Backgound
It
is not commonly known, but during World War 2 the Australian Army operated a large HF wireless telegraphy communications station
from locations in the outer east of Melbourne.
The facility was split geographically - the receiving station was sited
in a farming region, at North Ringwood, on the fringe of the town of Warrandyte, in a
bushland area of about 30 hectares, which in later years would become part of the suburb of Park Orchards, about 20 km from
central Melbourne.
The unstaffed transmitting station was located near the country town
of Coldstream, some 10 km east of Warrandyte, and included several rhombic antennas, an
antenna switching panel, and five HF high-speed W/T transmitters.
The antennas were designed for optimum radiation
to places such as Alice Springs, New Zealand, Darwin, Hobart, and Chungking (China).
The transmitting towers, were north of the airfield, on the Yarra River Flats in Tarrawarra Rd, not far from the present-day Coldstream airport.
The transmitting station was in the yard of a property called St Huberts
in St Huberts Road.
Closure
After
the War, the transmitting and receiving facilities were dismantled. The receiving equipment was relocated to the Army Receiving
Station at Rockbank, and the transmitting equipment was resited to the Army Transmitting Station at Deefr Park - both
sites were in Melbournes ķuter west.
A series
of photos taken in May 1943, held at the Australian War Memorial, in Canberra, show various features of the receiving and
transmitting stations, and these may be viewed on-line at the AWM website:
Receiving station
http://www.awm.gov.au/search/collections/?q=ringwood+radio&conflict=all
Transmitting station
http://www.awm.gov.au/search/collections/?q=coldstream+radio&conflict=all
