In this edition of Wavescan, we pick
up the story of the Maritime Coastal Radio Station VID in the city of Darwin,
in Australia’s Northern
Territory, at the time when it was rebuilt after a Japanese aerial attack in
1942. Radio station VID received its
worst war time damage on August 27, 1942, when it sustained a direct hit, thus
destroying or damaging all equipment and much of the structure as well. However, soon afterwards the local staff
repaired and rebuilt the station, and in progressive stages VID once again took
over its regular communication services.
Soon afterwards, on August 1, 1943,
communication station VID began the relay of time pips from the ABC at 0900
& 2200 local time daily. It would be
presumed that this brief twice daily relay was taken from a radio receiver
tuned to an ABC station on shortwave, probably VLQ at Bald Hills in Queensland.
Six
years later, that is in 1949, the historic old VID was by this time rundown and
dilapidated, making it difficult even for its experienced personnel to operate
effectively. The original and
oft-repaired 750 watt transmitter was almost beyond capability.
A new communication station was
constructed at a new location. The old
station at the original site in McMinn Street was silenced at midnight on June
15, 1950, and the property later became the site for the Darwin Botanical
Gardens. The new transmitter station at
Gregory Street Parap, with all of its new electronic equipment, was now officially
opened for service, with a new remote receiver station located at Shoal Bay, on
the northern edge of Darwin.
However, give almost a quarter
century later, and once again disaster struck Darwin, and its coastal wireless
station VID as well. This time it was a
cyclone, named Tracy, and it struck on Christmas Eve 1974 with wind gusts up to
150 mph. This horrendous event, the most
disastrous cyclone (hurricane, typhoon) ever to hit Australia, silenced the
Radio Australia Darwin relay station at Cox Peninsula, across the water way
from Darwin Habour, and it also silenced the communication station VID, at
least for a week or so.
It is estimated that 80% of the city
of Darwin was destroyed, and it was necessary to evacuate 30,000 people to
temporary housing in the southern areas of the continent. The city of Darwin was subsequently
redesigned and rebuilt upon its previous location, with the application of new
and very stringent safety features in order to avoid a similar massive disaster
in the future.
The VID building at Parap was only slightly
damaged though most of the antenna systems were disabled, including three tall
masts and 20 smaller masts. At the time
of the onslaught from the cyclonic storm, Manager Bob Hooper hurriedly
assembled some of his own home based amateur radio equipment into his four
wheel drive Toyota, and drove to the station.
From his stationary vehicle at the
station location, Hooper carried on as much of the VID traffic as possible, and
he also contacted coastal station VIP in Perth and passed on to them some of
the details regarding the massive wind disaster in Darwin. At this stage. much of the local radio
traffic normally carried by VID Darwin was transferred to VIT in Townsville
Queensland, and also to VII on Thursday Island up towards New Guinea.
Then, in mid morning Christmas Day,
approval was granted for the ship MV “Nyanda”
now at berth in Darwin Harbour, to take over the VID radio communication
service and to operate under the callsign VID2.
The “Nyanda” was previously registered as the “Transontario” for service
in North America.
Four days later, when the “Nyanda” departed from Darwin Harbour,
the VID2 service was taken over by another ship, the “Darwin Trader”. However, by that time the antenna systems at
the land based VIP at Parap had been rehabilitated, and much of the the radio
communication service was transferred back to the home station.
From the time of the onslaught by
Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Eve, mains power was not available at coast station
VID and thus they were entirely dependent upon their own generation
system. However, nearly two weeks later,
on January 5, (1975) the city power supply was again restored to this radio
station.
In May 1999, the operating staff at
VID Darwin was withdrawn, and the station was then operated remotely from the
coastal station VIP at Applecross in Perth Western Australia. However, give three more years, and station VID was closed, at the end of
the month of June 2002. At the time, the
station was on the air with 5 identical transmitters rated at 1 kW each.
Thus it was that Coastal Radio
Station VID in Darwin was closed after nearly 90 years of illustrious on air
service; on this occasion, it was finally silenced forever.
The radio property in Parap in
suburban Darwin has since been absorbed into the neighboring housing estate.
(AWR Wavescan/NWS 346)
