Beechworth 'Morsecodian' sends telegram to King, gets gracious reply

When Mr Nette heard the sad news of Queen Elizabeth II's passing in September last year, he and his team decided to send their condolences to the palace.

But, rather than jump on the internet as hundreds of thousands of others of well-wishers did, Mr Nette fired up the 170-year-old Morse code apparatus at the old telegraph station.

"We sent a message by Morse code to our counterpart in Bendigo who then turned it into an old fashioned telegram to send to London," Mr Nette said.

"This all happened on September 11 and a bit of time passed until we got the reply on Friday last week.

"It did give us all a bit of a thrill - but we probably should have read it a bit more closely."

Mr Nette said such correspondence is enshrined in strict protocol.

"One of our volunteers here, Jim Mitchell, told me there was a bit of a boo boo in the message, but it must have been clearly understood," Mr Nette said.

Mr Mitchell clarified the matter. "Well, we were unsure of whether he should be addressed as His Royal Highness or His Majesty at that time since the Queen had just died," Mr Mitchell said. "We're still not sure what the protocol should have been."

Nevertheless, when the gracious telegram from King Charles arrived - by post - Mr Nette said he and members of the Morsecodian Fraternity of Beechworth were "tickled pink".

"We might not have followed strict protocol, but if they think we're some sort of rebels, that's OK," he said.

"It gave us all a thrill, it was lovely to use such old technology to correspond like that, that's what we're about really, keeping this method of communication alive.

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"A lot of the young ones come in here and have no idea what a rotary dial telephone is, so to see this old apparatus is quite fascinating to them."

Mr Nette was the subject of the documentary Keeping It Alive, a film made in 2017 that chronicles the history of Morse code communications in Australia. He said the Beechworth station is the last of its kind in Australia and attracted interest from school groups and tourists, many surprised to see such old-fashioned methods still being used, albeit on a small scale. He recalled a filmed challenge between teenagers using SMS pitted against a Morse code operator, a contest of speed and accuracy to convey a message.

"The Morse code operator won the contest," Mr Nette said. "But using Morse code is a special skill - it took me about two and half years to become proficient in it. It's like learning a new language."

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