Les Whaley – Island Lagoon and Tidbinbilla

1940 – 2022

Les Whaley (right) is pictured with fellow Tidbinbilla veteran John Jorritsma at Tidbinbilla on 13 April 2013 for the 40th anniversary of the opening of DSS43. (Ray Lloyd from the Space Office is between them in the background.)

Les Whaley was born in Scotland in 1940.

At the age of 17, he emigrated to Australia, arriving in 1957.

In Sydney, he started work at Anthony Horderns department store as an apprentice radio and television technician. (Television had been introduced to Australia the previous year.) He completed his apprenticeship with Philips Electrical Industries at Hendon in South Australia.

In 1963 Les secured a job with Hawker Siddeley Trials Support Unit. They were contracted to operate NASA’s Minitrack station at Island Lagoon, Woomera. This Minitrack station, also known as Satellite Tracking Facility 18, tracked a range of pioneering scientific, weather, communications and solar satellites.

Les was a member of the Miinitrack team at Island Lagoon 1963-65 before he moved to DSS42 Tidbinbilla. He is pictured above at Island Lagoon Minitrack in the 1965 Department of Supply film “Partners in Space”.

The Mintrack Control Room, circa 1963. From left: Les Whaley, Ken Woods, Henry Gilkins (?), unknown. Photo: Jan Delgado.

In 1965, Les transferred to the brand new Deep Space Tracking Station, DSIF42, at Tidbinbilla near Canberra. There he was employed as a technician in the analog and magnetic recording section when the station was tracking Mariner 4, the first space probe to visit Mars.

Tidbinbilla Station Director Bob Leslie (left) and Les Whaley examine the output from the chart recorder showing the Mariner IV radio occultation as it went behind Mars. Scan: Mike Dinn.

Les Whaley watching the chart recorder around the time of the Mariner IV encounter with Mars. Photo via Les Whaley. Scan: Colin Mackellar.

After Mariner 4, Les moved to the telemetry equipment associated with the Pioneer spacecraft.

In between these missions he spent time on the SDS computer sub-system until moving to the Surveyor Project where he was attached to the Hughes Aircraft Company team at Tidbinbilla in support of their Surveyor unmanned lunar landers. Les specialised in the slow scan television sub-system. The Surveyor missions were to determine whether it was possible to land a man on the moon.

Les smiles as he sits at the Surveyor Command console in this undated Polaroid photo.

At Tidbinbilla Les examines a mosaic he assembled of Surveyor 1 images in 1966.

The mosaic.

After the Surveyor Program Les returned to the Pioneer project, after which he completed a course on the PDP-11 computer to be used for the Apollo missions. He supported Apollos 12, 13 and 14 at Tidbinbilla / HSK-X.

For health reasons, Les came off shift work and ran the Documentation Centre at the station until he resigned in 1972.

Les joined the team at Duratone Hi-Fi in the Canberra suburb of Phillip. (Established in 1968, Duratone was a highly-regarded Hi-Fi business in Canberra, only closing in July 2024 after 56 years.) While at Duratone, Les continued to follow closely the missions which were supported by Tidbinbilla.

After Duratone, Les served at the Australian Defence Force Academy until his retirement circa 2004.

Bill Keegan (ex-Tidbinbilla) shares this photo of Les in his office at the Australian Defence Force Academy in October 2002. Bill remembers, “Les was my manager. We looked after the A/V equipment in the lectures theatres, the Parade ground audio system and any venue that required our services on site.” Note Les’ signed Surveyor poster, and photo of Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface during Apollo 11, proudly displayed on his office wall.

Les was the loving husband of Josefa and the proud father Gordon and Marianne.

He greatly enjoyed his wonderful model trains, was an avid sailor, and was also a long-term member of St. Paul’s Anglican Church at Manuka.

In 2019, Les worked with a number of his space-tracking colleagues to organise the wonderfully successful Apollo 11 50th anniversary celebrations in Canberra in July that year.

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Keith Aldworth adds this story about Les at Tidbinbilla,

“Being a relatively remote place, We had several first aid people on our shifts. We trained with Saint John Ambulance.

Les Whaley was our senior first aid person.

I remember an incident, when some heavy equipment was being moved outside the antenna support building.

