Charles Todd's Magnificent Obsession: The epic race to connect Australia to the world

Before the NBN, before the Snowy River Scheme, the greatest infrastructure achievement in Australian history was the completion of the Overland Telegraph. Its singing wires traversed the continent north to south, including desert landscapes not previously trodden by white men, under an onerous contract that demanded its 3000 kilometres would be completed in eighteen months.

This is the definitive account of the construction of the Overland Telegraph, which followed the rough maps that Stuart...