MEMORIES OF WOOMERA
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39
The Good Old Days
Hi there to all of those people who
have had the pleasure of living and working at Woomera, South
Australia.
Back in 1966, I was a young
lady travelling around Australia and worked in each state of this great
land so that I could get a feel for the place and live the life of the
locals, working Monday to Friday and get out at weeks to explore
the treasures of each State.
After working in the
Whitsunday Passage and travelling as far Adelaide, I decided to go
along to CES as it was called in those days. I was told that
there was a secretarial job going at Weapons Research in
Salisbury. I arranged an interview and was offered the job, but
was told that it was a few miles out of town.
However I said no
problems, I have just been travelling from the Eastern States so
another few miles won't make much difference to me.
Looking down from the old DC3
when I was approaching Woomera I almost passed out with
shock. The buildings looked like a few match boxes scattered in
the red dusty donga with a few springs of salt bush. My first reaction was - oh girl you
have done yourself in this time and it was pride which made me make a
decision right there and then to stay for at least four weeks.
I lived at Eldo Mess and met
many wonderful people. The highlight for me was swimming 20
lengths of the swimming pool each day and in the evening I played a lot
of table tennis at Eldo.
I arrived in February 1966 and
stayed exactly one year to the hour. I remember a lot of
wonderful people who I will list under and maybe one day I will hear
from one or two of them if they happen to read this e-mail.
My name then was Ann Neill and
one of my good friends was a girl from I believe it was from Gawler
called Evelyn Malpass. Another of my friends was Lyn Doyle from
Perth in Western Australia. I might catch up with Lyn as I am not
living in the West.
I remember a lot of the Sparta
team who I worked closely with. The head of the team was Dean
Carpenter, there was also Bill Agan, Al Hossack and Bud Swanson.
My friend Evelyn worked at
Baker Nunn out in the desert. I also remember a girl called Jan
Turner who married an American after I left Woomera.
One of my school teacher
friends, Helen, married a German fellow who was working on stage three
of one of the Blue Streak Rockets. She became Helen Redder and
lived in Adelaide.
Like all of those who have
lived in Woomera, I have very fond memories and my thoughts often go
back to those good old days.
I would love to hear from
other ex-Woomerites.
Sincerely,
Ann
E-mail: Tahir3299@aol.com
(11 November 2004)
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Copyright © 2005 Mark T. Rigby
(Last updated: 18 February, 2006)