œ. PZ-ECH BY THE PBIME MvINISTZR9 THE H~ T, HON.
R G ' iT'L 3O. EI G O17 CO-AXIAL C., iBLE, 1
T'. I JtIH APTUL. .6
Postmaster-Geneial and vent lemon.
This is i-eally a very remarklrable day bac. Duse it
represents the culmination of a v. ary remiarkable piece of emok
And I am very glad to know, f~ ton my c& Llaettthrar
represented her. e today people who can speak, think, for all-3
the various groups wh-o were responsiblo for thnis ach: levoment,
, le live i~ n such tuirbulent and hurried imes that we
occasionally forget tftat history is still being made even thoug~ h
It is made q 31Jittle more hastil; y thian it used to be mpade0 I
daresay that -if somebodyv were l~ iving today who could say, '" 4e11
my grandfathier had a hand in thie -laying of thie first trans-
At*-laPntac cable" tbis w,. ould be a mnatter of great family pride,
great family satk; isfaction. I hope thcat vo will have enough
imagination in future for those who have contributed to this
enterprise to be able to haand down to tiaeir grandchildren this
wcndcrf'ul constructive t-radition.
I'm very sorry Postia-ster-Gencral -that Sir -4% illiam
Oli. ver can't be hero0He is course, as you know, in Lngland0
And T thiink parliaps I ml . ght br. aJllowocI to depart for one moment
from the theme to tell you that i ha13d a letter from him the
other day. Those oi you whio L,. cw -Sir dilliam Olivor know that he
couldniit be anytair-g ( else but an Englishman: tall. straight,
almost thie Znglisix-man of fCiction, And he -urote_ in Ia lettor to me
that he had arrived in England, and when hae hailed a taxi the
tax-drivter said -to him ' Yhitorc do you coma from?" withL that
charming famili-ar view th-a t ' t. axi.-drivers take in London. He said
'" From A. ustralia". To Vhnicth t aXi-driver said I! Ah. T knew you
werenit an & iglishmoenil To whiici Sir 1j) J. liamu Gliver repl-ieod
" Tao3 right",,
Melbourne to open zc; Dmettiing and 1~ looked at a sectluion of co-. axia.]
cab'le being imade and 1 gazed at it uithi awe, wJith wonder. .1.
di. dn~ t know wnat it was about,, This shows hew out-of.-date I am,,
i\ M* y fr. iends here crauld all explain what a Co-aoxial Cable is. I
can't,, All1 I kno w is that by somne mir-acle 1200 wretched people
can talk on it 4 at ttie 3sVnc t~ lne,, Twielve hiundred telephone
conversaticns! Just thk f it I can look back on CA time
when people raised fine T.) oillts about tapping telephione
convors.-tions. Now h-ow do you tap '. Ill 1 wont go
into it. ( Laughcr) All I know is that I h.-ave been told thiat
the re are 1200 and sometLi-ng pe-: opl)(-wiio will be able to talk
simultaneous! ' ir and by tib e wiza.-dry of the Post Office experts
each ., ril2. be spe_ aki_-ng to the epjpointed person and not to
somebody clso. Now I @ rm all for that as long as they don't all
ring me, up st the same: t-ime
-ur also told th -A-t u~ heres -there are noiw Q, million and
half calls per annum beoon Sydney and Mebourne,, v) hich shows
th attee tw ttsaeV~ tral getting togather, Jin
yer~ tirce there will bc k ml-lion ca. 1ls5 These, o~ f cour-se,
are fabu--lous fi., g-x'ers, B3it the-y all il] lustrate onei of the
ni. raclus of our lifetime,
When. I was a srialJ. klo~ y in the buIsh no-bodyr had ever seen
a motor ve_-hicle, nobody had evLer heard of a telephone; a ra. ilway
tan arr . ved soehtp: c'cai'iou.,., ly conce a wcelk i n no gr eat
harry, and i~ t departed lator on in the s,. men ( 1ayl commurinications
were scanty-, mail day ,. as a ;: i; r1-at e'et~ Sinco thc:. t tijme look
at the things that hanve hae:-rpe_ ne>? -art. y., or mostly, in the,
field of c1ci mriai1_ cmu2ctdn os opro.
