CDSCC Visitors’ Centre


The CDSCC Visitors’ Centre was established in the late 1970s by Tidbinbilla’s Admin and Public Relations Officer, Bernard Scrivener.

In 1980, Station Director Tom Reid commissioned Hamish Lindsay to draw up plans for a larger centre, including an exhibition on the Voyager 1 and 2 missions. This was opened in 1981. In the late 1980s, Hamish was called back to add extra material on the Voyager encounters with Uranus and Neptune.

Today, known as the Canberra Space Centre, it is a world class showcase for manned and unmanned space exploration.

We’ll have more here soon. In the meantime, see the link above, or (better still) visit in person!

DSS-43 and 42

DSS-43 at left, and DSS-42 behind the Operations Building in the mid 1970s.

The building at right is what is now the Visitors Centre. The guard house and boom gate are where they are today. The soggy field in the foreground is now the visitors’ car park, and the Honeysuckle antenna was moved to a point just out of view to the left of the camera in 1982 (becoming DSS-46).

Scan by Keith Aldworth, from the cover of a Canberra telephone book.

Tidbinbilla

Hamish Lindsay with a school group at Tidbinbilla, circa 1977.

Scan: Colin Mackellar

DSS-43 at Tidbinbilla

DSS-43 from behind the Visitors Centre, 1977.
Photo by Hamish Lindsay, scan by Colin Mackellar.

Tidbinbilla

Station Director Thomas Reid (light coloured suit) and Barry Jones, Federal Minister for Science 1983-1990 (red tie) with the Voyager display in the Visitors Centre in 1986.

Ron Goleby, branch head of Space Projects Branch, is at left in the dark suit.

Hamish Lindsay, who designed the display, is at right.

Tidbinbilla

Lunar Sample 10072,80 on display at the Canberra Space Centre.

It is a vesicular basalt, with an age of 3.8 billion years – collected from the Sea of Tranquility by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin in July 1969.

Photo: Colin Mackellar, 2013.

Tidbinbilla

The quadripod and subreflector from the original Tidbinbilla 85 foot (26 metre) antenna, DSS-42, are now on display behind the visitors centre.

Thanks go to Peter Churchill, Tidbinbilla Director 1994–2006, for ensuring that this key part of DSS-42 has been preserved for posterity.

Photo: Colin Mackellar, 2015.