the progressive developments in wireless theory and experimentation by maxwell, hertz, marconi and others were not only described in the professional journals, but captured the public imagination to such an extent that each new success was widely reported in the worldwide press. australia was no exception when it came to this public fascination. the equipment necessary to duplicate the smaller scale experiments was not difficult to manufacture and similar experiments were soon being undertaken in australian laboratories and then public demonstrations in all australian states. the experimenters can be categorised into pmg, military, academic and private experimenters.