Moree officially opened on 29^th March 1968 and officially closed in September 1988.

Moree 1 was OTC’s first satellite earth station built specifically to convey public communications traffic; it opened with a two-way Australia/Japan broadcast via the Pacific Ocean Intelsat 11 satellite on 29 March 1968.

Since that time, Moree 1 (and more recently Moree 2) has been Australia’s primary earth station for conveying public and private communications traffic to Asia, Canada, the Americas and Pacific region nations.

Moree 2 became operational in 1982 to cater for increased traffic demand. The dish and associated equipment was dismantled by OTC riggers, engineering and technical staff, and re-erected at Sydney earth station (to become Sydney 2) earlier this year.

The last communications traffic to pass through Moree did so in August via the original earth station, Moree 1. Since that time, the complex has been wound down – in terms of both equipment and staff.

Much of the equipment is now operational at the new Sydney earth station complex – with staff transferred to Perth, Ceduna, Melbourne and Sydney.

The Moree station is being sold to a private developer – possibly to cater for the tourist trade as a hotel/health spa complex. A skeleton staff will remain at the station until all details are finalised and the complex is handed over.

The transfer of operations from Moree to Sydney is a further development in OTC’s capital city earth station program – made possible through the application of modern technology which provides for improved frequency interference protection.

Locating earth stations close to major customer centres provides improved service quality and more cost-effective operations. Such is the march of progress.

Hailed in 1968 as a major breakthrough in Australia’s international communications network, Moree has provided reliable, high-quality service via a succession of Intelsat Pacific Ocean  Region satellites for more than two decades.

In a series of functions held mid-August, Moree staff, families, and the local community, bade their farewells.

Such was the interest shown by other staff involved with the station at various times over the past 20 years, a coach was provided to take them from Sydney to Moree for a ‘farewell’ weekend 13/14 August. Others arrived under their own steam from as far away as Queensland.

It was a nostalgic weekend tinged with sadness for many, but with enthusiastic anticipation of future transfers for most.

Executive Manager, Planning, John Mattes, was responsible for commissioning the original station. ‘I was here at the beginning’, he said. ‘So it was good to have the opportunity of being here at the end – it’s a trip back through time.’

The last word went to station manager, Ed Willingham, after several hours of nostalgia and ‘There we were’ yams (instigated by Regional Manager Europe, Dennis Grant): ‘That’s it folks’, Ed
announced sadly. ‘It’s over.’

OTC donates Rolls Royce to hospital

As a parting gesture to the local community, Managing Director George Maltby (seen in photo) handed over ownership of a Rolls Royce to Ron O’Mullane of the Moree District Hospital. The Rolls Royce 375 KYA diesel alternator will be installed in the hospital to provide emergency power. The hospital’s present generator can only support the operating theatre and some emergency services and facilities during a power failure. With the donation of OTC’s alternator, which has recently undergone a major re-build, the hospital should no longer face inconvenience to patients and staff during blackouts.

Extracts of both the Contact article announcing the fanfare around the opening of the Moree SES and the Transit article heralding ‘The End of an Era’.

Other photos of Moree:

Chris Alger has provided the below photo is recognition of the 25th Anniversary of that event.

After 23 years with Verizon Dave Coutts has retired.

Dave (Seniority 18.8.64) served OTC with great dedication and technical ability for 30 years before leaving to join Verizon in 1994.

We wish him well in his retirement. He has earned it.

Below is a picture of a younger version of Dave in 1988 when he worked at the Broadway Exchange – nice tie. Maybe he got it from Mike Saberton for the photo op?

Doonside, Bringelly & Paddington OTC stations assisted ARIA in many space programs leading up to the 20th July 1969 landing on the moon. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. We were using HF radio to communicate with US military aircraft, mainly in the Pacific Ocean, who were communicating directly with the spacecraft. All messages were passed through Paddington back to ARIA Control in the US.

At the conclusion of this program we were allowed to keep all the radio equipment paid for by the space program. Certificates were sent to the 3 stations & the manager had them framed & hung in their offices. Here is a badly faded copy of the Bringelly certificate, supplied by Don Withers & the pictures on it have disappeared. Someone might know where the originals ended up?

Regards,

Neil Yakalis

I had the rather enviable honour to attend the Australia Day Celebrations on none other than Direction Island yesterday.

The site of the old cable station and wireless station are long gone, but the history of the site is well recorded with plaques along the walking trail. I’ve been truly humbled in the knowledge of the personal sacrifices and hardships that these people endured in such remoteness.

I encourage anyone with the means or motive to get over to the now uninhabited “Rat Island” should they venture to the furthest western point of Australia here at Cocos (Keeling) Island and experience this themselves.

