ANY BUYERS?

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 15 November 1927, Page 9

ANY BUYERS?

A TOWN FOR SALE. END OF EUCLA. Melbourne, Nov. 2. If anyone desires to purchase a uit e property, including some stonebuilt houses and laud rich in historical associations, and far from tho maddening crowd, he may do so at Eucla, on the Great Australian Bight, situated on the boundary between S.A. and W.A.

Eucla is up for sale. Many years ago back in the dim past, before petrol' engines and wireless, when explorers still set out into the unknown, the overland telegraph connecting the West with the Eastern States was laid.

At Eucla, at the head of the Bight, hundreds of miles from anywhere, surrounded by the distant horizon of the Nullarbor Plain and fheihg the great ocean, a telegraph station was laboriously erected in thos e days. It was an important transmitting point in tho system. A small colony grew up under the patriarchal authority of the telegraph master. As recently as 1902 the town had a population of 60, about half of whom were telegraph officials. A jetty was built, and mail from Albany by schooner or steamer called as opportunity, wind, weather and tide permitted. <

Automatic relays and other telegraph improvements have meant a gradual diminishing of the popula tion until a few weeks ago. when tha new telegraph line was completed along tho trans-railway, the old coastal lilne fell into disuetude.. and tho town was abandoned.

Further particulars of this “desirable”’ property may be obtained .from the Works and Railways Department.