Some of the support staff were engaged in this task, including Dennis Brown, who was the station carpenter. Whilst moving the huge crate, Dennis got a finger between the corner of the crate and the wall. That resulted in his finger being all but completely severed from his hand. It was still attached by some skin and sinews. A call went over the P A for first aid, in the building foyer, where the first aid cabinet was situated.

The Tidbinbilla First Aid cabinet (next to the cigarette machine) just inside the entrance to the Operations and Engineering Building. DSS 42 photo 1870, 05 July 1969. Photo via Mike Dinn, scan, Colin Mackellar.

Les and I rushed down to attend. Les’ calm skill stabilised Henry’s finger, which was held in place with much bandaging. With the haemorrhage under control and poor Dennis dependent only on Aspirin for pain control, he was transported to Canberra hospital. I remember that some days later, there was a communication from the hospital, to Tid. It praised Les’ skill in rendering first aid and asserted that his efforts had saved Dennis’ finger. As I recall, Dennis did recover pretty well and was able to resume work.

I vaguely also recall that Les received some recognition from our management.”

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Gary Elphinstone has also shared these memories of Les,

“Been working at DSS 42 since Surveyor III, my first mission in April 1967.

Already met Les on occasions, as you do, during station activities. Getting to know Les further began in early 1968, as follows;

When Rudi Langeveld was married in early 1968, a spare room became available at 33 Faunce Cres, O’Conner and I was invited to take up residency. All three of us, Les Whaley, Brian Eagleton and I, were on different shifts and on occasions Les and I would have a shift overlap, allowing us to try our master cooking skills. Les was an excellent cook and made a good Hungarian Goulash and my speciality was a hearty Irish Stew.

Thinking back at that time, although Les was not the greatest conversation maker, we did discuss at times current issues in great depth, and we had similar views. Les did talk quite a lot about his younger brother, Brian. Brian was at the time living in the U.K., and very involved in UK Speedway sidecar racing. Both Les and I owned sailing boats. Les, International fibreglass 505, which he took out on occasions during my residency. My boat, was a 14ft scaled down Sydney 18ft skiff. (Damian Farrell can vouch for our sailing experience on Lake Burley Griffiin). Brian Eagleton was involved with youth soccer, not sure what his team was. Brian, was very committed providing the match results of the weekly A.C.T. junior competitions to the local radio station, each weekend. On occasions he had his junior team around at Faunce Cres. I was always on shift change and had no more than a fleeting glance in the lounge room, where they were gathered.

Les had one of those odd bubble shaped Datsun Bluebirds. My car was a Toyota Crown. Later we were both courting, Les with Josefa and myself with Lynn, that good looking girl with shoulder length auburn hair. Lynn also worked at DSS42 Admin office and relieved Barbra Brown for lunch breaks on the station switch-board. When I was on shift I would let Lynn take the Toyota Crown for personal use, as also Les let Josefa take his Datsun.

Les was always a gentleman and recall he worked on Analogue Recorders, at DSS42.

Following Apollo 8, I flew over to Perth on New Year’s Eve, 31st December, 1968 to marry Lynn on 9th January, 1969. Flying back to Canberra 10th January and returning to work on Monday 13th, working on DSN Tracking and preparing for Apollo 9 launch in March. As a married couple, like Rudi Langeveld, we took up a new residency. I have no recollection as to who moved into 33 Faunce Cres, afterwards.

Interesting, even to this day I have no idea where Les was born in the U.K or anything about his earlier years, like schooling, sports, etc.
Another piece of the jig-saw!

Kind Regards Gary Elphinstone (82)”

In 1965 or possibly 1966, Les took some medium format photos from the Mount Pleasant Lookout between Duntroon and the Russell Offices. They show Canberra to be a much quieter place then! In loving memory of Les. Negative scans, Panorama assembly and labelling by Colin Mackellar.

Viewed from the same spot in August 2024, the trees have grown up obscuring the wonderful view.

This lovely photo of Les was taken by Canberra photographic artist Lee Grant for an exhibition (“Promised the Moon”) at the Australian National University for the Apollo 11 50th anniversary celebrations in July 2019. © Lee Grant, used with permission.

Louise M took this lovely photo of Les (left) chatting with Patrick Helean at Questacon under the giant Moon during the Apollo 11 50th anniversary celebrations in July 2019.