Wireless politics

On 12 July 1906, representatives of Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company staged a demonstration of the new medium of wireless telegraphy across Bass Strait, between Point Lonsdale in Victoria and Devonport in Tasmania. A special train was organised from Melbourne for the Governor-General, the Prime Minister, most of the cabinet and members of the young Australian Parliament, who deferred debate that day on important industrial legislation. The event and its aftermath provided a striking illustration of the relationship between politics and communications. Political enthusiasm for the idea of new communications technology ran well ahead of the capacity to make lasting decisions about how it should be deployed.