The N.S.W. Minister for Health, Mr. W.F. Sheahan (left), and the Minister for National Development, Senator W.H. Spooner (centre), listen to the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Ald. H.F. Jensen, placing the first telephone call to Melbourne on the coaxial cable system. April 9, 1962.Credit:Staff photographer
First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on April 10, 1962
The biggest single telecommunications project in Australia, a coaxial cable linking Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, was opened by the Prime Minister, Mr Menzies, in Canberra yesterday.
The 599-mile cable, with "repeater" stations every six miles, will substantially increase communication channels between the three centres.
It took two years to install.
The cable contains three pairs of copper tubes, each capable of carrying up to 1,260 simultaneous telephone conversations.
“In a tunnel beneath Castlereagh Street, a technician is installing the racks (top right of pic.) that will carry the £3 million coaxial cabel from the City South telephone exchange on the start of its 590 miles route to Melbourne. Other cables carry existing telephone lines. January 18, 1960.”Credit:Staff photographer
Alternatively, each pair is capable of carrying a television program between Sydney and Melbourne.
Mr Menzies said the cable was the culmination of a remarkable task of teamwork.
He said: "We live in such turbulent, or hurried, times, that we occasionally forget that history is still being made, even though it is being made a little more hastily than it used to.
"I dare say that if somebody were living today whose grandfather had been at the laying of the first trans-Atlantic cable, this would be a matter of great family pride and satisfaction."
Post Office "Wizardry"
Mr Menzies said he had seen a coaxial cable being made, but he still did not know what it was about.
"All I know is that by some miracle 1,200 people can speak on it at ore time. "By some wizardry, the Post Office sees that each person is speaking to the right person and not somebody else."
Mr Menzies said 1 1/4 million telephone calls were made between Sydney and Melbourne each year, and within 10 years the number was expected to increase to 51 million calls.
This illustrated the miracle of the development in communications.
He said: "This is only the beginning, It is not the end.
"We, while not very rich in numbers of people, but very rich in resources and spirit and enterprise, will have a system of communication which will be the envy of most people in the world.
"Hard Work, Immense Skill"
"It will be achieved through a combination of hard work and immense skill.
"Today we are witnessing the first culmination of this magnificent combination.
“Coaxial cable entering O.T.C.’s Paddington terminal station for the land section to Bondi beach. December 2, 1963.”Credit:The Telecommunication Commission (Australia)
"The more we can communicate direct with ether people, the more we can hear their voice and sense their feeling, the more disposed we will be to understand the fellow or nation whom we rather disliked, but who turned out to be rather a better fellow or nation than we had suspected."
The Premier of Victoria, Mr H. E. Bolte, said this was a historic week.
It marked the opening of the new cable, and on Thursday the new standard-gauge railway line between Sydney and Melbourne would be opened.
Mr Bolte said the cable's huge potential would meet the inevitably bigger demands for communication in an area containing 40 percent of the Commonwealth's population.
It would pave the way for subscriber-to-subscriber dialling in Sydney and Melbourne.
It was significant that local industry had been given an opportunity of taking part in the project.
A total of 85 per cent of equipment had been supplied by Australian manufacturers.
The opening involved three luncheons, held simultaneously in each of the three cities, and linked by telephone.
The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Alderman H. F. Jensen, and Melbourne's Lord Mayor, Councillor M. A, Nathan, had the first intercity telephone conversation over the cable.
They first exchanged formal greetings but quickly achieved first-name friendliness.
The two Lord Mayors then exchanged sarcasms about horse racing (both are owners), political attitudes, and the merits of their respective cities' attitudes to s.p. betting and the standard of their airports.
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