OTVA NEWSLETTER - September 2008 - Volume 10 - Page 27
CONTENTS (Click on page number) COMING EVENTS [Top]KURRAJONG RADIO MUSEUM VISIT
Members and their friends are invited to join us for a trip up the Bells Line Of Road to the Kurrajong Radio Museum, on Saturday September 13th (www.vk2bv.org/museum). Private transport will be used. If you are interested
please call Bernie White on 0401 380 625 for details. Entry is $10.
The address is 842 Bell's Line of Road KURRAJONG HILLS. 10 –10:30
Start. CHRISTMAS LUNCH AND REUNION
DATES FOR THE DIARY:
FUTURE OUTINGS: PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE
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This
will be held at Level 2 of the Bowlers’ Club in York Street,
Sydney from 11.00am on November 14 2008. The format will be a sit
down meal for $35 in a private room. There will be a cash bar outside
the room from which beverages may be bought prior to sitting down
for lunch.
To
add insult to us in our dilemma two young lads, possibly 12 and
13 years of age, were sailing in the same stretch of water in a
little VJ boat. They invited the Skipper to let them tow us in but
the Skipper gave them such a stern look that they quickly changed
tack and sailed away.
1923 Election Poster – the first radio election in the United Kingdom. |
These are days of annihilation of both time and space, and I am now looking forward to the hour, and I hope it is not far distant when we shall halve the physical distance between us by the establishment of the through service by air for passengers and mails which has already been talked of. We also hope that before the end of the year this telephone service will be further extended so as to give communication; via London, between Australia on the one hand, and the greater part of Europe and the whole of the Central American continent on the other. When this has been accomplished the telephone subscriber in Australia will have access to over 90% of the telephones in the world. What an age, my dear Mr. Scullin, we are living in. What would our grandfathers have thought of it !
“By the by, Mr. Scullin, this ‘Ashes’ business. We are delighted to have your cricket team and we are giving them a great welcome, hoping that hospitality given in the most lavish way may have some influence on cricket scores. You understand what I mean. They have been practising hard at Lord’s cricket ground, and I hear they are going to give a great account of themselves. I have not had the pleasure of meeting them personally; but will do so as soon as I can. I want to assure you that we are not at all down-hearted, and I warn you that we are going to do our level best to keep those Ashes in England. There is going to be no export of Ashes so far as we are concerned. We shall know all about it, however, when you come over in September to attend the Imperial Conference. When, we will have the greatest pleasure in renewing old acquaintances. We would also like you to know how very sympathetic we are on this side of the world. We have been watching the difficulties of your present economic situation in Australia. We appreciate to the full that your actions taken to deal with that situation have been dictated solely with the view to righting your present position and we earnestly hope that your difficulties may soon be surmounted. Now we have not got long to speak but I promised to say a few words on this occasion on the recent work of disarmament. It is a subject which has been very prominently before us since arrangements were made last Autumn for the calling of the Naval Conference. It is pre-eminently of the greatest importance to the British Empire at large, and when I say Empire, it is just a touch of the old man in me. I should have said British Commonwealth of Nations”
Proceeding, Mr. Macdonald said that war had been called murder. “It is not,” he declared, “It is suicide. The greatest menace to a nation is its own notion of security. History shows a continuous succession of wars, largely because the nations prepared for them, hoping thereby to avoid them. So we have been hard at work for the last three months trying to persuade, each other to find a better way. You know the result. The work will have to be continued in Geneva as regards other forms of arms. I am glad to say we have had a very large measure of success, but the negotiations and the resulting treaties will have to be a further step in the process of “dis armament”.
“The Conference has now adjourned but we have every hope that the differences between France and Italy will be resolved before long and the work must go on and on further still, Australia and ourselves and the other nations co-operating. We are encouraged not only by the results achieved, but by the atmosphere of goodwill that prevailed in London. That spirit of mutual understanding and co-operation is the happiest augury for the future. I am talking very optimistically.
