Insulator grown into Rimu tree near Dough Town August 2012
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I snapped this picture of an old telegraph insulator at least 3m up a rimu tree. It is beside the water race and track at Dough Town in the Arahura area. This telegraph line was used from the early 1880's until the early 1900's. The line ran from the Humphreys Gully hotel which was also the Post & Telegraph Office and the end of the dray road. The line followed alongside the horse track or water race for at least 20kms up the Arahura River. The line terminus appears to have been an old hut site a little west of Prices Creek. (The horse track & telegraph line deviate from the water race in some places where there were tunnels or sections of fluming)
The upper portion of the old telegraph line was close to the current track to Lower Arahura hut upstream of where you cross to the TL at the Cess Pool swingbridge.
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glennj One trip I picked up off the ground a telegraph insulator beside the track just west of Dough Town. I've have seen others further up the water race track beyond Milltown almost as far as Prices Creek. It appears that the telegraph line ran beside the track for over 20km's but there is little sign of it these days as most of the gear was recycled after the race fell into disuse.
*Some of the insulators rather than being on cross arms atop poles were attached to gudgeons hammered about 3-4m up live trees. [as per the above photo] A smattering of other examples of this practice still exist near & east of Dough Town but some are almost totally intergrown into the trees now. Years ago I saw the same thing near Big River in Fiordland along the old telegraph line that went to the Puysegur Point lighthouse.
2 September 2012