Background

Radio Australia Darwin - that modern state-of-the-art international shortwave broadcasting station as it once was, is gone, gone forever! It is no longer on the air, it has been dismantled, and the property has reverted to its original inhabitants, the Belyuen Aborigines.

In the early part of the year 1942, Darwin was largely destroyed in double bombing raids on the same day, and ultimately, a total of 64 bombing raids were made on the town. The coastal maritime station VID was destroyed in the first raid and the radio service was quickly transferred to the airport radio station on the edge of town.

Darwin was rebuilt after the war, and it was largely destroyed again by Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Day 1974, and it has again arisen for the third occasion, this time as a beautified modern city.

Likewise, the Radio Australia shortwave station underwent three different and separate eras.

1966
In this year, work commenced on the station at a location on Cox Peninsula, 12 km across the harbor, or 150km around the unmade road. Three Collins transmitters rated at 250 kW were installed and these were activated progressively beginning in December 1968, though full usage was not implemented until nearly three years later.

Initially, programming was taken off air on shortwave from Lyndhurst and Shepparton and also from Brisbane, though three program lines became available three years later when the microwave link to Darwin was completed from Mt. Isa in western Queensland. The three program lines from the studios in Melbourne were designated as VLK, VLL and VLM.

However, the station was rendered inoperable as a result of the Christmas cyclone in 1974, and that was the end of its first era of operation, after just three years of full time on air duty.

During this interim period, a new, and supposedly temporary, shortwave station was installed into a vacant American NASA building on the edge of Carnarvon in Western Australia. In the meantime, consideration was given as to whether the Darwin station should be renovated, or re-erected further inland.

Almost ten years after the station was damaged in the cyclone event, the Radio Australia transmitter facility was re-activated at its original location with a regular schedule, using two transmitters on air and a third in hot standby. That was in September 1984.

1994
In this year, two new Thomson transmitters were installed; and soon fterwards, the 300 kW Thomson at Carnarvon, VLK, was taken to Darwin, where it was installed as VLU, but never taken into active service for Radio Australia. 

June 30 1997
The station was again closed, on this time due to budget restrictions. That was the end of its second era of active service, lasting a dozen or so years.

1999
In this year, a lengthy series of short test broadcasts began from Darwin with the use of several different transmitters and aerial systems. These tests were performed to keep the station alive in anticipation of possible coming events.

During this interim period, several other international broadcasting services, such as the BBC London, Deutsche Welle Germany, and the Voice of America in Washington DC, and others as well, made overtures to the Australian government requesting the usage of the Darwin station as a relay facility.

2000
However, none of these requests were granted, and instead, the station was sold to Christian Voice in this year.

During the ten year period under Christian Voice, two Continental transmitters formerly in use with Adventist World Radio as KSDA3 and KSDA4 on the island of Guam were installed at Darwin and taken into regular service. The 300 kW Thomson from Carnarvon was also activated by Christian Voice. During this third era of on-air performance, the Darwin station again carried some of the Radio Australia programming for coverage into Asia.

Closure

2010
Just before mid-year in this year, the station was again closed, quite unceremoniously, and this time dismantled. Some equipment went to Shepparton for subsequent installation at Radio Australia, and some went to the new HCJB station at Kununurra, just across the state line near the northern coast in Western Australia. The building and the property at Cox Peninsula has already been given back to the Aboriginal Belyuen Community who inhabit the area.

There was also a receiver station located ten miles distant from the transmitter station and that was closed back in 1974 when the microwave broadband link was extended to Darwin, thus providing the program feed from the Melbourne studios.