“I am blamed for being too much of an optimist. Never mind. You and I know perfectly well from our own experiences in life that if you don’t try to do something, even if, as a matter of fact, you cannot get it, you will never do anything at all. In all this work the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations worked in the most complete harmony. I am indeed glad to pay tribute to the very able assistance we received service to all of us, and we nave bidden each other we hope will lead eventually to complete disarmament farewell with feelings of the most profound regret. I spoke over the wireless in London on the evening after the signature of the treaty, and Mr. Fenton came to the studio with me to see that I spoke correctly. I think he approved. In any case, there we parted; he turning to the right to start for Australia I turning to the left to go to Downing Street, and continue my work. He is now on the way back to you, and I hope that when he returns he will ring me up and renew the personal contact which has been established between us.
Now, my dear Mr, Scullin, 1 must finish my part of the talk. My greeting! to you, and Great Britain’s greetings to your people in Australia.”
“It is a very great delight to me, my dear Mr. Macdonald to again hear your voice after an interval of 24 years. I frequently recall your eloquent address when speaking from my platform in Ballarat during the 1916 elections. Your visit to Australia is still well remembered, and I recollect the pleasure I experienced when accompanying you during your tour of Ballarat. I look forward eagerly to meeting you again when I visit London in September next.
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“The strides made in scientific discoveries since we were associated on that occasion are brought home to us very forcibly by this official opening of the wireless telephone service between Australia and England. Henceforth although many thousands of miles of land and sea separate us, we shall from time to time be able to establish personal contact, and have friendly discussions on matters that concern the peoples of our two countries, we are especially pleased today because the whole wireless station for the Australian end of the international wireless-telephonic system was designed and manufactured by A.W.A. in Australia.
“We appreciate your sympathetic understanding of Australia’s present economic difficulties, and I am sure that you realise that whatever action we find it necessary to take to correct our trade balance, it is our earnest desire that the greatest possible cooperation and reciprocity shall obtain in the relations between Great Britain and Australia.
I have been very interested in what you have said on the subject of disarmament. We in Australia have followed with great interest the proceedings of the recent Naval Conference, and we admire very much what you have done in the interests of world peace. I endorse entirely what you have said. Security cannot be achieved by building up huge armaments. It will be brought nearer by a reduction in armaments, which among the nations of the world. When the Naval Conference first met we had great hopes that the result might be such that an agreement, the subject of Naval disarmament would give a real lead to the Continental powers to come to a similar agreement at Geneva as to land and air armaments. When we realise the many obstacles the members of the conference were encountering we began to fear that all your months of preparation might be fruitless. It was a great relief, however, to us to learn that a substantial agreement had been arrived at. I wish to thank you very sincerely for the generous tribute you have paid to the assistance rendered by my colleague (Mr. Fenton) and I am anxiously awaiting to hear from him in person a detailed account of the splendid work in which he was associated with you at the Naval Conference.
“I am glad also to hear that our cricketers have arrived safely and are hard at work. I know they will receive a hearty welcome in England as you have promised; but please do not be too lavish in your hospitality as they are seriously out to recover the ashes. I promise you there will be no embargo placed on the Ashes when they are brought into Australia. I am sure whoever wins will have earned the victory.
“The wonderful achievement, in which we are both participants today will, as you say, be the means of knitting our two countries ever closer and closer together.
“Australians have looked forward eagerly to the time when they could hear the voices of relatives and friends in Britain, This occasion marks the beginning of the fulfilment of their wishes. And now, my dear Mr. MacDonald, may I say that the delight I have realised in hearing your voice once again will, I hope be renewed, in a months time. In concluding this very important conversation, I would ask you to convey from the people of Australia cordial greetings to their kinsmen overseas. ”This is wonderful”, replied Mr. Macdonald, “It is just as if you were speaking in-the next room. I am so glad to hear your voice again. It has brought back many memories of long ago.
“Well, this is au revoir till September,”
said Mr. Scullin. We shall meet again then. Good-bye.”
A conversation then took place between Mr. Lloyd George and Mr.
Hughes M.P. Mr. Lloyd George said he would like to see Australia
and Mr Hughes said it was a delightful place, but was having a lot
of minor troubles and had a lot of pessimists. This led to some
comments on the atmospherics.