Lockl. at tle enormous enanges thjat havo occurred irn flight, i~ n
intcrrnctiorlal travoli sota eoe-cae 1Vlterl; lh
hou yself T h-ve no doa . t that mly successor will be lea-wlrigc
Sychney at n certain ti.. mo ono day and arriving in San Fra:-ncisco1-
beofore he left Syd-ney. Ta 1. s is A-, emontary. All thecse thing,
have changed perosonal contact Croun thL or
Then we, hale coirui c " tion in other ways so that a
photograph * taken in London this after-;-nocn riley vory iweol1 be in a
newspaper in Australia iGomoirow , ffternloon: so 7we~ have the
mra rcle~ s of tejlox and the toepriritcr systems wh-ich translate,
somoJhat rouglyoly, !.. ihatu somebody ha's said hPere into w,. hat som~ ebody
reads Cat the other end,
Now ' LaVve this miracl-e of direct voice to voice
co . mun icc tion, I have been tol. Dnd no doubt
aUthoritatively, that; thie route of the co-xa. cable from
Sydne-y to-c Melbourne is approx imately the route that waCs tLakLen by
Flur. e and Hovsll so many years agThis is a fasci. niting
thought th. at in thosa days bravc men, skilful men had to set out
on journeys into an urknown countr-, y and arteor mon vrhs arrive at a
destL-inat1, ion and th.-at today they stiould be raermorialised by cair-ns
of. stones that "' Hurme and Ilovell pasSed. this wa" on a certain
date,, Today, -ArithL the almost incrodilble skil. l th.. t h-as baen
devlopd, he agnficntcc-operation that has xited f rom the
most ordinary man si. 4tting onl the ai of -a trornch digger to the
most skilled planzner and oeineer at the top., all th--is superb
teamworiz has produced. a rsu so that alrea-. dy, if the spirit
Moved ia I coul. d ring direct somebody in Sydney, and I am assured
b. 17 my coileaguoe thtboforo. wce are much oldar the re will be
direct subscribor to subscriber calling between Melbourne and
Oydney., And of courseo this is maerely thle be.-inning. This is Inot
the end. in duo cou2-se vil, in our countey, not over rich-in
people2 in nuribers., but Niery i. Jich in resource3s and spirit and
entorrise r1avo aSyrstem-. of (. omm--unication be~ tw. een thie _ oLeo
Ailstra]. ia which, 1 vonture, to say, r. ill be teenvy of m,: ost people
in thei~ rorld,, Thiis is not done just by sol-e. original decision,
Thnis is done by a co~ inat ioni of jolly hard ,., ork and ir.-nenso
sll. And today are witnessing. the fi'rst culrmina: tion of this
mag ificent col: binatiaL.
cir., it is a orotty di ffi cult vrorld. T isa4or fl
of rmisud,.; rst-andings. It is a-ror. L-d in iwh-ich one nation can
1--, ua: Lrrl so : eCsily, nd accasion.-ly so blindly, vrith. anoth,_ r,,
3ut I for one believe that -the moe e ot trDg,_ ther the happicr
we -,. ill ba, thla t t he m ore we c. ' n c-or. mun-icate diroct with othecr
p,: ople i~ n this Iwarld, the im. ore % we hoa r theiir oi) jcc~ s anrd
-sense t" heir feelin,-: th-e m-oroe di-1spose-d will webe to understand
thtte e2owo thc nton tht wo -ather~ disliked turns out
to be rather a bott:) r fe]. J1oW9 or a bettor nntion, ttan w. xe had
supc& Ta e) liing in tlis ccntuary o f L i -racls the
greatest of all. tile E. i-acles h~ s beeln the de velopme: nt of
comunicati-on -in the-i : ilesa. 1 in thec voi ce, in the Oar, in the aye,
An hat, S'ir,~ is wny I riua delighted to be here today
: nd to do ;' ht~ rit " Is -DU WanG ne. to do in connection w. ith
thi. s rom-,-arka bic devolorvment imn An1s trali : s connTunietin
ast-o.-cy. ( A