Wireless Hill

Its highest point is about 100 m above sea level and it is joined to the main body of the island by a low and narrow isthmus that is occasionally wave-washed in heavy storms.

The hill is so named because it was the site of an early wireless telegraphy relay station, part of the first radio link to Antarctica.

The equipment used was German-made Telefunken 1.5 kW spark transmitters,[2] with power for radio transmission coming from a De Dion-Bouton engine.

[1] The expedition telegraphists on Macquarie Island, Arthur Sawyer and Charles Sandell, used morse code operated on high frequency.

The site and the equipment were then abandoned until 1948 when the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions established a permanent presence on the island.

North Head with Wireless Hill and the Isthmus from the south, c.1912-1914