Peppa Explores Eucla Ruins

The Eucla Telegraph Station was built in the 1870s, with this history quoted from the Nullabor Roadhouse website. The photo above was taken in the Eucla Museum.

History of Eucla and the Old Telegraph Station

The telegraph line is regarded as one of the most important innovations in the 19th century. Before the telegraph came, communication between Western Australia and the rest of the nations took months, but when the Eucla telegraph line and manual repeater station were established in 1877, transmitting messages only took a few seconds. “[The Telegraph] was as important for them then as the Internet is for us today,” say Steve Cooper, a local guide in Eucla. Together with the telegraph line, a jetty and tram line were also constructed for offloading supplies brought by ships.

The old Eucla also used to be a bustling town where a special team was working to win the battle against Australia’s Tyranny of Distance, but its original location has been abandoned due to the rabbit plague that infested the area in the 1890s. A new townsite was built a few kilometres to the north, and by 1927, the Eucla Telegraph Station had closed, and the communications centre slowly vanished near the border. However, its ruins still stand to this day.

The Sandy Ruins

The remaining old stone walls protruding above the moving dunes mark the station’s location, since the entire place has been enshrouded in white sand dunes. The sand drifts were caused by the rabbit plague that destroyed dune vegetation. 

Peppa seemed to enjoy visiting the ruins and exploring the dunes nearby.