Comment: Old Eyre Highway

Eric

I've always admired our communications infrastructure. There are towers in some amazing remote places (on rocky outcrops, 100s of k's from anywhere). It must have been a real adventure putting them up. What was it like as a job?

Bob

Eric Hi,
Were they part of the SEACOM project.
In the mid 1960's I worked in part on the South East Asia Communications with the PMG (later broken up to Telstra & ABC) The towers were about 30-40 miles apart My division looked after QLD & PNG.

Mike.

Certainly a lot of them are still there Eric. Several can be seen from the highway.

It always amazes me when I do that trip (30 odd times now, privately, not trucking) why they don't utilize the towers for mobile phone usage.

Cheers Neil

As a 9 year old I crossed on the old road to Perth with my family Dec 21-23 1969. We followed the PMG crew (probably including you Eric) who were "turning on" the microwave towers to complete their construction. I often camp out near the now disused towers as they are often well off the road, quiet and easy to access.

EricGB.
I was on the crew that decided where the towers were placed, the road across the Nullabor was just a crazy set of boggy wheel ruts. Eric,

G'day EricGB & others,

I use to travel to these sites on a bi-yearly trip to service & test the fire alarm systems and later to do building inspections as a Fire Safety Officer with Telstra. I still travel from WA to SA about every two years to visit family & friends in SA and quite often camp at one or two of the sites. As you say, it was a bit hairy getting to some of the sites, but that is nothing compared to the site in the North West of WA. You had to be a real 4X4 driver in a real 4X4 vehicle to get to some places, O.H.& S. laws would probably ban such activity now a days (I always travelled on my own) but there was a requirement to call in to the Control Centre via Auto Wire (a link to the Control Centre) on entry and exit so they could isolate and reset alarms, I always let them know where I was travelling to next. Once I got a puncture and had to change the wheel which put me about 30 minutes behind my schedule, when I got to the next site and called in, they said they were about to sent out the troops to find what happen to me so I had a bit of a safety backup. A great job and magnificent country.

Anyway to answer your question, all sites from Norseman to Eucla, towers and huts remain but dishes, waveguides and equipment have been removed. All sites in SA are mostly intact because they still use it for communication with farms and communities along the route.

Thanks for the query Eric as it sure brought back many fond memories.

Peter (1)

I take my hat off to the lot of you. What a great adventure (challenge) those efforts must have been.

Cheers - Phil

g'day Eric - yes, i think all of the East West system structures are still standing although not to much radio equipment is still working ie carrying Telstra traffic. Having said that - i should point out that the systems are still running as a backup if the optical fibre ever completely collapses, highly unlikely. Many of the towers have the South Australian Government Network equipment installed and maintained (until recently) by Telstra. Some of them also have Air Services (the old Department of Civil Aviation) radio beacons and telemetry/voice systems. As i said, most are still intact and we (Telstra) were still (until recently again) inspecting them for structural safety reasons such as loose / rusty steel work etc. The tower out from the Nullarbor Roadhouse is one that we are not real keen on, that platforms where you stand and have a rest or do a bit of work - if you jump on the platform, you can break loose some of the flat steel. Last time i was there, a couple of years ago replacing part of the Air Services radio unit, i stayed on the ground as this unit was in a very easy place to work on and mounted on the platform, just a bit disconcerting as every now and then when my offsider moved position, down would come a rusty piece of steel. The only one that i am aware of having been removed was at Eucla, it had deteriorated to the unsafe stage and was demolished a couple of years ago and i wasn't there to see it come down.