The first commercial call made between London and Australia followed shortly after the conversation between Mr Hughes and Mr Lloyd George.
Mr E.A. Gough, Manager of the Overseas Farmer’s Cooperative Federation in London rang up Mr. A.W. Wilson, Manager of the Cooperative Producers Wholesale Federation in Melbourne. Mr. C.E.B. Hears, General Manager of the Cooperative Producers Society of New South Wales also spoke to Mr. Wilson from London. Mr. Wilson said afterwards that he was satisfied with the clarity of the voices.
For God’s
Sake - Who Has Been Sliding in The Dish!
By Paul McCann [Top]
Another fine hot and dry day on the edge of the desert in a fine country town called Ceduna! How exciting it was to be a new technical officer in OTC – stationed for the first time, albeit temporarily, to Ceduna Satellite Earth Station in South Australia. I was around 21 years old, I had finished tech and was lucky enough to be selected to work in the Satellite Team – selected to work on the leading edge satellite communications systems! Well hey – that’s what I was told! We were the elite few – destined for exotic locations such as Carnarvon, Moree and for those lucky enough – Ceduna!! Over the years I can recall lots of great memories about these places but one I will never forget relates to my unfortunate inability to never say never – why reject a challenge!
In Ceduna there was a massive 90 foot standard A antenna – used to access the Indian Ocean Region satellites. Ceduna was actually the eastern most point in Australia that could satisfactorily access to the Indian Ocean satellites – there are lots of reasons why this site was chosen and I am sure there are others out there who can describe it and recall it in a lot more detail than I would do. (Please do – Ed) Anyway – that is not the point – what my point it is that in fact the antenna had a very low look angle – which means the face of the antenna looked out basically horizontal across the land – 5 degree look angle – it did not look upwards into the sky so much as it looked out to sea so to speak!
Well this antenna needed maintenance – to do that it was necessary to put the antenna into “stow” position. This is where the bore site of the antenna faced at 90 degrees – straight up into the sky! This sort of maintenance was only performed rarely as it of course required complete shut down of the facility. So how lucky was I - a new tech just arriving and I was going to see this massive structure move into stow position and would be able to see things close up that others could only just imagine!
Well after waiting what seemed like days (it was in fact only hours) the dish was in stow position – and with great eagerness the athletic few climbed the structure and via a small trap door entered the surface of this enormous white bowl – it was dark as the work was performed at night and this made it really eerie and awesome – it sort of felt like being on the moon!!
“Hey McCann,” was the call from behind.
“I bet you can’t make it to the edge of the dish!”
Never say never!!
I immediately took off for the edge and you know what – it gets steeper and steeper the closer you get to the edge – and of course being a finely tuned, specially shaped and honed surface – it actually got quite slippery! I never did make it – but I gave it a good shot!
The rest of the story is history – a day or so later Jack Gray, the Senior Tech and second in charge of the entire site drove up the drive of the earth station, the antenna of course back in the normal position – in the warm morning sunshine with the dish looking out to sea – two skid marks were clearly visible from the ground in front of the antenna. Jack in a fit of rage tore into the building and yelled at the top of his deep voice “whose been sliding in the f## dish” – why did everyone look at me!!!
They didn’t affect the antennas performance, but those skid marks stayed on the surface of that antenna for a very long time – why did they permanently assign me to Moree??
We can talk about that another time maybe!
HUNT THE KAISER’S
CRUISERS.
By Gordon Cupit. [Top]
A film on the above subject appeared on Channel 2 on 14th August. The theme of the film was about the German cruiser, Emden, which attacked the cable station on Cocos Island in World War One.
During the attack, the Australian cruiser, HMAS Sydney, appeared on the scene. The Sydney was on escort duties and at the time was near Cocos. The Emden was aware of this but understood that Sydney was further away. Sydney had been contacting other ships in the convoy on low power.
