Station: from the Water tank

Photos taken from the Water tank

Here’s a collection of photos of Honeysuckle Creek, taken from at or near the water tank which was located on the ridge 485m SSE of the antenna. The water tank was the best place to get an overall vew of the station – so thanks to everyone who has provided a photo.

(Do you have others we could add? Contact.)

The photos are in chronological order.

Milton Turner supplied this photo taken before the construction was complete, probably 1966. It is one of a series of photos preserved on proof sheets. An unknown observer sits on a granite boulder adjacent to the area bulldozed for the water tank.

Next to the car park (where the Skylab Command Antenna would later stand), the builders offices of T H O’Connor, the Department of Works contractor, can still be seen.

Scan: Betty Saxon, enhancement: Colin Mackellar.

Ian Hahn took this photo before the construction was complete, probably 1966.

The microwave relay tower at the western end of the Operations Building has not yet been constructed and the guard house (at what would be the main gate) has not yet been built. The site looks deserted – and no cars are visible. T H O’Connor’s temporary offices are gone.

Hamish Lindsay took this photo after the microwave tower and guard house had been added, but before before construction was finished.

Note the red truck on the antenna pad – and the builders’ huts at far left.

Large (600kb), Larger (2.1MB), Largest (6.1MB).

Here’s an annotated photo – 800kb PDF file.

Photo: Hamish Lindsay. Scanned by Nevil Eyre.

Here’s an annotated version of the photo above. 800kb PDF file.

David Hooper (Telemetry 1967–68) took this photo.

Note the snow on the hills in the distance. The American flag is just visible, while the Australian flag is too difficult to pick out. The cherrypicker stands near the base of the antenna.

Ted Barnes (who worked at Orroral) took this photo in late 1969.

Hamish Lindsay took this photo in the winter of 1969, around the time of Apollo 11.

Of special note is the tower on the right hand side of the picture. This was the temporary Outside Broadcast tower set up to relay the Apollo 11 television from the Honeysuckle microwave tower to the Outside Broadcast van parked next to the Cooma–Canberra microwave tower east of Williamsdale (18km away). From there, the signal went to Red Hill in Canberra, and then on to Sydney.

The Honeysuckle microwave tower didn’t have a direct view of the Williamsdale tower, hence the temporary link was set up alongside the road.

Large, Larger (2.3MB).

Hamish Lindsay took this photo sometime between 1970 and Skylab.

Visible between the Operations Building and the 26 metre antenna is the Near Coll Tower.

At the far right is the temporary TV relay tower described above.

Large, Larger (1.8MB), Largest 5.6MB).

Preserved and scanned by Neil Sandford, restoration Colin Mackellar.

Here’s an annotated version of the photo above. 1.4MB PDF file.

Milton Turner provided this photo of the station during Skylab.

Large, Larger.

See also this panorama (1.1MB) created by stitching together the above photo and another taken on the same roll of film.

Scott Hendry took this photo towards the end of the Deep Space era, around 1981.

Note how much the vegetation has grown up since the first photos.