THE use of pigeons to transmit messages dates back at least 3,000 years when the ancient Egyptians used them to transmit messages over some distance.
Staying on the same continent, in 2009, as a parody, a South African IT company based in Durban pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a data packed 4 GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country’s biggest internet service provider. The pigeon, Winston, took an hour and eight minutes to carry the data 80km. In all, the data transfer took two hours, six minutes, and 57 seconds, the same amount of time it took to transfer four percent of the data over the ADSL.
Using pigeons to transmit messages is no longer being used however, the fancy of pigeon racing has been popular for almost 200 years.
Members of the Goulburn Valley Pigeon Club are a small group of pigeon fanciers who breed and race their birds across distances ranging from 120km to 1,200km, which surprisingly, can be completed in one day.
The club has rooms in Packham Street, Shepparton and anyone who might be interested in finding out more about breeding and racing pigeons can contact the president of the club, Tony Sofra on 0408 577 340.
