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 Blackwell's father,Thomas Bradshaw, was the officer-in- charge 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 days-only thirty years after the construction of the OverlandTelegraph 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 reflectsa deep love for the country and its people.