Mrs O’Donahue at Hamelin Pool saves the day

Mrs O’Donahue at Hamelin Pool.

The launch of the unmanned Gemini 1 spacecraft.

On Wednesday April 8th, 1964, the first unmanned Gemini mission, GT-1, stood ready for launch. Though not yet officially opened, Carnarvon Tracking Station was supporting the mission. At this time, all of Carnarvon’s telecommunications was carried via PMG (Post Masters General Department) telephone lines.

Western Australian telecommunications historian John Moynihan writes,

Between 1948 and 1952 a telephone trunk line was erected, inland, between Mullewa and Carnarvon, via Gascoyne Junction. This was designated trunk 709. It was connected to Perth by a carrier telephone circuit ex Mullewa.

Just over a minute before the liftoff of GT-1, a lightning strike 105 km from the station cut off links between Carnarvon Tracking Station and the township with all points south. John Lambie, PMG tech supporting the station, remembers,

This ‘open wire’ trunk line carried the 12 channel voice carrier system, plus the voice frequency telegraph system. The lightning strike had vaporised 3 metres of heavy copper wire and the outage caused the town to be cut off from the outside world. This was before troposcatter systems and OTC Intelsat communication backup so the tracking station was also without SCAMA and Teletype connection to the worldwide NASCOM network, and Goddard Space Flight Centre, Maryland, USA.

Quick thinking by staff in the Perth main trunk room terminated the NASCOM telegraph traffic channel to Carnarvon, and in collaboration with the technician staff at Mullewa looked at the options to pass information to Carnarvon.

In the late 19th century and early days of the 20th century, when electric Morse communications had been established along the coast, they had suffered with salt spray build-up and unreliability. When voice telephony systems were planned, it was thought reliability would be improved by choosing an inland trunk route from Carnarvon, via Gascoyne Junction, and the pastoral town of Mullewa, then on down to Perth.

Primitive single wire, earth return circuits still ran down the coast from Carnarvon to Hamelin Pool and then to Shark Bay. Similar single wire circuits ran across country from Mullewa to Northampton, and from Northampton to Hamelin Pool. The lines from Mullewa to Northampton and Northampton to Hamelin had recently been made redundant and sold off for scrap. Thankfully, the contractor had not begun the job of recovering the wire and poles, and a circuit link was a possibility.

Old earth return circuits from Mullewa to Northampton and Hamelin Pool, and then from Hamelin Pool to Carnarvon, were pressed into service.

Carnarvon Telephone Exchange’s Cameron Clarke on a filter pole on Trunk Route 709. John Lambie explains what a filter pole was: “Trunk 709 Carnarvon to Mullewa carried the 12 channel (J) carrier system, (60-108khz) with repeaters at Gascoyne Junction, and Curbur. Very large sheep stations along the way also had their telephone services connected to the trunk via low pass filters. Low pass filters were passive resister, capacitor networks to permit voice frequency and signalling to the manual telephone exchanges at Carnarvon or Mullewa, without causing interference to the carrier systems (voice and telegraph). The filter offered high attenuation to carrier frequencies. The picture of Cameron shows the filter box attached to the cross arm. Doorawarrah, Brickhouse, and Gascoyne junction were connected to Carnarvon exchange. Dairy Creek, Bigemia, (I visited both) and others Byro, Curbur to Mullewa.” Transparency: John Lambie. Scan: Colin Mackellar.

The Postmistress at Hamelin Pool, Mrs Lillian O’Donahue, was raised on the ringdown magneto line and told of the predicament. She grasped the situation and quickly dressed.

Meanwhile pages of numeric pointing data from the teletype page was relayed by PMG technical staff from the Perth Trunk room to the Mullewa telephone exchange, transcribed and repeated from Mullewa to Hamelin Pool.

Mrs O’Donahue repeated the numbers to the supervising technician, Cameron Clarke at Carnarvon Telephone exchange. Cameron repeated the strings of numbers directly to Arch Durie at CRO. Manual input into the station’s command systems then enabled the station tracking systems to begin acquiring a signal from the spacecraft on the next orbit pass.

Mrs Lillian O’Donahue, Postmistress at the lonely outpost of Hamelin Pool, near Shark Bay. Photo: John Lambie. Scan: Colin Mackellar.

