THE SINGING LINE in LOGANLEA, Queensland for sale

Thomson, Alice.
THE SINGING LINE
The Story of the Man Who Strung the Telegraph Across Australia, and the Woman Who Gave her name to Alice Springs
Chatto & Windus 1999. 292 pages hardcover in dustjacket. Map endpapers, Illustrated with black and white photographs. Gift inscription on half-title page. Index
528 grams
email me at kev******@******com + click to reveal  if your messages sent to me through the Australialisted system are not being replied to
......................................................
In 1855 an impoverished young scientist from Greenwich told his guardian that he was off to chance his luck in Australia - as Government Astronomer and Superintendent of Telegraphs for the small colony of South Australia, But first he needed a wife
The young man was Charles Heavitree Todd. What he failed to mention was his real ambition - to string a telegraph wire across one of the last great uncrossed colonial wildernesses and to connect Australia with Britain. The young woman who offered herself as his partner in these wild ventures was Alice, his guardian's eighteen-year-old daughter
In 1997 their great-great granddaughter Alice Thomson, named after the intrepid lady, set out with her husband to follow in their footsteps to track the telegraph and her ancestors. They travelled from Adelaide over the thousands of miles of desert, outback, swamp and mountain that Charles Todd crossed in the 1870s with 400 men. Racing against time and financial penalty clauses, dogged by disease and disaster, Todd's men paused to found Alice Springs (naming it after his wife), before heading north through the mountains towards Darwin, to join up with the undersea cable from Java
The Singing Line brings together an irresistible mix of family history, exploration, scientific discovery and Victorian derring-do with a young couple's trek, fraught with modern hazards and hilarity as they follow the same 'singing line' a hundred and fifty years later across present-day Australia. Enthralling and dramatic, full of heroism and absurdity, technological wonders and physical hardship, this is the remarkable story of one man's dream and the opening up of a great continent
..................................................................................................
This item can be picked up or the postage charge will be the actual Australia Post charge of $13.40 to any address within Australia, cheaper within Queensland
Payment can be made in cash on pickup, or if preferred, bank deposit / internet transfer or PayPal, details will be provided on request
email me at kev******@******com + click to reveal  if your messages sent to me through the Australialisted system are not being replied to
#10431
..................................................................................................