Fortunately, one of the cable station staff noticed that a fourth dummy funnel, made of canvas, wobbled and so alerted Sydney by radio. By this time Emden had sent a raiding party to the station, who lined up and guarded the staff and destroyed the radio aerials. It was at this stage that Sydney appeared and immediately attacked. Emden took to the sea and the land party was left behind. They continued to destroy the station equipment.
At this stage of the Channel 2 story, a number of errors were made:-
1. They stated that the Emden’s object was to destroy the Cocos radio station (this should have been stated as the cable station).
2. The Emden was filmed with three funnels instead of four.
3. In the short version of the battle they showed Emden sinking in deep water whereas she was run aground.
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During the battle, the landing party took to sea to try to board Emden but to no avail. This was not mentioned in the story but the whole picture from this stage was the successful evacuation by sailing ship and their final return to Germany. This was quite a feat and worth the story. They said that the schooner belonged to the station, whereas it belonged to the Governor of the islands. Members of the landing party on arrival in Germany were feted and the Kaiser gave them the Iron Cross and decreed that they could put Emden after their surname.
The story was written by a German and is a propaganda narrative, and little mention was made of the actual battle. This to Australia was a memorable event as it was the first battle ever of the newly formed Royal Australian Navy. It is to be noted that four of our veterans were members of the crew of the Sydney, namely Dave Fleming, Nat Clifford, Jack Kennedy and Len Thorndike. Len’s story of the battle appeared in volume 5, page 455 of the vets newsletters. A member of the cable station staff, Cresswell Hall, appeared on page 561. My detailed story appeared on page 513 and a story by one of the members of Emden’s crew in volume 4, pages 40 and 88.
All surviving members of Sydney’s crew and all members of the cable staff serving at the time were awarded a medal to commemorate the victory.
A plaque was erected on the island in 1960 on the site where the landing parties landed.
In addition, I appeared on radio station 2BL on Anzac Day and was interviewed by Andrew Olle. As a result of this interview I was phoned by Mrs A. Sommerville, the daughter of Cresswell Hall, who gave me the story by her father and a number of pictures of the battle, which we were able to copy.
LIFE MEMBERSHIP FOR KEITH
MCCREDDEN
By Tom Barker [Top]
Keith was awarded Life Membership of the OTVA at the 2008 AGM, in recognition of his outstanding services to the Vets. Keith also deserves to be recognised as one of the small (and fast diminishing) number of people who served on remote Island cable stations and also in the first of the computer-age telecommunications installations, the MRSC.
He joined OTC in 1955, in the MOR, as a Traffic Assistant, where the duties included numbering and checking inwards and outwards telegrams as well as that duty made famous by Mick Wood's write-up on Bundling. Keith studied (in his own time) in Charlie Carthew's Training School, to become a Telegraphist, Morse Code. Typing and reading Wheatstone punched tape, Undulator tape and 5 Unit tape, which was just being introduced into OTC in those days.
In January, 1961, he was accepted into the Sydney Cable Training School, to learn about telegraph cable equipment and he was then appointed to Fanning Island, which he reached in October, after waiting for a ship and gaining experience at the Suva Cable Station for six weeks. During his two years on Fanning Island, Keith was one of those few people (I know Lou Brown was another) who witnessed the Atomic Bomb tests, at Christmas Island, which were visible over the horizon.
Keith wrote an article for the OTVA Newsletter about that experience.
The opening of Compac Cable in 1963, saw the closure of the Pacific Telegraph system and Keith was to witness the closure of the Fanning Island Station, after which he took extended leave and returned to Australia the “long way round” before being posted to Cocos Island for 15 months.
This was a different experience to Fanning Island, due to the improved contact with the outside world, via the air services to West Island.
Keith returned to Sydney in early 1966 and commenced duties in the ISTC at Paddington, which was a very different work experience to what he had seen in previous years. He met his wife, Gai Campbell, shortly afterwards and they were married in 1967. In 1969, Keith was transferred to the MRSC, in the second group trained in that new area of OTC operations. He was to see 10 years of service in that area, eventually rising to STO3 in charge of that group and also serving as a representative on the PREIA Governing Council.
