History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Editing/Coastal

Overview

The wireless telegraphy station at Geraldon with callsign VIN commenced operation on 12 May 1913. It was the first station in Western Australia constructed by the Commonwealth. VIP Perth / Fremantle / Applecross had commenced previously, but that station was constructed by the Australasian Wireless Company under contract to the Commonwealth. The station provided a vital link between VIP and VIZ Roebourne during the daytime (thence to VIO Broome, VIW Wyndham and stations further North) and particularly when land telegraph systems failed. Operationally the station's duties remained relatively constant for several decades, being essentially a communications link between the huge numbers of ships that hugged the Western Australian coastline as well as the huge mail liners that connected Australia to Europe and ports between. Organisational control however was constantly changing:

• initially a possibly unwanted part of the Postmaster-General's Department, but with officers professionally classied
• following the commencement of WW1, increasingly, if informally within the gamut of Defence
• then, late in WW1, a reluctant transferee to the Department of the Navy as the Royal Australian Naval Radio Service (RANRS)
• well after the conclusion of WW1, finally transferred back to the Postmaster-General's Department
• in 1922 bought under the control of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd as it increased its grasp of Australian wireless
• in 1928 the hard assets of the coastal radio network formally sold to AWA
• Upon commencement of WW2, again the coastal radio network control vested in Defence
• in 1946 briefly under the control of the PMG again
• in 1948 transferred to the newly created Overseas Telecommunications

Participants and staff

Design, construction, maintenance

• John Graeme Balsillie, 1913, Commonwealth Wireless Expert who designed the wireless system deployed and oversighted the network establishment
• Walter Moss Sweeney, 1913, construction project supervising engineer for the Postmaster-General's Department
• R. C. Cox, 1913, assistant project engineer for the Postmaster-General's Department
• R. D. Munson, 1913, project foreman-rigger for the Public Works Department's portion of the construction project
• Sydney Trim, 1930, mast replacement project supervising engineer for Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd.
• S. Broomehall, 1930, mast replacement project mechanic for Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd.

Station staff

• James Joseph Wiseman Lamb, senior wireless officer, March? 1913 to May 1914
• Mark Mortimer, senior wireless officer, May 1914 to ??
• Arthur McDonald, wireless officer, circa January 1915
• A. E. Pell, wireless officer, ?? to July 1915 (leave for war service)
• B. Hooker, wireless officer, ?? to August 1915 (leave for war service)
• Broomhill, wireless officer, July 1915 to ??
• H. Selfe, wireless officer, circa May 1920
• Louis Alfred Fontaine, wireless officer, circa Jun 1923
• E. W. Tymms, wireless officer, circa April 1925
• Reginald Charles Goodland, wireless officer, January 1924 to December 1925
• George Franklin Cook, wireless officer, circa 1928
• Harold E. Cox, senior wireless officer, circa 1929 to March 1931
• Newman Dobson Pusey, ??, 1926 to August 1933
• E. H. Smellie, wireless operator, 1930 to March 1931; senior wireless operator, March 1931 to November 1933
• H. B. Wolfe, wireless operator, March 1931 to ??
• F. H. Chrismas, senior wireless officer, circa November 1935 to May 1949+
• R. C. Anderson, wireless officer, circa September 1936 to September 1940; relief January 1949 to May 1949
• C. Lemmon, ??, December 1940 to ??

Station guard WW1

• Second Lieut Gibbings, guard commander August 1914 to ??
• Second Lieut E. S. Everett, guard commander ?? to February 1915
• Second Lieut Hutton, guard commander February 1915 to ??
• Corporal W. Pass, guard troop, died France February 1917 "no greater love"
• Private George Compton, guard troop August 1914 to January 1915, died France July 1918 "no greater love"
• H. H. Opie, guard commander ?? to ??

Further reading

• Bastock, John. Ships on the Australia Station, (Child & Associates Publishing Pty Ltd, Frenchs Forest, 1988) ISBN 0-86777-348-0
• Burger, David. Callsign History Australia - Australian Amateur Radio Callsigns, (IEEE, 2014) online
• Carty, Bruce. Australian Radio History (4th ed. Sydney, 2013) [1]
• Curnow, Geoffrey Ross. "The history of the development of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia to 1942, with especial reference to the Australian Broadcasting Commission: a political and administrative study". online
• Durrant, Lawrence. The seawatchers : the story of Australia's Coast Radio Service (angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1986) Trove NLA
• Geeves, P. "The Dawn of Australia's Radio Broadcasting". online
• Given, Donald Jock. "Transit of Empires: Ernest Fisk and the World Wide Wireless". (Melbourne, 2007) [2]
• Griffen-Foley, Bridget. Changing Stations the story of Australian commercial radio [3]
• Hadlow, Martin Lindsay. "Wireless and Empire ambition: wireless telegraphy/telephony and radio broadcasting in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, South-West Pacific (1914-1947): political, social and developmental perspectives". (Martin Hadlow, Brisbane, 2016) [4] [5]
• Harte, Bernard. When Radio Was The Cat's Whiskers (Rosenberg Publishing, 2002) [6]
• Hewitson, Peter. Australian MCS; A brief history of the Australian Coastal Radio Service (Website) [7]
• Johnstone, James. Coastal Radio Stations (Webpages) [8]
• Jolly, Rhonda. Media ownership and regulation: a chronology (Canberra, 2016) [9]
• Jones, Colin. Something in the air : a history of radio in Australia (Kenthurst, 1995) [10]
• Jose, Arthur W. The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918; Volume IX, The Royal Australian Navy (Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 9th Ed, 1941) Online (especially Chapter XIV: Sundry services: Radio-Telegraphy, Censorship, Coaling, etc.)
• MacKinnon, Colin. Australian Radio Publications and Magazines (Ian O'Toole, 2004) online
• Martin, Fiona (2002). "Beyond public service broadcasting? ABC online and the user/citizen". Southern Review: Communication, Politics & Culture. 35 (1): 42.
• Muscio, Winston T. Australian Radio, The Technical Story 1923–1983 (Kangaroo Press, 1984) [11]
• Ross, John F. A History of Radio in South Australia 1897–1977 (J. F. Ross, 1978) [12]
• Ross, John F. Handbook for Radio Engineering Managers (Butterworths, 1980) [13]
• Ross, John F. Radio Broadcasting Technology, 75 Years of Development in Australia 1923–1998 (J. F. Ross, 1998) [14]
• Shawsmith, Alan. Halcyon Days, The Story of Amateur Radio in VK4, Queensland (Boolarong Publications, 1987) [15]
• Umback, Rick. Constituting Australia's International Wireless Service: 1901-1922 (Rick Umback, 1916, Canberra) Online (PhD. thesis, focus on Beam Wireless and its origins with emphasis on wireless telegraphy era, detailed analysis)
• United States, Navy Department, Bureau of Steam Engineering. List of wireless telegraph stations of the world, 1912 (Government Printing Office, 1912) Online
• Walker, R. R. The Magic Spark: 50 Years of Radio in Australia (Hawthorn Press, 1973) [16]
• White, Thomas H. Early Radio Station Lists Issued by the U.S. Government (Website) Online (includes HTMLs of all known copies of Wireless Telegraph Stations of the World 1906 to 1912 with, inter alia, lists of merchant ship and shore station callsigns)
• Wireless Institute of Australia (editor Wolfenden, Peter). Wireless Men & Women at War (Wireless Institute of Australia, Melbourne, 2017) [17]