installed along the length of the Overland Telegraph Line.

[10]Oppenheimer poles can still be found along the route of the former Australian Overland Telegraph Line, and in Queensland and Western Australia.

The largest remaining extant collection of Oppenheimer poles can be found in the Frew Ponds Overland Telegraph Line Memorial Reserve 1085 which was gazetted in June 1962.