[LINK] 18 January 1960 - working on the sydney-melbourne coax

[Roger Clarke]

On 21/1/22 9:36 am, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
> Apologies for the facebook link:

Terrible isn't it, that the posting is on the inside of the walled
garden.  So much for Web 1.0, and cultural history.  The barbarians won.


>> #OnThisDay 18 January 1960, in a tunnel beneath Castlereagh Street in
>> Sydney CBD, a technician is installing the racks (top right of pic)
>> that will carry the £3 million coaxial cabel from the City South
>> telephone exchange on the start of its 590 miles route to Melbourne -
>> other cables carry existing telephone lines...
> https://www.facebook.com/heritagefornsw/posts/3121277871448998

It would be interesting to know how well and how long that cable coped.

And whether the tunnelling was future-proofed, i.e. capable of having
additional and replacement cables economically laid / drawn.

And whether and when it was augmented, then replaced, by optical fibre.

(Or whether, when fibre took over - early 1980s? - it was easier and
cheaper to tunnel-and-lay anew).

Hopefully these stories are being written, and published (and not just
gifted to 'IT platforms').


(And don't start me on the capture of family history data ...).


-- 
Roger Clarke                            mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
T: +61 2 6288 6916   http://www.xamax.com.au  http://www.rogerclarke.com

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University