William Cracknell
CRACKNELL, William John, MSTE (1832-1896)
William Cracknell, pioneer telegraph engineer, was born in London and migrated to New Zealand in 1855. Later he came to Queensland where he was appointed Telegraph Station Master for Ipswich in April 1861, following the completion of the first telegraph line in Queensland - from Brisbane to Ipswich. He advanced to the position of Superintendent of Electric Telegraphs for Queensland in November 1863, his elder brother E.C. Cracknell being Telegraph Superintendent for New South Wales at that time. The appointment was made permanent in 1865.
Due to Cracknell's initiative there was a remarkable development of the telegraph system over the next seventeen years. Lines were extended to distant parts of Queensland, first to the commercially-important seaports along the coast and then inland to the western, central, north and north-west areas. This was an accomplishment requiring courage, determination and skill in coping with an environment hostile to men and inimical to materials. His close personal interest in the extension of the telegraph system is evidenced from an inspection trip he made in 1865 which took 175 days, involving travelling over 10000 km by land and water. This was also the year in which the first submarine cable in Queensland was laid between Brisbane and Cape Moreton via Cleveland, and Stradbroke and Moreton islands.
Cracknell was most anxious to have the cable terminal of the proposed telegraph service linking Australia to England located in Queensland and in 1871, as a preliminary step, he secured approval to extend the Queensland system from Cardwell to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Further, he personally inspected the proposed route by riding the 700 km between these places. In the event the cable terminal was located in Darwin and in 1872 direct telegraphic communication between Europe and Queensland was achieved via Darwin. Because of the frequent breakdowns of the international service, Cracknell pressed for an additional cable and in 1877 he strongly recommended that Queensland should assume the whole responsibility for laying a cable from the north coast of Queensland to Bangkok at a cost of about one million pounds.
He was clearly interested in the introduction of newly-developed equipment. In 1876 he installed Wheatstone's automatic (paper band) instruments in Brisbane to improve the speed of transmission between Brisbane and Sydney where they were already in use. The initial difficulties were overcome a year or so later. In his report for the year 1877 he refers to "some very interesting experiments with the Telephone... at my office on 26th January (1878) ... The instruments used on this occasion were roughly manufactured in Brisbane and not well adapted for the purpose...Professor Bell, the inventor of the Telephone, is sending me two of his improved instruments and, on their arrival, further experiments with this scientific wonder will be made.
In 1878 a minor threat of war in Europe resulted in the setting up of the Torpedo and Signalling Corps in Queensland of which Cracknell was gazetted Captain. In the same year the new telegraph office was opened in Queen Street and it is recorded that by this time the eight stations existing when he was appointed had increased to 148. However, soon afterwards the Postal and Telegraph branches were amalgamated and it seems that he was unhappy with the change which required him to channel correspondence and reports through the Under Secretary of the new Department. In 1880 he resigned and moved to New South Wales where he turned to rural interests. In the same year the first telephone exchange in Queensland was opened in the Brisbane Post Office
Cracknell was a Member of the Society of Telegraph Engineers, London, which in 1888 became the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He married a Miss Hair and there were two daughters, the family living at Annerley on a 20ha property where Cracknell Road is named after them; he died in Sydney in 1896.
References:
Eminent Queensland Engineers Vol 1 is available here.
P.J. Gribble, 'What hath God Wrought' (Telecom Aust.,1980);
M.M. Rea, •Centenary of the Brisbane GPO' (Brlsb, 1972);
V&P (LA Qldl, Annual Reports to the Postmaster General up to 1879.
