A stereoscope of James Lawrence Stapleton, Victorian telegraph station master at Mount Gambier.

Stereoscopy, stereoscopic imaging or 3-D (three-dimensional) imaging is any technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual information or creating the illusion of depth in an image. The illusion of depth in the image is created by presenting a slightly different image to each eye. Three-dimensional imaging was first invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1840.

In the Northern Territory on 16 August 1872, Charles Todd opened the Barrow Creek repeater station which formed part of the Overland Telegraph network. It was one of 15 relay stations across Australia linking the country to Europe for the first time.

In 1874 James Stapleton was the station master at Barrow Creek when it was attacked by local Kaytetye Aborigines. The attack resulted in the deaths of Stapleton, John Franks and the wounding of Ernest Flint and a young Aboriginal man who worked at the station. The incident may have been caused by the treatment of Aboriginal women and the fencing off a vital waterhole during a drought. Shortly afterwards a newly arrived mounted police constable led a punitive hunt for the perpetrators which resulted in the Skull Creek massacre of ninety local Aboriginal people, including women and children.

Stapleton, James Lawrence (1904 - 1979)

Brewster, Sir David The stereoscope: its history, theory, and construction, with its application to the fine and useful arts and to education London: J. Murray, 1870

Cato, J The story of the camera in Australia Melbourne: Georgian House, 1955

Dalzell, J.M. Practical stereoscopic photography London: The Technical Press ltd., 1936

Robinson, Julie A century in focus: South Australian photography, 1840s-1940s Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia, 2007

Barrow Creek gravestones, National Library's Picture Australia

Barrow Creek Northern Territory, memorial to telegraph workers, SLSA South Australiana Collection B

Overland telegraph memorial, West Terrace cemetery, Adelaide, SLSA South Australiana Collection B 3005

Residents of Mount Gambier: James Lawrence Stapleton Image of James Stapleton (1865), SLSA South Australiana Collection

Stereoscopy Wikipedia