I took a run out along Badgery’s Creek Rd a couple of weeks back to see if I could find Bringelly HF Rx.

I had previously done a Google Maps search and found this:  https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.9165863,150.7355267,739m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

It had to be the station site – who else would make a sealed road into a paddock.  I think it’s pretty obvious the U was where the staff cottages were.

Street View shows the old entry brickwork as was used at Doonside: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.9167736,150.7304006,3a,24.9y,29.64h,93.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szHK703kDdJ1QL8nZjuR59g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

I stopped and took a few pics:

Cheers

Ron Beckett

VK2OTC

I took a run out along Badgery’s Creek Rd a couple of weeks back to see if I could find Bringelly HF Rx.

I had previously done a Google Maps search and found this:  https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.9165863,150.7355267,739m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

It had to be the station site – who else would make a sealed road into a paddock.  I think it’s pretty obvious the U was where the staff cottages were.

Street View shows the old entry brickwork as was used at Doonside: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.9167736,150.7304006,3a,24.9y,29.64h,93.36t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1szHK703kDdJ1QL8nZjuR59g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

I stopped and took a few pics:

Cheers

Ron Beckett

VK2OTC

Laurie McIlree’s daughter visited teh site on 27 November 2017 and took the below photos. It is a shame that the site has been allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair.

Thanks to Glenn McMullen for sharing photos that he took on a recent road trip.

You can still see a faint OTC presence on the tower in these pictures.

The following photos are courtesy of Ron Beckett

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.

Many thanks to John Iacus-Pisco for supplying these: