Southport Cable Hut (former)

This 1950s brick hut is the only remnant of the Southport terminal of the Pacific Cable, laid in 1902, linking Australia to England via Norfolk Island, Fiji, Fanning Island and Vancouver. The cable ran under the Nerang River to the main cable station in Bauer Street Southport, now the site of Villa La Salle retirement village. The laying of this international communications cable was a major engineering achievement of its time. The first cable hut appears to have been a corrugated iron structure on a brick or concrete base. It was built on the dunes immediately across Main Beach Parade from this surviving hut. In 1912, Southport handled communications for all over Australia. Technological changes in 1923 relegated Southport to a repeater station. The first hut was constantly threatened by ongoing beach erosion to Narrowneck. In November 1937, the cables either side of Narrowneck were re-laid because of the erosion. The hut was eventually lost to the sea. A new brick hut was built in the reserve closer to the river, early in 1951. This hut retains remnants of the Pacific Cable and a pressure gauge. The Bauer Street buildings were later relocated to the campus of The Southport School.