Unfortunately Jeff lost his battle with cancer this week. 

Jeff joined OTC as a trainee technician in 1978 and worked in the Data Centre at Broadway for a number of years before moving to Head Office (231 Elizabeth Street). He joined iPrimus and held a senior position there until he took sick last year.

Jeff was diagnosed with a brain tumour and since then Jeff had been going through the usual radio and chemotherapy however he had a bit of a turn for the worse several weeks ago.  Of course, everyone remained hopeful that he would regain his health but alas he lost that battle this week.

Jeff had been hospitalised until his passing at the Sacred Heart Hospice, which is part of St Vincents Hospital in Darlinghurst.

Jeff is survived by his wife and teenage children.

Jeff’s funeral will be held on Tuesday 4 October at 2.15pm at the East Chapel in Rookwood Cemetery. It is an open funeral and everyone is most welcome to attend.

The wake will be held afterwards at the Panania East Hills RSL Club (Panania Diggers).

In 1964 when these pictures were taken John Grosbard worked in the ISTC at Paddington. They may remind you of him.

I remember John Grosbard very well. I worked with him in 1975 when I first joined the ITMC at Paddington until I was seconded to L M Ericsson for the development of the new AXE132 telephone exchange from August 1978 until mid 1981. It must have been during this time that John and Alf Culloden retired but I am not sure. May be some of the other guys who worked at Paddington during that time can update me. We shall see.

The pictures and a few words (below) were provided by his daughter, Susan Mirande-Grosbard, who now lives in Amsterdam.

These pictures were taken in Feb. 1964 – I was only 9 years old.

My Dad worked his entire life shift work… Something that had always made me still to this day walk around on tippy toes….

He sent these photos to his sister who lives in LA and I received them back a few years ago when she decided to clean up the family photos….

Allan Hennessy has advised that Brian Woods had a fall last Friday night and is in Gosford Hospital recovering from an operation that he had on his hip last Monday (19/9/11).

I will update this BLOG when I get more details on Brian’s condition.

Aircraft Detection Before Radar

Registered Address: 805/41 Meredith Street, Bankstown NSW 2200

NOTICE
OTVA COMING EVENTS 2011
OTVA NSW Spring Reunion.
To be held at 12 noon on Friday 23rd September, 2011 in the raised area of the Red Room on Level 1 of the Bowler’s Club, 95 York St Sydney

To enable the club to allocate and reserve space, please
RSVP by Tuesday 20th September to president@otva.com or call/SMS Peter on 0411 260 542

OTVA NSW Christmas Reunion
To be held at 12 noon on Friday 11th November, 2011 in the York Room on Level 2 of the Bowler’s Club, 95 York St Sydney
A Chinese Banquet will be arranged with anticipated cost per member of $35.
Doors will open at 11.15am with the banquet to commence at 12 noon.
A guest speaker is being arranged.

RSVP by Friday 4th November to president@otva.com or call/SMS
Peter on 0411 260 542

There will be an unavoidable delay in the distribution of our next newsletter while our editor recovers from a recent operation.

The OTVA Internet based web page contains all recent news and developments. Check it regularly.

This notice will be distributed by email and posted to some members as an introduction to the format to be adopted in future OTVA Newsletter distribution.

Please ensure that Peter is made aware of your current email address and advise him of any changes as they occur. His email address is president@otva.com

Yearly subscriptions are still outstanding by some members and these can be paid via Interbank transfers. You can email our Treasurer via treasurer@otva.com for all the necessary details.

Message from Kathy Palmer

My father Wessel Johannes Koeman passed away on the 28th of August, 2011 in Townsville.
He served with OTC his entire working life. He emigrated to Australia in the late 1950’s and I’m unsure as to exactly when he started with OTC.
He served in Melbourne at Cape Shanck, had two postings to Thursday Island and was posted to Townsville in 1975 where he remained until Telstra closed the station.

We have no details to provide yet for the funeral as we have opted for an autopsy which will take place in Brisbane. It’s all to do with the nature of the illness he suffered.

We “think” the funeral will be possibly two weeks away, no sooner than that so somewhere tentatively around the 16th of September.

The funeral will be a burial in Townsville and I am very happy to be contacted for any details should there be members that would like to pay their respects.
Everyone will be very welcome.

If anyone does want information please don’t hesitate to contact me on 0408 186531 or my email address: kathpalmer@gmail.com

Thank you for doing what you’re doing in circulating this note, I have no way of contacting people he knew and worked with from the OTC days so you’re help is immeasurable.

Extract from Daily Telegraph Obituaries
NX433176 TAYLOR, Stewart Edmund 29 August 2011 Late of Caringbah Dearly beloved husband of the late Marie. Loved father of Ann, Lyn, Jenny and father-in- law of Murray and Paul. Adored Granddad of Scott, Stuart, Kylie, Rebecca, Craig, Henry and Great Granddad of Lily, Archer, Jayden, Ryan and wee Leila. Aged 87 years Lest We Forget STEWART’S family and friends are invited to attend a celebration of his life to be held at Olsens Chapel, 172 Willarong Road, Caringbah on Monday, 5 September 2011 commencing at 11am.

Stew served with the RAF in the UK during the war with Bomber Command returned to Sydney after the war and resumed employment with AWA prior to AWA & C&W merging into OTCA. He worked in the SOR in Spring Street when Les Ayers first met him in 1959. Intlx was starting up and he transferred over to Paddo as a Traffic Controller where Les thinks he remained also at Broadway for the duration of his OTC service.
If you can add some more detail on Stew’s employment history with OTC please add a comment to this BLOG.

Message from Vernon Yen

I spoke Kim today and he is in poor health suffering from Parkinsons. He has a slight problem with his speech for which he is undergoing therapy. Kim has asked that I pass on his fond regards to all his ex OTC colleagues.

As he is a bit low at the moment, I am sure he would greatly appreciate a call from a few of his friends and colleagues.

Kim’s contact details are as follows:
Home Address- 128 Castleton Crs., Gowrie, ACT 2904
Telephone 02 6291 6099.

Message from Kerry Adams

Brian Woods kindly sent me some info on Thursday Island but I have some more questions which our members may be able to answer:

1. When did Telstra close the remaining stations?
2. How the New Zealand (TVNZ?) contract came into being? I only heard rumours of happenings after I closed Doonside and Bringelly and retired.
3. Are there only the following 2 stations left? – Charleville (QLD) and Wiluna (WA).
4. I’m interested to know about them technically and are they remotely controlled from somewhere else (AMSA Canberra??).
   What frequencies do they cover? Satellite services? etc.
5. What is the general setup now for GMDSS and coastal operations?

Please post your comments to answer Kerry’s questions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben McGee (partially obscured), Graham Stephens (back to camera), Visitor, John Scott (looking at camera)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim Hulme Wind Surfing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben McGee Wind Surfing

Family Gathering In ITMC