Hear the opening ceremony DSIF-42 Tidbinbilla opening ceremony full audio – 36 minutes / 17.2MB mp3.

On the recording:

(click each link to hear only that section, or click the full audio link above to hear it all.)

00:00 – Australian National Anthem ‘God Save the Queen’.

00:31 – Australian Minister for Supply Allen Fairhall.

08:47 – Message read from US President Lyndon Johnson.

10:20 – Allen Fairhall introduces the Prime Minister.

10:35 – Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies.

18:09 – NASA Associate Administrator Edmond C Buckley.

32:31 – Messages from the Network are introduced –

32:54 – DSIF-51 Johannesburg.

33:21 – Walt Larkin, Goldstone.

33:57 – Acting StaDir DSIF-41, Island Lagoon.

34:36 – Concluding remarks from Mr. Fairhall.

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Audio tape preserved in the National Archives of Australia.
Thanks to Brian Larwood for obtaining this copy.
File consolidation and noise reduction by Colin Mackellar.

Photo: Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies and NASA Associate Administrator Edmond C Buckley (who is apparently holding the sheet which had been covering the model of the antenna) on Opening Day, 19th March 1965.

Photo preserved by Mike Dinn, scan by Colin Mackellar.