Lloyd Bott - Borman and Schirra visit 1966

Lloyd Bott – 1966 photos

Wally Schirra and Frank Borman’s Goodwill trip to Australia

Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, March 1966

From Lloyd Bott’s memoirs –

“On December 15th and 16th, 1965, Wally Schirra with Tom Stafford in Gemini VI achieved the rendezvous with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell in Gemini VII. I had met Wally many times before but after the rendezvous flight, Wally and Frank and their wives came to Australia on a goodwill mission and to thank our tracking stations for the support they had given the flights.

I accompanied them around Australia and I recall really well the cavalcade through Melbourne which Gwen and I were in and we took them to Government House to meet Sir Edmund Herring, the acting Governor and to Harold Holt’s house to meet the Prime Minister and to Parliament House to see the Premier Sir Henry Bolte.

I recall also an enormous crowd at a large Grace Bros. complex in Sydney.”

(Colonel Frank Borman turned 38 years old when he was in Melbourme. Borman and Schirra visited Perth earlier in their tour. Schirra also travelled to Carnarvon and Borman travelled to Woomera.)

In Melbourne, Saturday 12 March 1966

These details on the astronauts’ visit to Melbourne on Saturday 12 March 1966 are extracted from a report on page 5 of the Melbourne newspaper The Age for Monday 14 March 1966 (emphasis added) –

“They made a 22-hour stopover here as part of their eight-week tour of Australia and Asia. …

After they arrived at 9.30 a.m. on Saturday, Borman and Schirra set a near-orbiting pace as they squeezed six official functions into their brief visit to Melbourne.

From the airport police motorcyclists escorted their car through the city to Toorak, where the astronauts met the Prime Minister (Mr. Holt) at home with members of his family.

The motorcade then went to Government House where the spacemen were received by Lieut.-Governor Sir Edmund Herring and Dame Mary Herring.

At Parliament House Borman and Schirra called on the Premier (Sir Henry Bolte), and at the Town Hall they met the Lord Mayor (Cr. Beaurepaire).

After attending a lunch organised by the Australian - American Association, the two men chaired a Symposium on Space at the Princess Theatre, where they explained their rendezvous flight to an audience of 1800 people.

Several hundred people crowded around their car as they left the theatre for a reception by the US Consul General (Mr. William Wieland).”

Lloyd Bott with Astronaut Frank Borman, Melbourne, 12 March 1966.

With Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt at his home at Toorak in Melbourne on 12 March 1966.

On the right is Tony Eggleton, the Prime Minister’s Press Secretary.

Frank Borman (kneeling) and Wally Schirra with Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt and his six-year-old grandson Christopher in Melbourne on 12 March 1966.

The Schirras (left) and Bormans (right) with Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt at his home in Melbourne, 12 March 1966.

At Victoria’s Government House the Schirras and Bormans are received by Lieutenant-Governor Sir Edmund Herring and Dame Mary Herring. Mr J. Carter, US Department of State Protocol Officer, is at right.

Melbourne, 12 March 1966.

Notes on photo.

At Parliament House in Melbourne.

Left to right: Mrs (later Lady) Bolte, Mrs Schirra, Captain Walter Schirra, Sir Henry Bolte, Premier of Victoria, Colonel Frank Borman and Mrs. Borman, March 12 1966.

A luncheon in Melbourne, organised by the Australian – American Association.

Seated at the main table, from left: Lloyd Bott, NASA Rep Ray Hooker. Sir Henry Bolte, Premier of Victoria, is speaking. Mrs Bolte is seated to his right (our left).

(Thanks to Ray Lloyd for help with ID.)

In Sydney, Sunday 13 March 1966

In Sydney, the astronauts are welcomed at a public function in the Centre Court at the new Roselands Shopping Centre at Wiley Park at Noon on Sunday 13th March 1966.

Roselands (now known as Centro Roselands) was the first regional shapping mall to be built in Australia, opening in 1965. At the time, it was the largest such centre in the southern hemisphere.

Seated on the podium, at far left, is US Department of State Protocol Officer Mr J. Carter.

Standing at the microphone is the Mayor of Canterbury (the local Council area where Roselands is located), Alderman A J Pate.

Directly behind him (partly hidden) is Mr. B. A. Grace, Chairman of Grace Bros. Holdings and his wife. Grace Bros. built the shopping centre, and their flagship department store is behind them.

The astronauts are surrounded by well-wishers at Roselands Shopping Centre in Sydney.

In June 2015, Australian space historian and author Colin Burgess spotted himself in the above photo!

Were any of our other readers present that day? Contact.
(Update: Kevin Short was – see below…)

Update, May 2015 – Website reader Kevin Short writes:

“I still have a photo of myself meeting with the two astronauts on that day. On the following Monday [March 14 1966] fellow students informed me that I was in the paper. The Daily Telegraph had captured the moment.”

Scan: Kevin Short.
Kevin is the taller of the two boys in front of Frank Borman.

University of Sydney

Astronaut Frank Borman speaks to an audience in the Wallace Theatre at the University of Sydney.

Lloyd Bott is in the front row, in front of Col. Borman.
Next to Bott (on his right) looks a bit like US Ambassador Edward Crook (though he was Ambassador to Australia 1968-69).

Writing notes, in the lighter colour suit in the front row, is US Ambassador Ed Clark.

On the Ambassador’s right, fourth from the camera in the front row, is (it seems) American Physicist and educator Professor Julius Sumner Miller.

(Thanks to Colin Burgess who compared this photo of Frank Borman with others taken at Roselands Shopping Centre, demonstrating they were taken the same day. Other checks by the author showed this is the Wallace Theatre.)

Unknown location.

Left to right: Lloyd Bott, Susan Borman, Josephine Schirra, ?, ?.

Can anyone help with the ID?