1930 – 2022
Muchea Tracking Station
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Jack Duperouzel was the last surviving member of the Muchea Tracking Station technical staff.
As one of the three initial permanent technical staff, he was among the first Australians to be involved in manned space flight tracking.
In this early 1962 film from Muchea, Jack is closest to camera, seated at the Acqusition Console.
Standing: Jack Moir. Centre: Jack Walker, Team Leader. Right: Jack Duperouzel. The Mercury spacecraft was acquired here, and the station’s other antennae and the Verlort Radar were slaved to the Acquisition system.
(See the video below for more.) |
Jack Duperouzel was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, where his father was Constable at the East Fremantle Police Station.
In early 1932, the family moved to the small town of Dowerin, 170km north east of Perth, when his father was posted to the police station there.
After his schooling years, and a couple of short-term jobs, at the age of 19, Jack joined the Royal Australian Navy. He served as a Radio Mechanic in the Fleet Air Arm, based at Nowra, NSW.
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Jack Duperouzel during his time in the Royal Australian Navy. |
In his later years, Jack delighted in sharing many stories. He spoke about going to the UK in 1955 to help bring the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne to Australia, and he remembered visits to Hong Kong and Singapore.
He also spoke of a ‘mystery cruise’ to the Montebello Islands, off the Pilbara coast of Western Australia, to witness one of the British atomic tests.
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Jack Duperouzel on assignment in the Royal Australian Navy. |
Jack loved the Fleet Air Arm and his time there. It was while in Nowra that Jack met Jenny, and they married in 1959.
His time in the RAN expired in November 1960 and Jack and Jenny moved to Perth after Jack successfully applied for a position at Muchea Tracking Station – advertised in The West Australian newspaper.
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Jack remembered, “This was sent to me by my father in Perth from The West Australian some time in the last half of 1960. I was at sea on HMAS Melbourne, but was able, via mail, to arrange an interview in Sydney as a Tech Officer for employment at Muchea.”
The advertisement
is for staff for the two proposed Mercury Tracking Stations – at Muchea,
Western Australia and Woomera (i.e. Red Lake), South Australia.
Applications closed 18th August 1960. |
When he arrived at Muchea, the station was still being built and equipment was being installed. Muchea was one of Mercury 16 tracking stations world wide. Systems were installed for Radar, Acquisition Aid (he was the operator), Telemetry, and Air to Ground Voice.
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Jack, circled, stands with the rest of the Muchea technical team, support staff and visiting US flight controllers, for John Glenn’s Friendship 7 flight in February 1962. |
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Jack Duperouzel (left) at the Acquisition Console in the Operations Room at Muchea. On his right is Jack Walker. |
When Muchea was scheduled to close after the last Mercury mission in 1963, Jack was offered a position at the Carnarvon Tracking Station, then being built for Project Gemini.
In March 2022 he wrote,
“I was offered a job at Carnarvon but I knew it was a frontier town, and having lived in the country towns of Dowerin, Gingin and Wagin (my father was a policeman) Jenny & I chose to stay in Perth and had our family of Alex & Wendy, and went into business with my elder brother Ken and were distributors for STIHL products for thirty years.”
After Muchea, Jack and his older brother Ken founded ‘WA Chainsaws’, selling chainsaws into the professional and semi-professional market, and building the company into a successful mid-sized business. During this time, Jack earned a private pilot’s license to make it easier to visit the country dealers.
Jack remembered,
“I enjoyed my 12 years in the Navy, finishing as a Chief Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm, but the experience at Muchea was the highlight of my life.”
Jack has been a wonderful help in preserving the story of Muchea, and is very sadly missed.
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Jack and Jenny visited Honeysuckle Creek around the time of the station opening in March 1967 and caught up with former Muchea radar man Kenn Lee.
Here, Ken Lee and Jenny Duperouzel stand with the Gemini X capsule which was on display for the Honeysuckle opening. |
