Specific details about the Tasmania-Victoria telegraph cables across Bass Strait are organised into the following categories:
- Planning for the 1859 cable;
- The 1859 cable;
the King Island problems;
nature of and responsibility for the breaks in the 1859 cable;
the proposal to lease the cable;
- Subsequent cables;
- Cable operation and management;
- Telegraphic stationery - transmission and delivery forms;
- Telegraphic stationery - ordinary forms used for cable transmission.
- Strategies to deliver telegrams during interruptions;
- Cable rates;
- Cable ships - the H.M.C.S. Victoria and the Omeo.
Reports on the planning and laying of the Bass Strait cables.
The list below provides links to those Reports which have been accessed and uploaded to this site. Each Report is in PDF format. When it loads after clicking on the desired link, the second icon from the right is a small rectangle with very small up and down arrows:
- click on this rectangle twice to enlarge the document to maximum width and so make it easy to read the information.
- scrolling down moves from one page to the next.
- when you have finished reading, simply click the back arrow in the top left corner.
- 1857 (2 December) - Survey for a line of Telegraphic Communication between Cape Otway, Victoria and Cape Grim, Tasmania.
- 1858 (25 October) - Submarine Telegraphic Connection between Cape Otway and Tasmania: Survey for Laying down the Cable.
- 1860 - Report of the General Superintendent of Electric Telegraph .. for the year ending 31st December 1860:
Appendix dealing with the problems of laying the Bass Strait cable.
- From the 1861 Report of the General Superintentent of Electric Telegraph ... for the year ending 31 December 1861:
Appendix A: Report on Bass's Strait Submarine Cable on the Proposition for Leasing the Line.