Timeline Telegraph Telephone ISPs

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  1. First Telegraph
    In 1854 the Victorian Govt funded a Morse Code telegraph line via a bank of batteries (12v to 24v) from Melbourne city to Williamstown (17kms). In 1856 a line ran from Port Adelaide to Adelaide city. In 1858 links between Melbourne to Adelaide and Melbourne to Sydney were activated. In 1861 Queensland’s telegraph line introduced and connected to Sydney. In 1861 there were 110 telegraph stations spread across the eastern colonies, using "inkers" and "sounders" and Wheatstone ABC "dials" for those unfamiliar with Morse code. Messages crossing colonial borders transcribed onto paper by an operator, transported across the border and then retransmitted.
  2. Overseas to UK
    In 1870 the UK nationalized its Telegraph system under the GPO (General Post Office). In November 1871 the first overseas telegraph from London to Adelaide built by the British Australian Telegraph Company, founded by John Pender. It ran a submarine low-frequency line Singapore - Java - Darwin (20-30v) then overland to Adelaide (120v). Banks began to employ password codes for Telegraphic Transfers (TT) pioneered in 1871 by Western Union in the US.

    The Argus newspaper in Melbourne formed an association with The Sydney Morning Herald, contracting with the Reuters news agency in London for the regular transmission of news to Australia. This group successfully lobbied the Government of Victoria to pass the first copyright legislation of its kind in the world in 1871, protecting news material transmitted electronically for 24 hours from its first publication. In 1885, the two papers were joined by The Age in Melbourne, merging in 1895 into the Australian Press Association.

  3. First Telephone
    In 1877, Alfred Barratt Biggs (1825-1900), telephoner and astronomer, is credited with making the first long distance telephone call in Australia between Campbell Town and Launceston Tasmania, an 80 kilometre distance.
    In Brisbane in January 1878, Dr Severn successfully experimented with telephones over a mile of telegraph wire at the Electric Telegraph Office at the Brisbane GPO.

  4. Scribner switchboard exchanges
    In 1880, exchanges from US Western Electric using single lines with ground return, fairly noisy (click here for why) cf twisted cable / coax.

    Back to 1880. First installation was a private exchange in Collins Street Melbourne in August then Queen Street GPO in Brisbane in October. Phones cost £10, lines £5 per mile annually, maintenance £1. Each phone had 2 x 1.5v batteries, and via a magneto handle on the phone a 75v - 100v AC signal dropped a shutter at the exchange, revealed a number, and rang a small bell. It then connected via patch cords with plugs and spring jacks. Called the Edison-Bell loud speaking telephone.
    In Pitt Street Sydney, a "trial line" was set up between the Stock Exchange and GPO, with a switchboard (next paragraph) in 1881-82. Next, Hobart Launceston and Adelaide 1883, a toll line and exchange in Albion in Brisbane 1883-1884, then as Melbourne exchange (in Wills Street after 1884) reached 880 subscribers in 1887, it was purchased by Victorian Govt. Underground twisted cable (local loop) followed in 1888.

    More on Sydney
    October 1881 Sydney's first exchange opened between the Stock Exchange and the Government's Railway Wool Sheds at Darling Harbour, 12 to 15 lines. Following an accidental electrical fire in December 1882 at a banquet at the exchange to celebrate their new electric lighting, the recently opened GPO took over all management.

    These early exchanges employed message boys to operate the equipment, however the boys quickly earned a reputation as inefficient, unruly and impertinent. In an effort to improve customer service they were replaced by women specifically employed for the job.

    Brisbane Costs: In 1885 Brisbane subscriber numbers reached 300. A public phone in Fortitude Valley opened in 1888, 6d for 5 minutes.
    In 1889 users now rented phones at £6 annually. When positions were advertised for 13 switch-board assistants at a salary of 10 shillings per week, 1671 young women applied. The new multiple switchboard cut over in 1890, click here for photos. In 1895 subscribers reach 600 and a call for a specialist electrical engineer from abroad. Toowong exchange opened 1897, Ipswich opened underground lines 1899, Sandgate 1907.

    In 1900, 30,000 telephone services (mostly businesses) operating in Australia.

