There was some discussion in 1858 about approving the construction of a single telegraph line from Sydney to Bathurst. After calling tenders in early 1859, the go-ahead was given for the telegraph line from Penrith up to Bathurst and by September the same year, the line was all but completed.

Finally, on October 22, 1859, it arrived in Howick Street and was opened on December 29 - but they had no building! Tenders for the erection of a telegraph station at Bathurst were called and had to be in by October 8, 1860.

The telegraph office was constructed beside the School of Arts in Howick Street, where it remained until their office was opened in Russell Street in December 1877 in the court house building.

By May 1898, the number of subscribers to the local telephone exchange was growing each week and it was anticipated that the century would soon be reached. There were already 90 subscribers connected. Since the last list of subscribers had been issued, connections had been made to the Park Hotel, Mr W.J. Crane’s, Mrs J. Smith’s ‘Llanarth’, Mr J.H. Stocks (Eglinton), the Commercial Bank, Mr J.M. Ryan’s, and an extension was about to be made to ‘Eurona’, the residence of Mr Norman Suttor.

The bureau, in connection with the exchange, was open to the public. Non-subscribers could, by depositing 6d in the slot, have communication with any of the subscribers to the Bathurst Exchange.

In January 1888, at the Bathurst Council meeting, it was resolved that Mr Cracknell of the Electric Telegraph Department be written to provide a price to connect the Bathurst Town Hall to the new gasworks. It was felt that to do the wiring “in the bush” would cost about £30 per mile. It was felt that it was a necessity cost due to the probable convenience for the public of a telephone to communicate with this department.

They then considered the Superintendent of Telegraphs in Bathurst quoting on the installation of a telephone between the council’s pumping station and reservoirs. The quote stated it would cost £64, with £19 for the instruments and fittings, together with an annual maintenance fee, as per attached copy of the regulations, and payable annually in advance. If more than two instruments were required, £9 for each additional would be charged.

By October 1907, the exchange had outgrown its capacity and plans and specifications for a proposed new switch room were on display at the Bathurst Exchange. The department intended to make the room larger, which would enable a better service to be given. They stated that the rate under the new toll system was £4 ten shillings per year, the subscriber being allowed 1000 calls every half-year, which averaged about six a day.

Like the NBN today, the phone systems also had problems, such as in June 1908, when communications between Sydney and Bathurst by means of the long-distance telephone were interrupted due to a defect in the line somewhere on the Sydney side of the Blue Mountains.

In November 1911, Mr E.P.S. Jones wrote to The Bathurst Times stating that “surely our local Council has sufficient influence to persuade the authorities to install a couple or more telephones about the town”.

It was stated in September 1918, during World War One, that the Bathurst telephone girls were helping to “win the war” as they had been given an extra job. They were attending to the gas lights outside the post office and thus combining telephoning work with lamplighting.