John Morrison has passed on the sad news of the passing of Bill Martin.

A little bad news to report, Bill Martin passed away 6am 17^th March, he was 89.

He worked for the PMG prior to joining the ranks of OTC and worked in the S.O.R from 1961-1989

He played Rugby League and Cricket way back in the 60’s when O.T.C was a great place to work  !!

Bill had been in poor health since having a stroke some years ago. He was in St George Hospital suffering from U.T.I. and some blood problems and then caught Covid.

He is survived by his wife Dawn and sons Stephen and David.

There will be no funeral as such, probably a memorial afternoon celebration of life sometime in the future. John will advise when this is known.

Regards,

John M.

Ian McDonald has passed on the sad news that Des passed away yesterday at 8.30pm Perth time.

Ian has advised that Des Kinnersley’s daughter has informed him that they are not having a funeral for Des. The family will scatter Des And Betty’s ashes at a later date.

In February 2023 Des had moved into an Aged Care home (Regent Gardens, Wanneroo, Perth 6065) to join his wife, Betty, who had been at the same location for the preceding 5 years. Des had not been in the best of health for some time but he had a good innings.

May He Rest In Peace.

Bob Collins has passed on sad news to start 2025.

Ray’s wife, Elizabeth rang Bob with news that Ray passed away on Monday after being admitted to hospital on Boxing Day. Ray had not been well for a few years and Elizabeth told Bob that he had been going downhill since the loss of his twin brother, Bernard, a few months ago. Bob observed this himself on a recent visit.

Ray started his career as a radio apprentice with AWA and obtained his HSC at night school and a degree in electrical engineering before joining OTC. Most of us would remember him working in cable engineering and manager of Perth ITC.

Ray had a very small group of friends so Elizabeth is still considering what service will be held. If there are any updates on this Bob or Elizabeth will let us know.

If anyone wishes to send condolences please email me at president@otva.com if you would like Elizabeth’s address.

John Burdinat has advised that Dale passed away on Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.

John and his wife traveled down to see him at Royal North Shore Hospital where he had been receiving treatment for the past 32 weeks.

His wife, Marg, has advised John that she would be able to receive and calls or emails from any Vets who knew and worked with Dale.

The below photo is from the edition of Transit in October 1988

The below photo is from the edition of Transit in November December 1988

Bill Kay has passed on advice of the passing of a colleague from his OTC days.

Sad to say Robert J Taylor (RJ) passed away on 2 November 2024.

Bill has no further information about the circumstances of RJ’s passing. Clare, RJ’s partner, passed on the message on 26 November 2024. Clare will call Bill to provide more details when she’s feeling up to it.

Bill will update the Vets once he hears back from Clare.

If you have any photos or a tribute that you would like to share please email me and I will upload to the OTVA website for all members to see.

At last Thursday’s meeting of Vets at Club York in Sydney several of us asked Trevor’s son-in-law, Ian McDonald, and others for an update on Trevor. The update was that Trevor (aged 97) was doing well with care from nursing home staff and his daughters one of which, Jann, had attended the OTVA XMAS function.

Unfortunately Ian advised at 9:55am on Sunday morning that Trevor passed away with no pain at the Moran Nursing home Engadine. He would have been 98 today (Monday 18/11/24).

He didn’t quite make it to his birthday party which was to be held yesterday.

He was mentally excellent but had problems with hearing and mobility.

A “Celebration of Trevor’s life” will be held at the Trade Union Club at Gymea on Friday 6 December at 2.00 pm

If you will attend the celebration of Trevor’s life please email Ian McDonald <ianmcdonald01@optusnet.com.au> (Note 01 not O1) so that he can advise the club for catering,

If you cannot attend in person but would like to remotely watch the event via the streaming service please email Ian McDonald <ianmcdonald01@optusnet.com.au> and he will send you the remote access link.

Peter Burgess has advised that Ross Fenton has passed away after losing his fight with cancer that he has been waging since earlier this year.

Funeral details to follow when known.

The below photo is from the May 1988 Transit.

Our Secretary, Will Whyte, received a letter from Bill’s daughter, Andrea, to advise of his passing.

My father Frederick Clive Hickling, also known as Bill, recently passed away, at the age of 95 years, on the 22™ May. One of his instructions to me was to inform yourselves when this happened.

My Dad started his working life at Cable and Wireless and retired thirty nine years later in 1989 from the OTC.

He was married to Norma decd, had two children, four grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

He lived a very active and healthy life until his final year which saw his health decline rapidly.

Kind regards,
Andrea Russell

The sad news of Kevin’s passing was received from Neil Hemington via Andrew Jones and Rod Pernich.

It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the passing of a former colleague from PITC Gnangara, Kevin Hills.

Kevin was first employed by OTC as a Technical Officer at the Gnangara Coast Radio Station Perth in the 1980s, he later became involved with the AIS cable and in the early 90s transferred to the OTC International DMS300 telephone exchange section at PITC and later became part of the Satellite services team at PITC.

Kevin was primarily the international cable guy for those of us who worked with him. He was lead responsible for the JASURAUS cable in Port Hedland, the AIS cable here at Gnangara, the SMW3 cable out of Pier St Telephone exchange and more recently part of the team that worked on the Indigo cable installation project in Wellington Telephone exchange. Amongst other things Kevin was also an integral part of the USOSAT platform, the OTC international DMS300 telephone exchange and was involved with the coastal radio services out of the Maritime building earlier in his career. A career at Gnangara that spanned over 3 decades.

Following his recent discovery of cruise ships Kevin would take every opportunity to travel and rack up frequent flyer miles on the QE2 or some other exotic vessel that took his fancy.

Kevin retired in 2018 and COVID brought his travel plans to a temporary halt. Once the boarders reopened, back on the road he went. One of his last trips was to Tasmania with his family where he fell ill in early 2023 and rushed home to the diagnosis that he had Lymphoma.

After a long battle with his illness and what was almost daily trips to the hospital for treatment he finally passed earlier today.

Kevin was a great mentor to all the staff here in Gnangara and would show great patience in assisting his junior staff members develop their craft. He was a true gentleman and was well liked by all who worked with him and never a bad word was to be said about Uncle Kev.

You will be greatly missed.

RIP

The below photo is of Kevin alongside Maud Edmiston, founder and original owner of the Miss Maud Hotel / Restaurant and Miss Maud Café chain. On his weekly trip to conduct SMW3 cable routines you could always catch Kevin at Miss Maud’s in Pier Street at 10am on a Wednesday, like clockwork. The local staff would yell “Large mocha, Extra hot, Fruit flan” when he entered the café. They knew his order, and he didn’t need to verbalize it. It would be a disaster if he turned up late at morno to a sold-out cabinet of fruit flans.

__PRESENT