From Data to News: Weather Reporting,Telegraphy and the Press in Colonial Australia

Abstract

This article examines the role of telegraphy and newspapers in the provision of weather news during the late nineteenth century. In order to trace the transformation from data to news, the discussion begins by documenting the formation of both technical and professional meteorological networks, at a time when government observers across the colonies began to compile joint reports for an expanding reading public. In this respect, its focus will be primarily on the use of the inter-colonial telegraph, and upon two influential observers operating in different Australian colonies: Charles Todd in South Australia and Clement Wragge in Queensland. In order to explore the development of colonial weather networks in the age of the telegraph, the article examines the protracted press and professional controversy that arose between these two media personalities, and maps the transformation of weather telegrams into news by late colonial newspapers.