Best Regards

Tony Fisher (ARF)

I have been reminded by Robin Tuckfield of the near tragedy for OTC and its staff that occurred in the early hours of 18 January 1977 when a commuter train derailed at Granville NSW. It seems to me to be a timely reminder of what could have been and how lucky we are that no OTC staff member lost his or her life however I am sure that those who were directly involved will never forget that day.

Let us take some time to reflect on the 83 poor souls that did lose their lives in that disaster.

Details of today’s commemoration ceremony are available at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-18/granville-train-disaster-40-year-anniversary-memorial/8190150

From Robin Tuckfield in memory of the event and the impact that it had, and still has, upon him.

Several people from OTC Operations and Engineering were on the train that day. Most were in the three carriages that were destroyed by the bridge.

I was one of the “lucky” ones. I nearly missed the train, and so I was several carriages back from the bridge. I usually travelled in carriage 2 or 3 with other OTC Head Office employees.

It was a hot day in Sydney, maybe not quite as hot as today, but close to it. After running to catch the train, I just jumped on, through the first door I came to, and stood in the doorway to cool down in the breeze.

No air conditioning in those days. I think I was in carriage 5 or 6, but I didn’t know at the time, and keep forgetting since.

When the train came to a stop. We had definitely derailed. I stuck my head out the door, and saw the bridge fall, the power wires arching and sparking as they came down all around.

After finding I could do nothing more to help, I walked back along the train line to Parramatta, and then back home.

Day 1 after, I became very sick next morning when I was getting ready for work. I did not understand why, but took the day off and was OK by lunch.

Day 2 after, I had the same experience, and realised I was experiencing what is now called PTSD. I forced myself to go to work. I took a bus to Clydesdale, then train to work. I do not know how I looked, but I could hardly talk. I was drained. I think I felt worse than the day of the accident.

I still experience the occasional “stress attack” and avoid the first three carriages of a train. If the train jolts or brakes suddenly, it comes back.

And as I said, I was only in the back of the train. Those survivors in those first carriages have had a hard 40 years.

From Feb 1977 Transit:

Granville Victims OK

Five OTC staff were travelling on the 6.09 from Mt. Victoria on the day that it crashed at Granville.

Two were injured, and three escaped virtually unharmed. They were:

Don Cocks – Senior Accountant, who suffered injuries which kept him in hospital until the week end following the crash.

John McDermott – Senior Engineer, who was travelling in the carriage crushed by concrete. His injuries are expected to keep him in hospital for another couple of weeks.

PhiIlip McKenzie (Administration Section Clerk), Bill Linney and Robin Tuckfield), (both Technical Officer Grade 2’s)

GM’s Column read:

Five OTC people in rail crash

I cannot refrain from expressing the distress which I know we all felt at the rail tragedy at Granville and echoing the concern we felt in OTC House when we learned that five members of the organisation were on the wrecked train.

While some were injured it was a great relief to be told that injuries did not appear to be very serious even though some had been very close to the worst damaged carriage.

I found it particularly distressing to read how many young people were among the 83 killed and the aftermath of distress, particularly among families and friends.

From Apr 1977 Transit:

Letters

Granville survivor

Dear sir,

As mentioned in the GM’s column last month, I was one of the few fortunate survivors of the Granville train disaster.

When the train – which I had boarded only two minutes before – finally ground to a halt following the derailment, I was standing in the aisle near the rear of carriage three.

This was directly below the 170·tonne Bold Street Bridge which was soon to collapse.

A few seconds later, a loud rumbling noise was heard above, and, as if in slow motion, the roof of the carriage began to cave in on top of me.

For at least thirty seconds the rumbling continued to flatten the wooden carriage and obliterate all but the dimmest light.

When the devastation ceased I lay on the floor of the aisle in a space 90 cm by 60 cm by 50 cm high.

The roof had crashed to within a mere 10 cm on the left side of the carriage and 90 cm on the right side which was still under the slab.

An hour later my limited air supply was reinforced by an oxygen supply poked through the 10 cm gap to me on a long PVC tube attached to a stick.

Four hours after the accident occurred, I was finally dragged out by my legs from the right side of the train suffering from injuries to my spine, ribs, elbow and hands.

I would like to thank all those who wished me well or visited me during my period in hospital.

In particular I would like to thank those who tried to console my wife during the four and a half hour period I was missing.

J. J. McDermott

Senior Engineer

Operations Branch

Trevor

Congratulations on achieving this significant milestone.

I am told by the 95 year old father of one of my golfing mates that 90 is the new 80!

Please accept my best wishes for a happy and healthy 2016/17.

Peter Bull

Guntis (“Gus”) Berzins reminds us all the way from Latvia that another anniversary of an historic event in Australia telecommunications history is fast approaching. If you have any stories or photos that relate to this event please send them to me for circulation to the wider group.

