Maybe you are looking for Charles Lafayette Todd

Sir Charles Todd (born 7 July 1826 in London, died Adelaide 29 January 1910) worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory 1841-1847 and the Cambridge University observatory from 1847-1854. He then worked on telegraphy and undersea cables until engaged by the government of South Australia as the colony's superintendent of telegraphs and government astronomer.

Todd, along with his 18 year-old wife Alice (after whom Alice Springs is named), arrived in Adelaide on 5 November 1855. They were accompanied by Todd's assistant, 24 year-old Edward Cracknell and his wife. (Cracknell subsequently became superintendent of telegraphs in New South Wales).

Todd, and his counterpart in Victoria, proceeded to link the two colonies' telegraph systems near Mount Gambier in July 1858.

In January 1863 Todd addressed the Adelaide Philosophical Society about the possibility of building telegraph routes that would link to an overseas cable. In 1870, Todd was appointed as South Australian Post-Master General and persuaded the government to build an overland telegraph from Port Augusta in the south to Port Darwin in the north. The South Australian parliament passed an enabling bill which caused consternation in the eastern Australian colonies who were unhappy that they had been by-passed by the South Australian plan.

Todd commenced construction of the overland telegraph line in the face of great natural difficulties. (One team of workers took eight months just to reach their work site, others became bogged in the tropical wet season.) The 3200 km line was completed on 22 August 1872 and connected to a British under-sea cable at Darwin in October 1872. Todd returned to Adelaide for a banquet and a knighthood.

In 1886 Todd returned to Great Britain, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Meteorological Society and of the Society of Electrical Engineers . Todd continued in his duties to posts and telegraphs in South Australia, until the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia took over all such services on 1 March 1901 and Todd became a federal public servant at age 75. He died at his summer home, Semaphore, near Adelaide, on 29 January 1910, and was buried at North Road cemetery, Adelaide, on 31 January.