  5. On Federation in 1901, Australia's Post Master General Department (PMG) was created to run all telecommunications. In December 1911 an Act of Parliament provided for its acquisition of private lines. With limited exceptions (e.g. Queensland State railways) all telephone infrastructure thus belonged to the Commonwealth and was rented to subscribers with the network highly regulated. It wasn't until the 1980s that restrictions eased and privately owned telephones appeared in any numbers.
  6. In 1902, an alternative telegraph route to the UK (and more economical) built from the Pacific Cable Station in Southport via Norfolk Island and Fiji and Fanning Island (part of Kiribati) to Vancouver Island, just off the mainland at Canada, linking to the UK and also to the US.
  7. In 1908 the dial tone, ring tone, and busy tone, first invented in Germany, taken up by British GPO and also Australia. Became important to telephone users when manual exchanges changed over to automatic, starting with Geelong in 1912.
  8. In 1909 AWA the wireless company for coastal shipping, was initially based on German Telefunken. In 1913 merged with British Marconi.
  9. In 1910-1912, now with 40v central exchange battery, each Brisbane phone line upgraded to twisted cable local loop. Became 48v in 1929. Some magneto phones in rural areas last till 1984. Central exchange battery ended with NBN.
  10. In 1911 a competitor to the Australian Press Association and Reuters' foreign newswire service was established. Called the United Cable Service, it initially served The Sun in Sydney and The Herald in Melbourne, and drew on the prestigious London paper The Times.

    That same year, another exchange opened at Lonsdale Street in Melbourne for 9,000 subscribers, having 30 internal circuits for each line, in total 276,000 telephone jacks, the largest in Australia. Click here for the newspaper announcement. Wills Street Exchange lines were transferred incrementally.

  11. In 1912, the first automatic public telephone exchange opened in Geelong. In 1914 Newtown, Balmain, Glebe followed, in 1925 South Brisbane, click here for announcement in the Brisbane Courier. These automatic exchanges were based on a design patented by the Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange Company in 1891. Used at independent exchanges in US, tested at Sydney GPO 1911, adopted London 1912, and finally AT&T Bell in US in 1919. Sydney city converted in 1927, Brisbane city in 1929. Not till after WW2 did Melbourne Central convert at Russell Street automatic exchange in 1954, becoming relay station for TV broadcasts. A new Lonsdale Street exchange opened in 1969.
  12. In 1922 the Sydney-Brisbane telephone trunk line opened using thermionic repeaters i.e. vacuum tubes. These repeaters effected an enormous saving in copper by enabling a lighter wire to be used. Back in 1907 a trunk line between Melbourne and Sydney over a single pair of copper wires had carried a significant voltage through its signalling generator/equipment, 600 lb. weight per mile (170 kg per kilometre). Now 10 kg per kilometre.
  13. In 1924 wireless from Marconi in England on short-wave radio equipment, AWA now 50.0001% owned by Australian Govt. Within six months British GPO short-wave stations took 65% of Eastern Telegraph's business, at a fraction of its cost.

    That same year, Radio Stations having "A" class (government-owned) and "B" class (business-owned) licenses get under way in Sydney and Melbourne. Followed in 1925 by radio stations in Brisbane and Darling Downs.

  14. Also in 1925 three additional FDM (high frequency) channels — the "carrier wave" system — superimposed on trunk line Melbourne to Sydney, enabling four two-way conversations on that line. First seen in the US in 1918, Pittsburgh PA to Baltimore MD.
  15. In 1927 the alphanumeric rotary dial handset launched by AT&T Bell, note "O" for Operator (1223 in Australia), "1" for an outside area code used after 1951, "0" in Australia.
  16. In 1928 Decibel dB invented as Transmission Unit gain/loss, sweet spot zero. In 1950s dBmV for cable TV at 1 millivolt and 75 ohms of signal.
  17. In 1929 Cable & Wireless formed, merging Marconi with Eastern Telegraph.
  18. In 1930 Australia now linked to UK via radio-telephone.
  19. In 1933 the first private TTY (teletype) teleprinter at Stock Exchange in Melbourne hooked up to the Telegraph Office. It could punch out 8 typed messages simultaneously utilizing a **5 on/off pulses Baudot Code character with Stop (1½ pulses) Start (1 pulse) combined with paper tape transmission, faster than Morse. Released in New York by New Zealander Donald Murray in 1901, used at Western Union, and employed at Australia's PMG after 1922.

    ** Called "bits" (binary digits) after 1948

  20. In 1935, Keith Murdoch (father of Rupert Murdoch) brokered a merger between the two foreign newswire competitors to cut down costs. It established the Australian Associated Press in Sydney as a not-for-profit cooperative with 14 newspaper shareholders. The AAP had an initial staff of 12, with a London and New York bureau.
  21. In 1946, in Spring Street Sydney the Overseas Telecommunications Commission OTC formed by Commonwealth Government, inheriting its facilities and resources from AWA (and Cable & Wireless). Moves to Martin Place in 1967, forms Telstra (based in Melbourne) in 1992.
  22. Prior to 1960, alpha prefixes of one or two characters were employed to establish a 6 character alphanumeric, though unlike the USA and Britain where the first two or three characters, say "TR" for Trafalgar, specified the exchange, in Australia the letters were employed randomly. See, for example, a 1947 newspaper announcement extract and images below.
    Eight thousand Brisbane telephone numbers would be altered under a new re-routing plan to operate from April 1 next, the Postmaster-General's Department announced yesterday. Numbers affected are in the City. Valley. Camp Hill. Coorparoo. Mitchelton. Lutwyche. and Newmarket areas. New telephone number prefixes will be—L for certain Valley and City numbers. XW in Camp Hill. XU in Coorparoo, LL in Mitchelton. LU in Lutwyche. and LM in numbers in the 7000 and 8000 groups in Newmarket.
    Click here for a 1927 Sydney Directory with Exchanges on Image 14.