In 1979, Keith was promoted to Manager of Carnarvon SES, where his family, by then comprising 3 sons, were to live until 1983, when Keith was transferred to Moree. His family spent 7.5 years in these satellite stations and Keith believes it was a great experience which benefitted them all.
He is full of praise for the skills and the ingenuity of OTC Technical Staff, who solved some difficult problems in ways which were not truly recognised by Head Office.
On his return to Sydney, Keith worked as Deputy Manager, Broadway and then Manager Broadway, before retiring from OTC in 1992. He then worked for Optus in their Network Operations Centre until 2001, when he finally retired, for good.
Keith served on the Committee of the OTVA for many years and he earned my personal gratitude when he agreed (at very short notice) to assume the role of President, when I was obliged to stand down for health reasons. In recent years, Keith and Gai have travelled extensively around Australia with a small camper trailer, as well as making some overseas expeditions.
Keith thoroughly deserves his Life Membership of the OTVA and I wish to thank him, personally, for his contributions to our association.
Keith McCredden writes:-
Cricket
I started playing mid week cricket with the MOR team in the 56/57
season and attended my first Australia day Wagga Wagga weekend in
1957 playing for the Melbourne team. In those days Wagga was a men
only weekend with a Smoko on the Saturday night and cricket on Sunday.
I remember some great skits about some of the OTC departments written
and played by some of the very talented staff from both MOR and
SOR. Each year until 1961 I played for Melbourne before missing
a few years due to overseas postings.
On my return to Sydney in 1966, I started playing Saturday morning cricket with the OTC Sydney Cricket Club and of course played for Sydney at Wagga. Any time I did something good for the Sydney team, that wonderful cricketer Johnny Norris (Captain of the Melbourne team for many years) would exclaim “I taught him everything he knows!” The OTC Sydney team won the local competition Premiership in the 71/72 season which was a great thrill.
I attended Wagga and played cricket most of the years up until 1979 when I transferred to Carnarvon. During those years, OTC was under the leadership of Harold White and with the influence of his wife Sonya, the weekend changed and became a mixed weekend with many other sports being added to include the OTC ladies and non cricketers. After my return to Sydney in 1987 I continued to go to the Wagga Weekends as a spectator until the 50th Wagga weekend. I would like to commend Bob Dean who organised the Wagga Weekend for many years even though it became a struggle once MOR closed and then when OTC disappeared into the Telstra ”merger”. The friendships developed through OTC Cricket and Wagga weekends continue to this time.
OTVA
My involvement with the OTVA on the committee commenced about the
time Tom Barker was elected President. For a number of years I organised
the functions, which went from 2 per year to quarterly under the
new President. This task had its frustration but also its pleasures.
I got to know a lot of people I had not met throughout my OTC years
and got to speak to many of them several times per year.
I was happy to assist OTVA when Tom’s health forced him resign
as President. I could not continue with this position as Gai and
I had been planning to travel around Australia with our camper trailer
the following year.
New Member Richard Cleave
by Tom Barker [Top]
Tom Barker chronicles a wonderful career in telecommunications.
Richard is a new member of the OTVA and as I am one of the few members who know him I have been asked to introduce him to our membership. Although he has not worked for OTC (in fact has never worked in Australia) Richard's life and career is like that of many of our members, although it existed in a “parallel universe”.
Born in the UK (near Epsom) he joined Cable and Wireless in 1966 and spent the first half of his career in the Traffic Department, in the days when telex was replacing telegrams as the big growth area in international telecommunications.
He later transferred to the International Commercial Department, where the emphasis was on selling Private leased networks, hubbed in Hong Kong, Bahrain and the Caribbean, to multi-national companies. This is the area where OTC was experiencing the superior ability of C&W to deliver those services in loss of this business to that company. Those of us who were working in George Maltby's Commercial Branch, knew at first hand, how good they were at this business.
Richard's work involved plenty of travel and I and others from OTC, first met him at such International Sales Conventions as the TCA and ICA, held annually in various U.S. cities. His gregarious nature, ready wit and raucous laugh were recognised by everybody involved in those occasions. He is one of the most well-known and widely liked individuals amongst the international carrier community.
