Farewell To Woomera
Things were changing rapidly, and staff numbers were growing. Not only in the Comms. Group, but all over the Range. In the Plotting Room, there used to be 2 plotting tables, 2 operators, and 2 people at the console. That is where I met Ben Pampling. He used to man one of the plotting tables. Jack Evans was usually on the other table. We had installed the NEW 1,000,000 pound computer to drive all this, and then there were programmers, maintenance people, and 1 bloke to look after the air conditioning unit for the COMPUTER. What was a 4-person operation, suddenly became 25, to run the same two antiquated plotting tables. A similar story for the Telemetry Room. Jim Snowden and Ian Hunt were two I can recall from Telemetry.
Joy and I decided to purchase another vehicle. We were sick of driving around without the front passenger's seat in the vehicle. Joy used to sit in the back, with the nappies, bottles and clothing, and Gary would be in a bassinet that fitted beautifully on the floor in front. We compared the internal dimensions of the Holden, Ford, Valiant, and Toyota station wagons. The Toyota won out. It may have been a 4-cylinder engine, but the internal room was greater, and the extras were unreal. Carpet on the floor, tinted glass, electric rear window, 4 headlights, overdrive, hand throttle, two-speed wipers and, last but not least, a heater which could be direct/ducted into the rear. All of this was organized at Ernest Giles Auto Port, at the Shell Garage on the Tech Area road. Others may have run it, but that was the name on site. So, we drove down to Adelaide, stayed with Keith and Di, took Gary to the doctor on Saturday morning, went to "Tom the Cheap" and bought up on canned baby food and other goodies. Baby food was 9 pence a can at "Toms", and 1 and 6 pence at ASCO. On the way back home, we stopped in the Barossa Valley and stocked up on wine too. I digress, we traded in our ’62 Mini on this "luxury" ’64 Toyota Crown Deluxe Station Wagon. It performed well, and we did 185,000 miles (298,000 km) in it before I sold it in ’90, to a Crown freak, who wanted it for parts.
We had another change of residence, and went to the two bedroom flats down on the bottom Arboretum road. These flats were blocks of 4. Starting from the left front, there was Len and Elaine Phillips, Len from the PMG, Jim and Lynette Moore who had a son called Simon, an Irishman from the RAF, Joy and I, and Tim and Helen Morgan, Tim being a Flt. Lt. in the RAF. Len and Elaine had a son Garry, and Tim and Helen had a daughter Sarah Jane. Tim, later, went up the Ranks, and became OIC of the RAF apprentice School, or, whatever it is called. Sarah Jane and her Pommy sister Tracey came out and visited us a few years back and we had a good time showing her pictures of all the kids playing in the back yard behind the flats.
We did not spend that long in the flats, before moving just around the corner to a newly painted and renovated house in Gooyong Street, Number 23. Now, that sticks with me, but I am unsure if that was where we had the caravan with the Tulletts or not. I have asked Joy, but she can’t remember either. This was the place where it all happened. In winter, the fire going, and the house as warm as toast, and in summer, the Bon-Aire (swamp cooler) keeping it cool.
The ELDO launcher was really busy, with cable being run down to the launcher, and consoles being installed and wired up. Each of the teams was working with us, to ensure the drawings were clearly understood, and I was working on the German installation, primarily with Fritz Huber. I also did some work for the French and Italian teams. The Italians were the only ones who did not have their drawings also in English, which meant we were always looking for someone to explain.
Having spent a lot of my working career being away from home, I appreciated the difficulties experienced by some of the personnel in these teams. So, I invited them home. What magic evenings and nights they were. The French would take over the kitchen, having arrived with all this food and wine, Joy would be waited on, the older blokes missing their kids would play with Gary, the older blokes would take off back to quarters, and we would party on. The Germans would do pretty much the same and Fritz and his girlfriend, who was on the team also (every time I see Anka Huber playing tennis, I wonder?) seemed to enjoy the evenings too. We used to get a lot of visitors, who seemed to be after a bit of normal life outside the Mess precincts.
I must tell a story at this time, funny, but not nice. At work, everyone had nicknames, I would be called a "Banana Bender", and one day, Fritz and his mate asked me what it all meant. So I told him. ‘Banana Bender" referred to a person from Queensland. He had told me that his English had been learnt from a record at his office back in Munich. Proper English, not the slang and ‘strine he was hearing at Woomera. He brought out his notepad, and I ran through it all, as he took notes. "Cornstalk" was from New South Wales, "Yarra Yabbie" was from Victoria, "Crow Eater" was from South Australia, "Sand Groper" was from Western Australia, "Territorian" was from Northern Territory, "Taswegian" was from Tasmania. Then we went onto other countries, a "Kiwi" was from New Zealand, "Yank" was from the US, "Froggie" was a Frenchman, "Wog" was from Italy, "Hun" was from Germany, and last, but not least, anyone from England was known as "A Dirty Pommy Bastard". Well, it all seems simple enough put like that, but it was NOT. I had forgotten one important piece of information. That night, there was a do on at the Staff Mess where the teams were being introduced to the locals. Fritz and his mate had been doing their homework, and had the patter off pretty well, raising lots of laughs with the blokes, and they were then introduced to this English Lady. Fritz came out with it! She slapped him a beauty, Whack! Whack!, a double handed job, and then I had to complete the education about how it may be OK at work amongst the blokes, but NEVER to ladies, unless you know them very well, and then with a laugh. He got a lot of hot tongue and cold shoulder from his girlfriend too. It did not affect our working relationship, thankfully. He got a lot of ribbing from the others in the German team.