    In 1960 telephone numbers became 6 numeric digits, 7 from 1971, 8 by 1998.

  23. In 1954 Telex arrives (via an operator), an 80 customer teleprinter exchange in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. They used a five-digit number preceded by a two-letter country code, Australia was ‘AA’. However, overseas Telex expensive, still by Radio-Telephone till 1963.

    In 1959 Morse Code Telegraphs are auto switched to Telex by the exchange whenever possible. It then winds down, last telegram in Sydney December 13 1962, letter-gram 1993.

  24. Overseas Telephone Cable Following the trans-Atlantic coaxial cable in 1956, in 1963 COMPAC connected Sydney and Vancouver in Canada via New Zealand and Hawaii, providing 80 two-way speech channels, or 1,760 telegraphy / teleprinter leased circuits for airlines, shipping companies etc. Upgraded to 1,380 telephone circuits by ANZCAN 1984 - 2002.
  25. Back to 1959, Ericsson's Crossbar switching via Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) area codes. Installed first in 1960 in Toowoomba, in mid to late 1960s Sydney Melbourne Brisbane with 90% Australia converted by 1975. In 1976 - 1980 ISD (International Subscriber Dialling 0011 or a "+" prefix) followed.
  26. In 1966, Telex exchanges automated on crossbar switching links to 100 overseas countries with about 4000 customers throughout Australia. Replaced in 1980s by computer networks, fax, email.
    "Words" and "Bits" connected via pins to a CPU by a matrix of wordlines and bitlines are new terms, with 36-bit word architectures dominant in scientific, military, and large-scale accounting apps.
  27. In 1975 Telecom Australia created – the telephone division of the PMG with postal services split off into Australia Post.
  28. In January 1981 Rupert Murdoch purchases The Times (and Sunday Times) Newspapers in London.
  29. First 24/7 Internet Connection (satellite)
    AARNet. On June 23 1989 at 56kbps, a 24/7 TCP/IP (Internet) connection was opened by Dr Troben Nielsen at the University of Hawaii and Robert Elz at the University of Melbourne (AARNET) with subject line “Link Up”
  30. In 1991 Optus formed as a private company in Australia by Cable & Wireless along with other companies, becoming a second telecommunications company to provide competition to Telecom Australia in wireless and landline services.
  31. In 1992-1993 OTC merges with Telecom Australia, forming Telstra in Melbourne. Privatisation of Telstra commences 1996, completed 2006.
  32. Also in 1993 IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority issues the Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) with an initial 4 million IP addresses to allow it to become a regional IP address registry, using volunteer labour and donated facilities from a number of countries. Initially based in Tokyo.

    Overseas Fibre Optic

  33. Back to 1997-1998. APNIC shifted from Tokyo to Brisbane. The four major Internet Service Provider (ISP) members are Telstra (since 1996), Optus (since 1998), Connect.com.au (since 1992), and Ozemail (which made its mark with Malcolm Turnbull as chairman 1994-1999).

    In 1999 Connect.com.au was purchased in full by AAPT Australian Associated Press Telecommunications – owned by News Limited and John Fairfax, who sold it in 2000 to Telecom New Zealand.

  34. In 2005 Ozemail purchased by iiNet in Perth.
  35. In 2010 Telecom New Zealand sold AAPT's consumer business to iiNet.
  36. In May 2011 the ISP stats showed Telstra 4 million, Optus 2¼ million, iiNet 650,000, TPG 535,000. In Dec 2009 Vodafone had 318,000, Dodo 240,000, iPrimus 227,000.
  37. In 2013 TPG Telecom purchased AAPT as its wholesale and networks division, in 2015 iiNet.
  38. In 2020 TPG merged into Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA). It followed announcement 30 Aug 2018.
  39. In June 2021 Australia stats showed 8 million households on NBN, 5 million users on mobile broadband (SIM cards in modems, laptops, tablets). 27 million users on mobile phones / smartphones.
  40. In December 2025 NBN stats showed Telstra 3.15 million, TPG 1.56 million, Optus 1.07 million, Vocus (Dodo,iPrimus) 850,000, Aussie Broadband 830,000, Superloop 610,000, Others 620,000

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