Electronic communication VIH

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[£50pa] be not promptly paid it would be a better course to have the eyesore removed'.422 No
subsequent record for the railway appears in the minutes and its exact location is unknown.

I 0.6 Eledronic Communic:citicin
Telegraphic co-unication was one of the most profound ilmovations Of the nineteenth century
and first reached Tasmania in 1857. In 1894 a request to take a telegraph line over the Domain,
rather than following the railway line, was rejected.423
Following Marcolii's invention of wireless telegraphy, the Commonwealth passed the Wireless
Telegraph Act in 1905, securing control of all wireless communication.424 Hobat gained

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expedition to Antarctica in Novemttcr 1911, with a view to establishing a station enabling the
expedition to comlnunicate with Australia via Macquarie Island.426 While tliis was considered to
be quite extraordinary in 1911, Mawson's wireless operator foresaw no difficulty in maintaining
regular contact. In December, tlie Federal Goverrment ordered the construction of the radio
station by the Maritime Wireless Telegraph Company, which was owned by the colourful wireless
pioneer, Father Archibald Shaw.427 The station, which opened for business under the Postmaster
General's Department on 1 May 1912. was housed in a small weatherboard building situated
adjacent to a mast 184 feet 9 inches high and weighing 16 tons (figure 58).428 The station
became part of a nationwide network maintained for maritime safety and naval defence
communications. It was operated under license by Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd (AWA)
from 1922 until 1946 when the Overseas Teleconmunications Act handed control back to the
Commonwealth.429 The original building was refurbished intemally in 1973 although its 24 hour
service involved night time monitoring from Melboime.430

 I 0.7 Tourism
Alongside its role as recreational space the Domain has long been a tourist attraction. As a large
area of parkland close to the city centre it slotted nicely into the colony's serf-promotion as the
`Sanatorium of the South', a place of health, salubrity and moral virtue.43l `Viator' (or
`Traveller') extolled its tieauties in 1844 in lyric prose inviting visitors.432 Later nineteenth tourist
 literature described its attractiolis while in 1892 the Queen's Domaln Committee were quick to
 lick improvements to the water supply with the Domain to create `the standard sanitorium, not
 only for Australasia generally, but also for an annual crowd of visitors from our vast Indian
 Empire'.433 In ]893 the Secretary Of the Tasmanian Improvement and Tourist Association
 requested the erection Of a `shelter arbour' on the summit of Domain Hill.434 The `arbour' was




 422Minutes of the Queen's Domain Committee, 22 November 1889 -C816/1.

 423Minutes of the Queen's Domain Comlnittee May 1894 -CB 16/1.
 424Durrant, p. 18.

 425ibid, p.2l.

 426Mcrcwry, 24 November 1911, p. 6.

 427Mcrcny, 23 December 1911, p. 6 and 4 January 1912, p. 4.

 428Mercwry,1 May 1912, p. 4; WcekJy Cowri.er, 25 March 1912, p.19.

 429Dunant, pp. 33, 168.

 430ibid, p. 202.

 431§ee Petrow, 1994.

 432CoZo„ja/ri.mg5, 9 November 1844, p. 3.

 4331892 Annual Report of the Queen's Domain Commj[tee, JPPP 28 (1892), no. 34.

  434Minutes of the Queen's Domain Committee,14 November 1893 ~ C816/1.
                                                       Historical Overview
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  Queens Dolnali` Cultural I-Ieritage Managemem Plan                                              page 95
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