In March 1967, Christopher Kraft and Tecwyn Roberts visited Carnarvon. They were in Australia for the opening of Honeysuckle Creek.

Left to right:

1. Chris Kraft Jr (NASA’s first Flight Director),
2. Lewis Wainwright (Carnarvon Station Director),
3. Tec Roberts (Chief of the Manned Flight Operations Division),
4. Fred Mitchell (the AWA Company Manager)*,
5. John South (Goddard Representative to Australia),
6. Claus Petersen (UNIVAC Implementation Engineer)** .

Scan: Colin Mackellar.
* Thanks to Trevor Housley for confimation.
** Thanks to Honeysuckle’s Bryan Sullivan for the ID.

NASA’s first Flight Director, and then Assistant Director for Flight Operations, Chris Kraft, and Tecwyn Roberts, Chief of Manned Flight Operations Division, visited Australia for the opening on Honeysuckle Creek on 21st March 1967.

The photo above was taken at the Honeysuckle opening.
(Left to right: Edmond C Buckley, Christopher Kraft, Willson Hunter.)

A few days earlier, in the company of John South, Goddard’s Representative to Australia, they visited Carnarvon.

Mr Kraft was the guest speaker at a special meeting of the Rotary Club. The meeting was held at the bar of the Carnarvon Race Club.

The visit is mentioned on pages 184-185 of “Carnarvon and Apollo” by Paul Dench and Alison Gregg.

Audio file from the National Archives of Australia. With special thanks to Brian Larwood, who arranged the digital transfer. Audio noise reduction and photo scan by Colin Mackellar.

Deputy Secretary to the Department of Supply, Lloyd Bott, and the Department of Supply’s Jim Mills, speak with Alan Shepard at the Tropical Festival Show Grounds in September 1968.

Paul Dench contributes:

“The photo was taken at the Carnarvon Tropical Festival Show Grounds (commonly known as the Pony Club) September 1968 when Alan Shepard was a special guest of Carnarvon and the NASA Tracking Station.

Alan led the Festival parade down Robinson Street in a low-flying white open-topped sports car then wandered around the show ground and spent a long time on the old Gemini consoles set up at the show ground talking with youngsters on the intercom. He spent the next morning at CRO talking to staff and leaving hand-prints in wet cement before he flew back home.

Jim Mills was associated with CRO as the Department of Supply man on the spot being Western Australia’s State Controller of DoS responsible for everyday negotiations on building matters both Station and staff housing, cost control, and liaison with the Shire Council and the State Government.

The band was the Western Command Band.”

Autographed photo from the collection of Lloyd Bott. Large, Larger.

Scanned by Ken Sheridan, image restoration Colin Mackellar.
With thanks to Michael Bott.

Alan Shepard gets into the sports car for the parade down Robinson Street.

L-R: Jim Mills, Alan Shepard, Willson Hunter (?) and Lloyd Bott.

Photo from the collection of Lloyd Bott. Large, Larger. Caption.

Scanned by Ken Sheridan, image restoration Colin Mackellar. With thanks to Michael Bott.