page_title: Cardwell Bush Telegraph
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Cardwell Bush Telegraph / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Cardwell Post Office, 1930.
context_page_description: Cardwell Bush Telegraph is a heritage-listed former post office and now heritage centre at 53 Victoria Street, Cardwell, Cassowary Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. The Telegraph and Post Office at Cardwell was designed by Colonial Architect's Office and built in 1870 by George McCallum, making it one of the oldest buildings in North Queensland.
  The building operated as a post office until 1982. It was refurbished, conserved, branded "Cardwell Bush Telegraph", and re-opened as a heritage centre on 28 February 2003. The heritage precinct also includes the former court house and jail, an area designated as a government reserve for much of the township's history. The precinct welcomes visitors and showcases the history of Cardwell and its significance to the surrounding area. It was listed on the Register of the National Estate of the Australian Heritage Commission. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
  It is located on the corner of the Bruce Highway and Balliol Street at the southern end of the town and is immediately adjacent to the also heritage-listed Cardwell Divisional Board Hall.
context_section_description: This single storeyed timber building was erected in 1870 as the Telegraph Office in Cardwell. Designed by the Colonial Works office, the Superintendent of Roads and Buildings at the time was Charles Tiffin. The contract for the building was let to George McCallum of Brisbane. Records indicate that the building was prefabricated in Brisbane and shipped to Cardwell where it was erected on the present site. It is considered to be one of the earliest examples of prefabricated post office buildings, reflecting the need to erect substantial Government buildings in remote settlements where structures were otherwise relatively unsophisticated.
  Cardwell was settled in 1864, the first port settlement on the Queensland coast north of Port Denison (Bowen). The first party of non-indigenous people to settle at Rockingham Bay arrived in January 1864. They were 20 in number and they came from Bowen on the small schooner Policeman with the three ton cutter Heather Bell in tow.
  The Cardwell town reserve was proclaimed in July 1864 to serve the grazing properties inland, particularly the Valley of Lagoons district which was expected to become a rich pastoral district. Indeed, the Valley of Lagoons Station established in 1862 was part-owned by the then Queensland Premier Robert Herbert.
  Cardwell was settled with a great deal of confidence and Government support for its future role in the development of North Queensland, as it had a deep, sheltered harbour and was expected to develop into a significant regional town. A substantial government infrastructure was established in Cardwell, including a pilot's quarters, police barracks and lockup, court and customs house, post magistrate's residence, sub-collector's residence, lands office, and telegraph station, which reflected this enthusiasm. A Post Office was opened in Cardwell in 1864, the first Post Master also officiating as the District Registrar, Sub Collector of Customs, Clerk of Petty Sessions and Harbour Master.
  The telegraph office and the police station were among a group of government buildings erected on Section 42 of the town reserve, also referred to as the Government reserve.
  The erection of a telegraph office in Cardwell coincided with the expansion of the telegraph service in Queensland. The extension of a telegraph line from Bowen to the Gulf of Carpentaria was considered desirable for two main reasons; to serve the settlers in the area, and there was the possibility of joining the proposed overseas cable from Java. The Queensland Government hoped the connecting cable linking Australian to Asia and then to Europe would enter Australia through the Gulf of Carpentaria. The telegraph line reached Cardwell in December 1869. Tenders were called for the erection of a telegraph office in Cardwell in October 1869. The telegraph line reached the town on 29 December 1869 and five days later the telegraph office opened in 1870. A combined post and telegraph office was established soon after, and the majority of Post Masters from 1870–1893 were employees of the Electric Telegraph Department. The configuration of the building with four core rooms and detached kitchen was the most common form of timber telegraph/post office buildings in the nineteenth century. The Cardwell office appears to have been the first of approximately thirty buildings erected in this form during the period 1869–1885.
  Tenders had been called in September 1869 for the erection of telegraph lines from Cardwell to Gilberton and then to the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the two sections were completed in 1871 and 1872 respectively. However, in 1872, the overseas cable was connected to the Australian Overland Telegraph line at Darwin and not via the Gulf of Carpentaria. So the main purpose for which the Cardwell Telegraph Office and telegraph lines were built did not in fact materialise. Nonetheless the telegraph line from Cardwell successfully served the settlers in the Gulf region.
  The Hinchinbrook Division was created on 11 November 1879 as one of 74 divisions around Queensland to administer local government under the Di
caption: Cardwell Post Office in 1930
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