Our paths crossed again in 1987, when I was posted to work in the New York office of OTC. Richard was in charge of Sales in the New York office of Cable and Wireless, at that time (from 1985) and was one of the few non-Americans in that office. As C&W had bought full ownership of Mercury, they were in direct competition with British Telecom, for trans-Atlantic business. Inevitably, we saw a lot of each other, in our daily business lives. As Richard is a hopeless cricket tragic and his wife, Mardie, is an Australian, we had a few things in common and we used to meet, fairly regularly, at meetings of the Australian-American society, held at the Australian Consulate and also at various inter-carrier functions, etc, where we became close friends. On the occasion of the Australian Bicentenary, in January, 1988, we had a celebration in the OTC office at White Plains, which was attended by a number of people from US Carrier companies, Australian company representatives and also British Telecom and Cable and Wireless. It was a pretty good show and I still have fond memories of that day.
In late 1989, I was due to return to Sydney and Richard was also leaving his US posting. He had a farewell function, to which Greg Dunfield (my U.S. offsider) and I were invited and then Greg organised a send-off for me, which Richard attended. Then Richard responded by inviting Greg and me to another (less formal) bash at an Irish Bar near Grand Central Station and we answered this with yet another (even boozier) send-off, for him. If we hadn't actually both left town it could have proved fatal for both of us.
Remarkably, the next year, I was working for WorldCom as their agent, for Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, while Richard was in charge of the Sales Office of Hong Kong Telecom (which belonged to C & W then, of course). We met about four times a year, when I made my customer visits in Hong Kong, and it was always arranged that one of these occurred in March, when the Hong Kong Sevens Rugby competition was held and another in September, when the Hong Kong Sixes Cricket contest took place. In 1996, Richard was posted to the Maldives, where he and Mardie spent another two years.
When Richard retired, in 1998, he and Mardie went to live in Cyprus, where they had built a sunny villa, but after several years of trekking backwards and forwards, between there and Australia (to visit Mardie's relatives) and the U.K. (mainly for the cricket) they finally decided to settle in Mooloolaba, which is where they are now.
I have often sent him excerpts from the OTVA Newsletter, which I knew would interest him and he has now become a financial member. I am hopeful that he will find an opportunity to come to Sydney, sometime, where he can attend one of our reunions and meet with our membership.
Erratum
[Top]
Our last edition incorrectly identified this picture. In reality it is Brian Woods, Ted Miles and Ray Hookway. Thanks to Tim Jensen for bring this to our notice.
VALE [Top]
The inimitable Doug Lloyd passed away on the morning of the 13th of April, 2008, in Brisbane. He had been very ill for some time with motor-neurone disease. His funeral was held at the Chapel of the Ballycara Nursing Home, Oyster Point Drive. Scarborough, Queensland.
Bill Davey writes the following tribute:-
I had the pleasure of working with Doug in the ISTC at Paddo for a while and he was a unique character. A couple of tales come to mind.
One time, while at Guam Cable Station, Doug came across a dead rat on the road. He decided a good use for the dead rat would be to place it in one of his US Air Force mate's car boot. After about a week in the hot sun, the colleague finally found the decomposing Rat and immediately fronted Doug (being the likely source). Doug freely admitted putting the rat in the boot and the rationale he used was it would be a shame to waste the opportunity to put the dead rat to good use.
Another practical joke on Guam went a bit wrong. Guam at the time was a Strategic Air Command site with bombing runs over Vietnam launched from the Air Force Base there. Doug, as a joke, lifted one of his US Air Force officer mate's flying jacket. Early the next morning, Doug reported he was rudely awakened looking down the wrong end of a US MP's gun. Unfortunately for Doug, the jacket also contained the US SAC pass his mate was obliged to report as missing (and the likely suspect).
