To all,
Did you know that there was a very large Australian Airforce HF radio communications facility at Werribee, west of Melbourne, during the 1940s?
It is now long gone, but it had 31 rhombic antennas, connected to 52 AR7 rack-mounted receivers.
I don't know the actual location, but I suspect it was in the area which became the suburb of Hoppers Crossing many years later.
I used to go rabbit shooting with a .22 in that part of the country in the late 1940s, but I can't recall any sign of the facility then. In those years, the land was mainly
Scotch Thistles and Lava Plains!
Here are some photos taken in 1944, from the Australian War Memorial archives of the station. I have other images, if anyone's interested.
Regards!
Bob Padula
Bob,
ReplyDeleteRe. the location of the RAAF communications centre, the link below takes you to the Melton Heritage Study written in 2002.
http://www.melton.vic.gov.au/Files/MHSStage1EnvHist.pdf
On page 74/75, there is a small section on the Services bases in the general area, including mention of a communications centre south of the Werribee township along the Werribee River. I suspect that the location of the site may have been near Werribee Park (which is near the river), not far from Point Cook. A Google search on the topic reveals several other mentions of the Werribee park location for such activity.
I tried looking on Google Maps for an aerial view to see if there were any telltale signs on the ground of such a facility, but without success.....although you may have better luck with that.
Cheers
Rob