Gary had his 2nd birthday at this house, apart from those names already mentioned; Peter and Ann Barron were there for it. A lovely family, Peter with a few girls, and if I recall correctly, no son. Peter was a liney in the PMG. In subsequent years I ran into him again. He was a big noise in Telstra, a Manager of something.
I must also mention when Island Lagoon started up, the construction side, it was under the guidance of Bill Autry, who was a Yank, with an Australian wife who was born in Ballarrat. Bill was my first real experience of "American Know-how"; he was in charge of a group of riggers, who worked 7 days a week, long days, and any hold up to progress was to be avoided at all costs. One time, the equipment he needed had not arrived on site, due to a transport delay from Adelaide, and he set up a watch on the Port Road. The cars got through, but every semi was pulled up, and when he found the one with his load, he asked the driver to divert to Island Lagoon. He would not, because he was supposed to deliver to the Tech Area Store for it to be un-loaded, re-loaded, and transported to Island Lagoon. Bill called on Elroy, who was built like a set of brick out-houses to remove him from the vehicle. The driver removed himself, Elroy drove the semi to Island Lagoon, and while the driver had lunch, the semi was unloaded and then the driver went on his way to Woomera. Bill got a rap over the knuckles for his efforts, but I think the Yank hierarchy may have had a few words to say, because the gear was always there after that episode.
Island Lagoon was a new type of installation to me. I did things that never were done in the PMG, to that time. False floors with freezing air-conditioning underneath, cool air sucked up through the racks to ducting that went away to be cooled. PC Boards. The time came for testing, and we found a few faults, and I was fixing one, when Bill came on the scene, asked me what I was doing, I told him, and he said to give him the board. He broke it over his knee, and told me I was wasting 1 pounds worth of time to find a penny fault. He said to replace the board with a new one from the drawer, and see if it worked. It did, and I learnt a valuable lesson to take through the subsequent years. I always thank him for that. Now it is known as lateral thinking.
Looking over my notes, I see the name Norma Thrower, she was married to one of the PMG Techs from Woomera, and also, I think, played net ball down at the courts. Joy and I were often there, along with Mrs Morley, Mel and Helen Bucholz, (Helen was an umpire), Edna Walstron, and lots of others. I remember Billy Hooper, as do lots of others. Ken Smith was a photographer from my first visit to Woomera. He was there for many years. His brother worked for Mercedes Benz in Germany, and obtained for Ken a 2-door coupe, not the Gull-Wing, but of similar body appearance. Ken drove it at 30 MPH (48 km/h) around the Village, and NEVER over 60 MPH (96 km/h) on the open road. (This at a time when there was NO upper speed limit on the open highway). Ken always complained of rough running, and was going to Adelaide for servicing, and he would get it back running beautifully. Eventually the foreman told Ken, your car is perfect, all I ever do is give it to one of the mechanics, tell him to go for a burn on the Stuart Highway, work it through the gears, then change the oil, and give it a grease. Ken could NEVER drive like that, so, he sold the Merc. And bought a Karman-Ghia instead. I have no idea of what, if anything he ever told his brother.
I must ask one question, did anyone ever find out how come the Coffee Lounge was broken into every Xmas? Did anyone ever get charged? I seem to recall a few fires as well!
Things were changing again, and once again I was advised that my temporary transfer was being terminated. The only way to remain in Woomera was to resign from the PMG’s Department, and join WRE. I put this to Joy, but she had been away from her family for over three years, and was getting homesick.
After Gary was born, she did not go back to the Range, but did get a job as Ticket Seller and usherette at the Theatre. I don’t remember Horrie Dargie, but I was there for Col Joye and Little Pattie.
I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Woomera. A lot of characters, some good, some bad, a lot of friends, some retained to this day, but unfortunately, the tyranny of distance stops a lot of visiting. Joy had a ball; her experiences were similar to mine.
Joy, Gary, and I left Woomera at the end of June 1966, and drove back up to Brisbane. Gary does not recall anything from Woomera, but he has seen plenty of slides and photographs, so it is not unknown. I have been back to Adelaide for a few courses, stayed with Len and Elaine Phillips, which was 10 years ago now. Gary and I ALMOST went on a trip to Woomera, so he could see where he was born, but we went fishing on Fraser Island instead. Joy and I have had no more children. She went back to work for the Hoyt’s chain, I resumed with the PMG, and we both retired in 1996.
One final thought, you may be able to remove the person from Woomera, but there is NO way you can remove Woomera from the person, EVER. It has become a life experience.
If anyone wants to contact us, my e-mail address is below and we live in Kenmore, in Brisbane’s western suburbs.
Fare thee well.
Alan Kennedy
E-mails: alan@vk4fm.com
(9 November 2000)
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Memories of Woomera |
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