By the mid-1850s, Australia had been transformed from a penal settlement into one of the richest outposts of the British Empire. But one thraldom remained - the tyranny of distance from the rest of the world. The six months required for exchange of information with Britain - by ship - ill-served the requirements of the colonial administration and starved the colonists of news of events and people 'at home'. The first offer to build an electric telegraph link, made by an English would-be contractor, was rejected by the government as being unrealistic, which was hardly surprsiing since at the time, there was less than 50 kilometres of telegraph line in Australia. The world's longest submarine cable was only slightly longer. Yet less than twenty years later, the the end of a copper wire connection with Britain. via Asia and the Middle East was landed at Darwin: the overthrow of Australia's thraldom began. Illustrated with black and white photographs.