A friend of Gus, Colin Mackellar,  reminds us that later this month will be the 50th anniversary of the historic TV broadcast between Carnarvon and Goonhilly / London, which was the first ever live TV transmission between Australia and overseas.   Colin Mackellar was at one stage associated with the NASA tracking operations in Australia.

You may wish to distribute his message, and particularly the associated honeysuckle link on your veterans mailing list, as it has a considerable amount of information about OTC(A).

www.honeysucklecreek.net

From ROBERT BRAND

Looks like ThunderStruck Aerospace is a major part of a Mars mission that just got one step closer to going to Mars. The project leverages, in some part, on the engineering knowledge acquired by Robert in his activities related to his hobby and passion of space travel & exploration as well as his engineering knowledge obtained through years of working for OTC.

The Mars Median Project is all about landing a network of organic methane detectors on Mars. Phase 1 was so successful they are moving into Phase 2 using my deployment system of impactor probes. It will be rather amazing if this gets to fly. Some testing will be in Australia somewhere and although it is me that is part of the core team, it will be the team and ThunderStruck Aero that will do the testing of the backplane and the deployment here. If it passes one more phase it may fly as a solo mission to Mars. It should be amazing. If it works it could last for years operating the median biological methane detectors, moisture detection, weather system and more. The network may be up to 30km long It will work back to the landed backshell for a relay to the orbiters and back to earth. All will be solar powered including the spikes.

Here is the conversation this morning:

Nick Howes (UK) has posted a comment on Robert’s Facebook page that reads: “And in other news, I am almost ready to let you in on [Mars] Median project phase 2… and we took your advice, lock stock mate… [Mars ground] penetrators all the way!

This is amazing as at the end of the phase 1 testing for the Median Project (out of the UK) for landing a network on Mars I specified to the team that only penetrators would do the job of landing a long network on Mars. It was all about the weight of the parts of the network and getting them safely to the ground. There was no way to carry the mass of making each node a soft landing and ESA would never put anything volatile in the lander package.

The testing of a Mars penetrators on the Nullarbor Plains will be insane. Dropping spikes from 3 Km altitude! Like I said, balloon flights and similar activities are an amazing way to test for future Mars missions. I am so looking forward to this. As one of the few people in the world with the skill set to do the high altitude work I find it amazing and it all started because of a father son bonding activity of launching a high altitude balloon – 28 flights and many years back. Wow if this goes all the way to Mars, I will be very pleased. You cannot imagine how much fun this work is and to hear that your idea is moving into stage 2 with funding is amazing.”

Nick Howes then said: “Robert, you’re gonna love the team I am working with at a UK University too, the engineering side is insane..these guys make life size Iron man robots…that work!”

Anyway stay tuned as we work over the next year testing ground penetration somewhere like the Nullabor. My company just took one step to getting a project on Mars. Slamming spikes into the ground justifies the company name of ThunderStruck Aerospace.

Then the details started flowing from Nick. They had adopted everything about the probes too.

Nick Howes: Thanks Robert. It’s logical and works, the plan in the heatshield mounting works too. Aerodynamic modelling now underway, to look at optimal release height, and impact velocity. A ton of research papers being worked through on this… trust me, it never stopped, we just had to find the right team to work on phase 2… got them now!

Robert Brand: It is a really crazy project and the penetrators will be a real first as will a network on Mars that may last for years if built right.

Nick Howes The aerodynamic modelling is being done by a University student and her supervisor. They are also going to build the shell for the penetrator (and would value your input hugely). You also need to look at a project called DS2 which was due to fly on Mars Polar lander (but crashed) different in that they planned full EDL

Robert Brand: It is the shock absorption that is critical and the penetration material. It would be great if it had a hard front and a softer crumple zone to absorb some impact but still crash through the ground without being destroyed. A spring like system for the electronics – much like a woodpeckers brain is protected from 1200G – yes – 1200G force. Lots to work on with the team

Nick Howes: Tungsten front and reinforced CF crumple zone, spring loading is in the idea too… nice. Possibly a Kevlar style composite too.

In case you missed the earlier posts about the Mars Median Project, it is a long network deployed on Mars to detect Organic Methane and pinpoint the origin of the vent.

The image is a simulation of methane detectors on Mars placed manually during a Morocco SIM. It was phase 1.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151338884233229&set=a.10150627235568229.400387.622228228&type=3&theater

TRAVEL:                              By car or by Ferry (for Ferry timetable see http://www.transportnsw.info/resources/documents/timetables/F3-parramatta-river.pdf)

WHERE:                              Kissing Point Park, Putney NSW

WHEN:                                Between 10am and 2pm

Well the weather was ordinary but the camaraderie, conversations and memories were great! It is a great shame that we did not experience Saturday’s weather. Jim Simpson also would have preferred …