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La Perouse Cable Station
THE
CABLE from Australia-New Zealand began operating on 21 February 1876
from La Perouse just a few kilometres
south of Sydney. The cable house was built a few
metres from the beach at a place called
Frenchman's Bay. A permanent station building was not completed
until 1882, and housed both cable operations and a training school
for the Eastern Extension Company until after the turn of the
century.
In 1890, a second cable was laid,
connecting Wellington to La Perouse, and was landed at Yarra
Bay because of its freedom from shipping.
The shore end of the original cable was also moved to this point.A
new building was erected in 1902-3 named "Yarra
House”; it accommodated operating rooms, a post office, and
superintendent's quarters. The cable station buildings of 1882
were converted into quarters for the single staff.
There was no electricity in these quarters; wood fires were
used for cooking and kerosene lamps for lighting in the mess
and billiard room and some of the bedrooms. Juniors were allowed
candles only. Staff at La Perouse
engaged in activities such as tennis, cricket, sailing, fishing,
shooting, swimming and surfing, or taking long walks.In
the early days, the pubs at Botany Bay were out of bounds to the young
cable station staff and to the nurses at Long Bay - except on State occasions.
La Perouse cable station remained in operation until 1917, when
the company decided to move the landing site of the Australia-New
Zealand cable to Bondi and operate
the line directly from its Sydney office in O'Connell Street. After the station closed
on 8 April 1917, the single men's quarters were
used as accommodation for the nurses working at the hospital
at Little Bay. For many years after 1944, the buildings were
used as a women's refuge run by the Salvation Army.
Cable engineers and staff, 1876. The huts on the right
are temporary cable station buildings.
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