Peter Dee passed on the sad news of George’s passing on or about Wednesday 16th August 2017 after losing his battle against several illnesses over recent years.

The details of a Funeral Service will be held for George are as follows:

WHEN:               2:00pm Thursday 24th August 2017

WHERE:            South Chapel, Northern Suburbs Crematorium

199 Delhi Road, North Ryde NSW

In lieu of floral tributes, people are asked to consider a donation to the Cancer Council, Kidney Health Australia or

any cat-related charity (my parents have been cat breeders and cat lovers for over 40 years).

It is with great sadness that I pass on news from Barry Stockbridge that Noel passed away today.

Noel was a big man and he had been suffering from dementia for at least the last 12 months. His wife,  Marion, had been unable to look after him so he moved to a Nursing Home in Old Bar near Taree in NSW and it was from there that he passed away this morning.

Details of the funeral service for Noel will be passed on when they are made known to us.

May He Rest In Peace.

From Laurie McIllree:

Attached are a few photos of OTC, and also a shot of Tumon Bay, now loaded with hotels and strip malls. We sure lived there at a good time.

A friend of mine who lived on Guam and was known by a lot of OTC folk visited there last week (circa 1/8/17) and sent photos of the station and the area where the houses once stood. All of the houses are gone and now overgrown by vegetation.

These photos may be of interest to past folk who worked at the station.

Cheers

From Bruce Boardman:

Hi, Thanks for Laurie’s pics of Guam. We were so taken with the place that Liz & I + Ben McGee and Janine, went back there Nov 2009.

We called at the cable station which is now owned by AT&T, and as expected they wouldn’t let us go inside for security reasons. However they didn’t care if we looked at the houses. They had erected a cyclone wire fence along the road but gave us the key to a gate. The houses were still there but obscured by the jungle, and I suspect they are still there.

Attached are my photos (I have lots). It was sad to see the state of the houses which were once so good. We lived in number 105 directly in front of the cable station and the house pics are of our house. I cant understand why the US air force never used these homes as I believe they were on their land. There was a terrific view over Tumon bay from the back verandah.

Bruce

Jim Harte took a few photos during his recent trip to Broome.

Many thanks to Jim Harte for sharing this link that provides me with some interesting reading as I had not come across it before.

https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/portal/system/files/engineering-heritage-australia/nomination-title/Carnarvon%20Tracking%20Station%20Nomination.pdf

The document gives an outline of the history of the Carnarvon tracking station (AWA/NASA), and the raison d’etre for OTC Carnarvon.

It’s a nice adjunct to the information previously provided by people like Gus Berzins, the on-site engineer when the satellite comms station was built back in 66.

Ted Bastow has advised us of the passing of Doreen Hansen, widow of Tony Hansen, who passed away at her nursing home in WA last Friday.

No further details are available at this time.

Doreen accompanied Tony to various outstations for OTC and she also worked in HO as a Tea Lady for a while in the 1970’s.

Ted and his wife met Doreen for the first time in Port Moresby and became lifetime friends from then on.

May She Rest In Peace

Alan started with OTC (A) in Lonsdale Street Melbourne as Traffic Assistant Gr. 1. on 17 April 1961 and resigned on 16 August 1968.  R.I.P.

Funeral Service:

WHEN: 12:00 pm Friday 7th July 2017

WHERE: St. Stephen’s Anglican Church,

Corner Phyllis Street and Warruga Avenue, Bayswater Vic.

Devoted husband of Pam cherished father and father-in-law of Kellie and Sean, Jamie and Vivien.

Much loved Grandpa of Jasmine, Portia and Harley.

You left us unexpectedly, alone and very sad but with a lifetime of memories.

R.I.P.

Robert Hall

OTVA VIC

Many thanks to John Iacus-Pisco for supplying these: