Orroral Valley Tracking Station, ACT

 

Photos by Jim Thompson


Clive Broomfield has scanned these photos he has preserved. They were taken by Jim Thompson in the 1970s. (Thanks to Jim for permission to use them here!)

The larger versions are around 500kb each, with the full resolution scans at around 2MB.


Orroral Valley

Clive Broomfield (at Orroral from June 1966 to June 1977) preserved and scanned these photos.

Orroral Valley

The Orroral Valley 26m antenna. Large, Larger (2MB).

Photo: Jim Thompson. Scan: Clive Broomfield.

Orroral Valley

The Orroral Valley 26m antenna at night – in stow position.

Photo: Jim Thompson. Scan: Clive Broomfield.

Orroral Valley

Gordon Owttrim on shift.

Photo: Jim Thompson. Scan: Clive Broomfield.

Orroral Valley

SATAN receive antenna.

Photo: Jim Thompson. Scan: Clive Broomfield.

Orroral Valley

SATAN receive antenna, close up.

Photo: Jim Thompson. Scan: Clive Broomfield.

Orroral Valley

Orroral Tracking Station from the collimation Tower.
Large, Larger (2MB).

Photo: Jim Thompson. Scan: Clive Broomfield.

Orroral Valley

Satellite computers processing data to down load to the SCAMA line to Goddard.

Photo: Jim Thompson. Scan: Clive Broomfield.

Orroral Valley

Staff crossing the Orroral River in flood.

“The cherry picker was from Woomera and the basket was modified to work on missiles. It weighed 14 tons and they started to cross from the left hand edge of the road by the time they reached the other side they were hard up against the right hand edge of the road.

As you can see the water was a metre deep and from that point it drops about 500 feet down to the valley floor at the other side of Fitz Hill. All future staff changes when the river was up, was done by helicopter when the weather allowed.” – Clive Broomfield.

Photo: Jim Thompson. Scan: Clive Broomfield.

Orroral Valley

Multi function receivers.

Photo: Jim Thompson. Scan: Clive Broomfield.

 

(Larger versions of most of these are available.)