Alice on the Line

The town that is now Alice Springs was a telegraph station when Doris Bradshaw Blackwell went there as a young girl in 1899. Doris Blackwellrsquo;s father, Thomas Bradshaw, was the officer-incharge of the telegraph station from 1899 to 1908. He took his young family from Oodnadatta, the railhead,on a buggy ride of more than 300 miles. In Alice on the Line, Doris has recaptured the atmosphere of those early daysmdash;only thirty years after the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line and only forty years after John McDougall Stuart first crossed the continent from south to north. This personal story of life in the outback at the turn of the nineteenth century is a book of great historical interest. More than that, it reflects a deep love for the country and its people. Douglas Lockwood was a respected Australian journalist and author who began his working life with Sir Keith Murdoch in Melbourne and later moved around Australia and to the Territory, eventually settling in Post Moresby. Douglas Lockwood collaborated with Doris Blackwell in the making of this book.