Honeysuckle Creek: Construction

Honeysuckle Creek Construction – Waren Kain

In 1966, Waren Kain, working for Aeron Ventilation (based in Stanley Street, Peakhurst, in Sydney) joined a small team installing the air-conditioning and related systems at Honeysuckle Creek.

He lived in the workers camp at the site for seven or eight months, travelling back to Canberra on weekends.

Life in the camp was spartan. The diesel generator would be turned off at 9:00pm and restarted at 4:00am by Larry the Cook so that he could prepare breakfast.

Thank you to Waren Kain for sharing these photos! (All photos except the aerial view are by Waren Kain. Scans by Colin Mackellar.)

Photo 10.

The workers construction camp. It’s now in roughly the same spot as the Honeysuckle Campsite. The aerial photos on this page give some context. See below also.

Context photo.

The arrow shows Waren’s approximate location and orientation for the photo. From a late May 1966 aerial photo scanned by Geoff Seymour.

Here is an enhanced detail from the above photo.

Here is an labelled detail from the above photo.
Photo: Waren Kain. Scan and notes: Colin Mackellar.

Photo 1.

The Aeron Ventilation sheet metalwork team at Honeysuckle Creek, May 1966.

Left to right: Waren Kain, Bobby Willis, Stan Tarran, Mick Blood.

Photo 9.

Alongside the Power House.

This tank was filled with salt water and used as a dummy load to test the diesel generators. It’s also visible in this photo.

Left to right:

Mick Blood, Waren Kain, Billy Beadell (Instrument fitter), ?? Mechanical Plumber, Ronnie Dealey (Mechanical Plumber), Peter Kyle (Electrician), ?? Electrician.