The data from Mrs. O’Donahue was relayed via Cameron Clarke at Carnarvon Telephone exchange to Arch Durie (pictured) in the Comms room at Carnarvon Tracking Station. Image from 1964 Department of Supply film footage.

PMG’s Cameron Clarke relayed information through Carnarvom Telephone Exchange. This photo shows him on a filter pole on Trunk Route 709. Photo: John Lambie. Scan: Colin Mackellar.

John Moynihan has transcribed the text of this article from page 2 of The West Australian newspaper of Friday 10th April 1964.

A PMG internal memo commended Mrs O’Donahue for her work. John Moynihan writes that she also received £2 19s 5d as an overtime payment. At the decimalisation of Australia’s currency two years later this payment would have been worth $5.95.

The PMG memo outlining the events and commending Mrs. O’Donahue. With thanks to John Moynihan.

Scan: John Moynihan.

John Lambie concludes,

Mrs O’Donahue was recognised by NASA and given a special award.

From The New York Times, May 31 1964 Australian Couple Honored For Relaying Gemini Data “Mrs. Lillian O’Donohue, postmistress at Hamelin Pool, a small settlement 500 miles north of Perth, has the most exclusive set of earrings in Australia. Her husband can say the same about his cufflinks. They are gifts from the United States National Aeronautical and Space Administration in the form of tiny models of Project Mercury spacecraft. They were officially presented to the O’Donohues by officers from the agency’s tracking station at Carnarvon in appreciation of the emergency part the couple played during the flight of a Gemini spacecraft April 8 and April 9. Severe thunderstorms had damaged telephone lines between Carnarvon and Perth but essential information relating to the time the Gemini was launched and details of its path through space were relayed through Hamelin Pool from a control center in the United States to the Carnarvon tracking station. …” – With thanks to John Paskulich via John Lambie for the text!

 

Mrs O’Donahue was a great soul, her husband was a real spontaneous character. Visitors were always welcome. I made several trips to Hamelin Pool, to do installation of a two-band system, filters, and a new switch-board. They thought nothing of putting you up with board and meals. They were also great collectors of sea shells and made ornaments etc.

Part of the O’Donahues’ shell collection! Photo: John Lambie.

Hamelin Pool Post Office and Telephone exchange in 1965. John writes: “Hamelin Pool Post Office and Telephone Exchange, 1965, home of Lillian o’Donohue and husband Pat. Note new 10 line Pyramid switchboard and equipment on back board. I had just unloaded from the PMG van.” Photo: John Lambie. Scan: Colin Mackellar.

Public Telephone cabinet at Hamelin Pool in 1964. Photo: John Lambie. Scan: Colin Mackellar.

Hamelin Pool Post Office and Telegraph Station back in 1938. From left: Lineman’s quarters; Post Office; Cart, harness & chaff shed; Postmaster’s quarters. Scan and notes: John Moynihan.

The Tropospheric scatter system set up between Carnarvon Tracking Station and Geraldton – and later the nearby OTC satellite earth station – improved the reliability of communications with the outside world.

The Tropospheric scatter system next to the USB antenna at Carnarvon. Photo: John Lambie.

With thanks to John Lambie, and to John F. Moynihan, who also wrote “The Hamelin Pool Telegraph Station” – published by Telecom Australia, Corporate Affairs Directorate, Perth, in 1994. It’s an 80 page paperback, ISBN 0642203377. Thanks also to Hamish Lindsay, who recounts the events on page 94 of Tracking Apollo to the Moon.

Photo restoration: Colin Mackellar.

The story was reported in Goddard’s Technical Information Bulletin Vol 2, No 10, 14 May 1964. Preserved by Hamish Lindsay, scanned by Colin Mackellar. Other Technical Information Bulletins on this page.

Update: Hamelin Pool Post Office and Telegraph Station (now museum) in August 2014.

Hamelin Pool Post Office and Telegraph Station in 2014. Photo: Jeff & Lucy Strange.

Hamelin Pool Post Office and Telegraph Station in 2014. Photo: Jeff & Lucy Strange.

Hamelin Pool Post Office and Telegraph Station in 2014. Photo: Jeff & Lucy Strange.

Hamelin Pool Post Office and Telegraph Station in 2014. Photo: Jeff & Lucy Strange.