The Broome Cable House opened on 9 April 1889 and is now known as the Broome Court House. Constructed in 1879, the facility was used as a
cable station until March 1914.
It is listed on the
Western Australia State Heritage Register.
The building was occupied by November 1889 and included rooms for the cable station and separate living quarters. Vegetable gardens were developed around the building and on the adjacent lot, for use in cooking which was carried out in a separate kitchen building. The kitchen has been demolished but the floor slab remains and is now used for the toilet block and store.
[Extract from a report by Dr Cathie Clement (Perth) and Heritage and Conservation Professionals]
The cable station had a tennis court, a billiard room, and servants to look after the British staff and their guests. It was thus an elegant and attractive place that featured prominently in the early social life of the town.
Cable Beach
Cable Beach is a stretch of white sand beach on the eastern Indian Ocean and the name of the surrounding suburb in Broome, Western Australia. Cable Beach was named after the telegraph cable laid between Broome and Java in 1889. Low cliffs of ...
, where the cable reached land is named after this cable that connected
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
to the cable station.
Construction of cable station
In the late 1880s, the small, former
colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
settlement of
Broome located on
Roebuck Bay
Roebuck Bay is a bay on the coast of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Its entrance is bounded in the north by the town of Broome, and in the south by Bush Point and Sandy Point. It is named after , the ship captained by William ...
in the
north of Western Australia consisted of two stores and a few scattered houses. It had no road or rail connection to the south of the
Colony
In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...
and depended on limited sea transport for its supplies and communication. It was not until 1872 that
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
was connected overseas by
submarine telegraphic cable, when a cable was laid from
Banjoewangie in Java to
Darwin. A second cable, paralleling the first, was laid in 1880. Due to frequent breaks in the cable as a result of
submarine volcanic activity, there arose an urgent need to lay a third cable, away from the
seismic zone.
In February 1889, a
submarine telegraph cable was laid by
cable laying ship CS Seine to connect
Banjoewangie, Java and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and was landed on what is today known as
Cable Beach
Cable Beach is a stretch of white sand beach on the eastern Indian Ocean and the name of the surrounding suburb in Broome, Western Australia. Cable Beach was named after the telegraph cable laid between Broome and Java in 1889. Low cliffs of ...
.
Between 3 and 9 March 1889, the prefabricated ironwork and timber making up the building for the cable station was transported to
Broome as deck cargo on the CS Seine. Due to depth limitations in
Roebuck Bay
Roebuck Bay is a bay on the coast of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Its entrance is bounded in the north by the town of Broome, and in the south by Bush Point and Sandy Point. It is named after , the ship captained by William ...
the material was gradually offloaded onto a smaller pearling vessel, which was being sheltered in
Broome over the
cyclone
In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...
season.
It was then taken up the tidal creek, Dampier Creek and unceremoniously thrown overboard at high tide. The sections were then retrieved at low tide, dragged manually up the creek, over the mud and stored on the beach, prior to being transported to the Station site and erected on the land now bounded by Frederick, Hamersley, Stewart and Weld Streets.
A comment in the Engineers report stated, "that it seemed a pity to treat polished teak in this way, but no other method was practicable and no real harm was done though the appearance suffered a little." The Chinese who had collected and loaded the
teak
Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters (panicl ...
in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, travelled with it, to erect the house and it was those Chinese labourers who had to cart everything across the mudflats.
[Extract from a report by Max Anderson Feb 2004]
Connection between Cable House and cable station
The
underground cable
In civil engineering, undergrounding is the replacement of overhead cables providing electric power, electrical power or telecommunications, with underground cables. It helps in wildfire prevention and in making the power lines less susceptible ...
from the Cable House to the cable station was laid on the southern side of MacPherson Road, a road constructed originally for this purpose. The cable then ran down Barlee Street, entering the northwest corner of the cable station at the intersection of Frederick Street and Weld Street. Only a short section of MacPherson Road now remains, being the street that now leads into the
Broome International Airport
Broome International Airport is a regional airport located west of the Broome GPO, Western Australia.
Broome International Airport is the regional hub of the northwestern part of Western Australia. It is considered the gateway to the Kimberl ...
. Barlee Street no longer exists.
History of the building
Cable station April 1889 to March 1914
Australian Army
The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...
July 1914 to 1918
Court House 6 September 1921 to present
The building was placed on the Western Australian
State Register of Heritage Places in 2001.
The Cable Company Operations
On the 9th of April 1889 when the first paid cable was sent to London by Mr E Keane of
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
. Many employees of the
(E.E.T Co) were recruited at a young age, 15 to 16 years. They were given rigorous training in
cable telegraphy
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
and on the satisfactory completion of a probationary period were liable to be transferred to any of the Company’s worldwide network of
cable stations and ships
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
.
The Company set high standards of proficiency and behaviour and failure to maintain them could lead to dismissal. This was made especially difficult given the moral standards of the time and the harsh tropical heat in north west Australia.
But no matter how difficult the conditions, many operators stayed with the cable service all their working lives.
The end of the Broome cable station
In 1914 the
Broome cable station was taken out of service after being in operation for 25 years when the
(referred to as the E.E.T. Company) built a new station at
Cottesloe (near
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
, WA) with a cable link to
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
via the
Cocos Islands.
It served this purpose until March 1914. Operating for 25 years until closure, most cables were subsequently recovered.
The year 1914 was particularly bad for
Broome because the
outbreak of war ruined the European market for
pearl shell
Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner seashell, shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and Iridescence, ...
. Many of the men from the town enlisted and there were fears that the
German ship Emden would raid
Broome and destroy the local
wireless station (built in 1913 for
ship-to-shore communication).
There was little demand for the property when conditions returned to normal after the war, the buildings the government used for justice purposes were no longer adequate and the cable station was acquired for conversion to a courthouse, which opened on 6 September 1921.
The cable station was purchased from the telegraph company for the sum of 3000 pounds and after a further expenditure of 1100 pounds, converted into a court house.
The size and fabric of the station were not changed and it stands today in 3 acres of landscaped tropical gardens, a magnificent iron and timber building, as an excellent example of 19th century Colonial Architecture. While not of the same high architectural standard, the Tennant Creek OTL Station was completed in 1872 and is still standing today.
Current use
It is currently used as a court house by the Western Australian Government's Department Of Justice, and the grounds are used for community markets every Saturday during the wet season and every Saturday and Sunday during the dry (tourist season).
See also
*
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cable House
Telegraph stations in Australia
1889 establishments in Australia
Buildings and structures completed in 1879
State Register of Heritage Places in the Shire of Broome
Buildings and structures in Broome, Western Australia