While working in the Cairns Cable Station, one of the TO2's decided to run a 200pr tie cable. This was, of course, TO1 work. The TO2 had terminated one end of the cable and fanned out the other end of the cable ready to terminate the next day. On the night shift, Doug decided he would replace the unterminated end with a short run of cable into the cable tray. On completing the termination of the cable the next day, there was no continuity. When tracing the cable, a note was tied to the short end. It Read "Fe Fi Fo Fum, you got the wrong cable chum!" This incident resulted in a series of tit-for-tat practical jokes, including wiring the station cable alarm to a motion detector etc.
There are lots of others.........
A further tribute from John Eades
Sorry to hear of his passing, he was a bloke that once you met him you couldn’t forget the person or the name.
As a young trainee I was assigned to the Stevens group up in the AWA building in York St, to learn Morse. As a country lad I was pretty naïve to a lot of things. Doug was in the training school, (he could have just come off boats, not too sure of that) also on the key pad knocking out Morse.
I was sitting beside him on one occasion and he said to me, “Do you want to see my stork?” He then started to role up his trouser leg of his pants. I have to say I was bloody horrified and it must have shown on my face. He tried to reassure me it was no problem and of course you most probably know the rest of the story... On the inside of his leg he had a “stork – bird” tattooed. Great laughter at my expense.
In the same building, training school, there was a lane way at the back. We must have had the ability to view the lane way and the roller shutter which was part of a building on the opposite side of the laneway to the school. Doug made up these very realistic paper turds and placed them at the entrance and in front of the roller shutter. You can guess the response of the guy who came to open the shutter.
No two ways about it, another colourful ex-OTC character gone. I don’t think modern society with equal opportunities, OH&S, and other restrictions would allow those characters to develop.
Laurel Dean has advised us of the passing of her husband, Peter “Dizzy” Dean, from hydrocephalous from on the 25th of July, 2008.
Peter worked in the SOR and the International Telegraph Operating Centres (INTLX SYD) at Spring St, Martin Place, Paddington and Broadway. He was 78 years of age.
Tribute from Jim Anderson:-
Peter Dean was my idea of "the little Aussie battler". His excuses for being late for his shift were not only original but reflected the bad luck that seemed to dog him throughout life. Example, "I would have been on time only that my car got bogged in the mud in my drive-way and I had to get a tow truck to drag me clear", but my heart bled for him when he described how he was saving up to take his wife on a second honeymoon trip but had to forego that because he had to use the money to repair the front porch that had collapsed when one of his kids had run into the main stanchion with his pushbike. He was a strong family man and dearly loved by his wife and kids, all of whom were the loves of his life.
I recall the time when Peter decided to take his kids to the zoo. He had about six of them and each wanted to bring along their best mate. Pete had too big a heart to refuse them, so off went Pete with twelve kids for a day at the zoo. His main achievement was getting them all back on the ferry for the return trip home. All went well until one of the kids got his head jammed between the deck bollards of the ferry, resulting in the ferry crew and the captain frantically manoeuvring the ferry to prevent the child's head from being crushed between the mooring piles and the wharf. He relieved us all with his final statement, "Fortunately it was one of my kids so the neighbours had nothing to whinge about". The incidents in his life were too numerous and varied to mention here. Boil him down and you wouldn't have got an ounce of venom in his remains.
Ave et Vale, Pete. It was a pleasure to have known you......Ando.
Joyce Matthysz - 5/8/08
Maurie Matthysz was one of the STO2's who worked in the ITMC at Paddington from the 1960s to the late 1980s. His wife, Joyce, passed away on August 5 2008 and her funeral was on Monday August 11th 2008 at the Magnolia Chapel, Macquarie Park Crematorium.
John Bragg – 25/07/08
Kim Hopkins reports: John Bragg's funeral was held on July 29th at the Gordon Uniting Church. A number of telecom colleagues attended and he was well remembered for his exploits and achievements. His Daughter Elizabeth van Oyen spoke well on his behalf as a family man. A telecom friend of long standing, Kevin, spoke of his years in telecommunications and his many entrepreneurial endeavours.
Scott and Elizabeth both expressed interest in
hearing any of the many stories that people who knew him might wish
to share. Scott Bragg can be contacted at - faulteh@gmail.com and
his Daughter Elizabeth can be contacted at - nickvo@optusnet.com.au.
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