Monday, 7 April 2025
We had another good roll up of thirty-four (34) for this event, including Bill Lyons (a guest of Harley Storch) – Welcome Bill and trust you enjoyed your day out.
Following our usual meet and greeting, including our general and safety briefings, we loaded up the coach and headed off to the Pan Pacific Peace Gardens, Redbank for our smoko of freshly made sandwiches, prepared once again by Lorraine Betros – Thank you again Lorraine.
After smoko at Redbank we loaded up again and travelled on to the Telecommunications Museum where we were met and welcomed by Anthony Mitchell (Treasurer of the Museum) and Ronald Tew (Vice President of the Museum).
We were divided up into 2 smaller groups and each group had a guide, either Anthony or Ronald, who had been a former PMG or Telecom technician that may have once worked on this exchange.
One group took advantage of sitting in a theatrette with about 30 seats to view a 40-minute film detailing the history of Australia’s development of communications across our vast continent. The film introduced by Comedian Russel Hughes acknowledged that our early communications were influenced by the indigenous community with the “Cooee” that to the indigenous was a warning call but has been used as a call to connect people across the land.
The other group went ahead to see the instruments used over the years initially from Semaphore advancing to Morse Code then advancing to Plug and Cord and Automatic Telephone Exchanges. It was amazing to see how small ingenious advancements by backyard inventors as well as technicians led to more and more ingenious equipment and how that has connected us all in so many ways. A few instruments of intrigue were those used in war times, Picturegrams, Plug & Cord Exchanges, the “BRICK” mobile phone, the internet, and now on to the mobile phones of today that can do most everything you need and all fits in our pocket.
Mark had invited his brother Michael along to demonstrate the morse code. He was one of the very last people in the Queensland Railway to send messages via morse. Michael explained that the railway and post office shared their morse lines to ensure communications for everyone was able to get through. He could tell you a lot of stories about his exploits of working with Rail and PMG technicians. Thanks, Michael, for joining us today.
The tour took about 2 hours. Comments from most say that it was a very valuable tour seeing the fully restored equipment held in the museum.
After lunch we acknowledged & celebrated birthdays falling in April in our usual manner with Birthday cake, Viz Michael Bourke, Gary Dwyer, Trevor Hohn, Denis McCarthy, Pat McNamee, Neil Phelan, Bill Phillips & Peter Thompson.
In closing, special thanks to those who contributed to making this another safe & enjoyable event for all attendees, including:
- Mark Rowland – For organising this event.
- Ronald New and Anthony Mitchell – Museum volunteers, for an excellent guided tour & demonstration of equipment – Well done & most appreciated.
- Lorraine Betros – For providing us with a variety of freshly made sandwiches.
- Staff at the Centenary Tavern – For a great lunch.
- Warwick Dingle & Harley Storch – For being on duty as our Trusty First Aid Officers, along with Warwick for his Safety Briefing; & his usual gig as head counter ensuring we didn’t leave anybody behind at each stop.
- Peter Thompson – For his usual Gig as our coach doorman ensuring we all were able to get off & on the coach safely at each stop.
- Warwick Dingle & Russell Mauch – For looking after our finances & name badges, & Russell for the receipting & banking of our surplus cash.
- Warwick Dingle, Russell Mauch, Sandy Fraser & Mark Rowland – For the cutting up & serving of our birthday cake.
- Ron Lewis, Lindsay Reis & Eric Canning – The three musketeers for their usual Gig of looking after our hydration & hygiene needs with bottled water & handwash respectively, along with loading & unloading of the coach, as required.
- Harley Storch, Paul Reynolds & Sandy Fraser – For dispersing the hot water & cups etc. at smoko.
- Jan Neal – For making our much-appreciated birthday cake.
- Nick Peters – Our favorite driver for transporting us to & from Brisbane safely.
- Mark Rowland – For his Synopsis of the “Event Guided Tour Highlights”, & for taking on this role permanently (when he is in attendance) – Thanks Mark much appreciated.
Dick
8 April 2025