Unfortunately Les passed away just after 6:00am on Saturday 4 January 2020 losing his fight against cancer.

His daughter, Cathy, has advised that there will be a gathering of Les’ friends at the “Bondi Icebergs” club in Nots Avenue, Bondi, on Thursday 16^th January at 11:15am.

Details to be published in the Daily Telegraph on Friday 10^th January 2020.

May He Rest In Peace

Cathy Ayers, Les’ daughter, advised his long-term friend and colleague from his OTC years, John Smith, in mid-December 2019 that due to his worsening medical condition Les had been placed in Edina Age Care Hospital, Waverley. Les had been undergoing extensive chemo and radiation treatment for several months but unfortunately he had not responded positively to the treatment and was not expected to recover.

Les has been an active member of the OTC Vets for many years and has in recent years provided many stories for inclusion in the OTVA Newsletter which had added to the reading enjoyment of many of its members.

Dave Izatt has passed on the sad news of the death of a good friend and colleague, Peter Allan, who passed away on 6 December after losing his battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife Lily, five children and grandchildren.

The funeral was held on Monday 16 December 2019.

Dave worked with Peter between 1990 – 1996 in OTC International both in Sydney and Indochina.

May he rest in peace.

Keith McCredden has been told that Keith Oxley passed away in the past few days.

No funeral service details are known at this time but Keith believes that the funeral service will be held today (Tuesday 3 December 2019) at an as yet undisclosed location.

I tried unsuccessfully to contact Keith’s family on the home phone to confirm the details of his passing and the funeral arrangements.

I will advise further if I hear. In the meantime keep your eye on the news papers.

From OTC Transit October 1984

ST02 Keith Oxley recently retired after 43 years in the telecommunications industry.
In a ceremony held at Paddington terminal, speakers Randy Payne, Henry Cranfield and Alec Griffiths traced Keith’s long involvement in the industry, from the early years as messenger boy with Cable and Wireless, through 16 years of overseas postings in Fiji, Fanning Island and Cocos Island, to Paddington in 1963.
Keith met his NZ-born wife, Loma, during the first of three postings to Suva, Fiji, and they married in 1949. Loma is no stranger to the world of international telecommunications as she was a wartime operator with Cable and Wireless in Suva.
Keith and Loma have a son, Robert, living in Castle Hill NSW and a daughter, Irene, living in Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. They plan to spend some of their time commuting between the two areas – that is when they’re not busy growing orchids at their house in Turramurra, Sydney. Keith is not the slightest bit fazed by the thought of retirement.
“I’ve got a good cook to look after me,” he laughed.

Born 30th October 1918

Grace Anne Dale commenced  work with OTC (A) at Lonsdale Street Melbourne in the Phonograms/Printergrams department from 1971 to 1982 when she retired at age 64.

Grace was very determined to stay at her home with help from her daughters and carers. She had been in and out of hospital for last few months.

It was only the days prior to her passing that she was admitted back into hospital with heart failure and passed away peacefully on 18^th October 2019.

Funeral Service 

Where:         Le Pine,  Eltham on 7^th November 2019.

Attendees:   Present were about 65 Family/Relatives/Friends/OTVA Colleagues including:

Gary & Debbie Kelly,

Eddie Hope,

Robert & Judith Hall and

Grace’s Daughter, Jill, & son-in-law,  John Caulfield

Sincere sympathy is extended to Jill & John and their extended Families on the Celebration of a Grand Lady

May She Rest In Peace

Paul passed away in Adelaide falling short of his 80th birthday on 1 August.

Ed Willingham passed on the detail’s of Paul’s passing. He preferred to be called Paul.

Ed believes that Paul was recruited to Ceduna SES where her worked for the majority of his working life with OTC.

Robert Hall has advised of the passing of JAMES FES.

Jim was a Member of the VIC Branch of the OTVA as well as the AWA Veterans Association.

Jim started his career in OTC as a Radio Technician at its Beam Wireless Station at Rockbank VIC in February 1949 and worked there until July 1957 after which we worked in the 3DB Broadcasting area of the Herald & Weekly Times in Melbourne.

Two years later he joined AWA. He worked for AWA in various capacities until his retirement in 1989.

Jim moved to TRARALGON about 2010 to be near relatives and in 2015 moved to BUPA Aged Care Traralgon.

The Funeral Service for Jim will be held at Gippsland Memorial Park Crematorium Chapel, Cemetery Drive Traralgon Victoria on Monday 21^st October 2019 at 1.30pm.

May He Rest In Peace

Trevor Thatcher has passed on the sad news that Deane passed away yesterday Tuesday 8 October 2019 after losing a long battle with cancer.

Deane started work for AWA/OTC around  August/Sept of 1946 during the transition year of the changeover from AWA Beam Wireless to OTC. Commenced as a “Circulation Clerk”.

He worked in the Melbourne Operating Room (MOR), Fanning Island, Cottesloe Cable Station and back to MOR before resigning from OTC in 1963 to take up a teaching job at the PNG technical college in Port Moresby.

When he arrived in Port Moresby he was met by the two bosses of the Posts & Telegraph Dept at the Port Moresby airport and was asked to go to Kavieng for a while because they were having extreme problems in that district.

Deane accepted the opportunity and liked Kavieng so much he asked to stay. Deane spent the next 7 years as OIC New Ireland District and also New Britain District.

Schooling and 3 adolescent daughters made it obvious that he needed to come back to Australia so returned to Brisbane 1970 to join PMG as a Radio Inspector. He didn’t last long in PMG as he was poached almost immediately by Jim Fez to join AWA as a Marine Radio Officer. He stayed with AWA until his retirement.

If you would like to share a Tribute to Deane with the wider OTVA fraternity please email it to me together with any photos that you might want to share. I will also pass them on to Deane’s family.

Wayne Bastow has advised me that his father, Ted, passed away yesterday afternoon (2.10.2019).

Ted joined OTC on 9.10.62.

Ted’s funeral will be at 2pm on Friday 11th October at the South Chapel of the Northern Suburbs Crematorium.

If you would like to send any Tributes to Ted’s family please send them to me and I will pass them on  to the family via Wayne.

May He Rest In Peace

The below photos are from the last 5 or 6 years.

Ted, Marilyn and us 3 children (Katrina, Michele, Wayne)

Grandson (Oliver), son (Wayne) and Ted

Marilyn, Ted and Wayne.

Graeme Hanigan passed on the sad news conveyed to him by the Moree Earth Station Receptionist, Jenny Reti.

 “Stan Bray died on Monday 8 July 2019. Stan was the storeman at MOREE. He came to the reunion last year.”

 May He Rest In Peace.

 If you have any Tributes to Stan and/or any photos please send them to me and I will upload to the web site.

Keith McCredden advised at the June AGM that he had received a call from Noel’s wife that he had passed away early in 2019.

Noel started working for OTC in 1955 as a Traffic Assistant after coming to Sydney from Armidale NSW.

He underwent telegraphist training just before the 1956 Olympics and this was where he learned Morse Code.

He spent time working in Spring Street and on Fanning Island, Norfolk Island and Cocos Island before finishing up at Paddington & Broadway as an INTLX operator where he provided training to operators on the Hasler Telex exchange.

Noel was a keen cricketer and featured often in Transit articles detailing his successes as a batsman.

The below photo is from the September 1972 edition of Transit shows Noel alongside Keith McCredden and others.