12 February, 2012 4:25PM AEDT

Australia's forgotten radio pioneer: the amazing Henry Sutton

A World Radio Day special on Ballarat's legendary inventor Henry Sutton and a claim he built the world's first portable radio; a new biography promises to upturn the recognised history of Australian telecommunications and reveal century-old secrets of his work for the Australian Navy.

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Instead of celebration or recognition, one of Australia's earliest radio pioneers was met with the threat of charges being laid by the Postmaster General - before being excused on the grounds that he was working secretly with the Australian Navy to develop cutting-edge radio technology.

Henry Sutton's great-great grand-daughter and biographer Lorrayne Branch is determined to uncover the evidence of his classified work on long-range radio technology with the Royal Australian Navy, as part of her biography revealing the full extent of his contribution to Australian electronics and communications technology.

Henry Sutton had already risen to prominence in the 1880s, inventing, innovating, demonstrating and (rarely) patenting technology related to telephones, light bulbs, dynamos, photo printing, and his most celebrated theory, in 1885 - of transmitting moving images via the 'telefane', which John Logie Baird would later use as the foundation for developing the concept of 'television' some 35 years later.

Victoria's chief electrical engineer Walter Jenvy is said to have sent Australia's first wireless signal, a message stating "Hearty greetings of welcome from Queenscliff" to the escort ship accompanying the Duke and Duchess of York aboard the HMS Ophiry, sailing to Melbourne for the opening of the first Federal Parliament in 1901 - pre-dating Marconi's disputed broadcast of the letter "S" across the Atlantic by some months. (The response to Jenvy's message is quoted to have been "Thanks; but where's Queenscliff?")

Australia's first radio "broadcast" is credited to George Fisk, who broadcast the Australian national anthem from one building to another at the Royal Society of NSW in 1919, nineteen years after the Brazillian priest Father Roberto Landell de Moura demonstrated the broadcast of his voice through an electromechanical microphone and a wave transmitter.

But in early 1908, Henry Sutton, having returned to Australia and become a senior member of the family business, moved to Malvern on the east side of Melbourne, building a new brand new structure in his backyard which would have ramifications within the Postmaster General's office.

"He put a radio tower in, which was about twice the size of the house, and it had 2,000 feet of steel cable... he had the world's record for the longest radio transmission during that time. Many people were trying to break his record..." says Lorrayne Branch, a descendant of Henry Sutton working on the biography of her great-great uncle.

Having met with Nikola Tesla in London in 1892 while attending the legendary Serbian-American's lectures on the sending of wireless energy, Sutton had begun to work on theories of sending images wirelessly. It was work he already had a strong interest in; his previously documented inventions had included the development of technology to reproduce photos for newspapers.

In 1906 Henry Sutton would be part of the official demonstration of wireless telegraphy between Queenscliff and Devonport, when a representative of the Marconi Corporation sought to convince the Federal Government it needed to buy the Marconi wireless telegraphy system.

According to Lorrayne Branch, it was Henry Sutton's experiments in transmitting images wirelessly that brought him to radio and upon a new concept which she is still trying to unravel.

"In this process he actually discovered a new form of [radio] wave... he came up with his Sutton system of Australian wireless. He immediately contacted the Defence force which conducted experiments. In 1908 they talked to the Great White Fleet as they were coming to Australia... Of course when the Great White Fleet arrived in Australia, they came knocking on Henry's door, because their wireless system was not that good..."

While he was talking with members of the Defence forces about his new technology, Henry Sutton was falling foul of the civilian bureaucrats, who were considering prosecuting him for broadcasting without proper permits or licenses.

"They spent two years in argument, letters back and forth and even threatening to put Henry in jail; this upset the apple cart with the Defence force and they actually considered at one stage giving him a commission in the force so he would come under their rule and not under the Postmaster General..."

"I have a letter from 1909 from George Augustine Taylor ... he was writing about this event and how scientists of the day were being treated and ignored, and why there's no industry here because nobody wants to invest... he was actually talking about Henry because he had learned the Postmaster General was about to throw Henry in jail for discovering his wireless system..." she says.

Henry Sutton was granted Australia's second ever Experimental Radio License by Victoria's Post-Master General on October 7, 1909.

The photo attached to this article is of Henry Sutton with what Lorrayne Branch contends is the world's first portable radio - built by Henry in 1910, a decade before the world's first retail portable radios - the 'portaphone' - were marketed by the Bureau of Standards in Washington.

Lorrayne's mission continues through the archives, piecing together the information about Henry Sutton's many inventions, including telephone handsets, cars, and his pioneering work with long distance radio transmissions.

"Because a lot of it was top secret, we're still digging through all the records, because all the records were broken up... I have some clues... we'll learn more about the wireless system, because details were not disclosed to the public, although it was announced many times, nobody was told exactly how it works, and we're hoping to find that information."

Lorrayne Branch is planning to publish the biography of Henry Sutton later in 2012, marking the centenary of his death.

Edited audio and quotes taken from a conversation recorded live for ABC Ballarat with Jarrod Watt at the Ballarat Mining Exchange, May 07, 2011 as part of the Ballarat Heritage weekend.