Photos at Muchea by the Martins

Photos from Mrs Marion Martin

In November 1962, the Department of Supply invited Muchea locals to inspect the station.

Muchea resident Mrs. Marion Martin, and her husband Trevor, toured the facilities on Sunday 18th November.
She was given prints of the photos below, and kindly shared them with John Lambie.

(As a bee-keeper, Trevor Martin would often be called out to the station
to remove bees from the various towers.
While the tracking station is now just a memory, the bees remain, as can be seen in photos 45-47 on this page.)

Scans by Colin Mackellar.

The letter from Department of Supply WA State Controller Jim Mills, with details of the visit.

Scan by John Lambie.

01. The main gate, at the edge of Muchea township.

03. Looking south, the T&C building on the left.

The security caravan is on the right. Viewed from just near the junction with the access road from Muchea township.

05. The T&C building with the two Receiving Antennas at centre.

To the left of them is the Boresight Tower, and at far left is the receiving antenna for the WWV time standard.

09. The Receive Antennas, with the T&C Building at right.

Looking roughly East.

10. Northern Receiving Antenna, from just behind the T&C Building.

04. Looking North, back towards the access road, which is going off the the right.

The Verlort Radar is visible in the distance at left. The T&C building is opposite the camera and to the right.

02. Looking south, from opposite the T&C Building.

The water bore and storage tanks is at left centre. On the rise just right of centre is the Power House. Beyond it is the Ground to Air Transmitter site.

06. Looking west. The southern Receive antenna.

T&C Building at left. The Boresight Tower is at centre, and the WWV receive antenna at right.

07. The Ground to Air Transmitter site, looking North West.

Detail from the above. Could that be Kevyn Westbrook at right, leaning against the van?

08. The Ground to Air Transmitter site, looking West.

11. Looking South from the Verlort Radar site.

Large (840kb), Larger (2.6MB).

11. An anotated version of the above photo.

Large (1MB), PDF version (4MB).

12. The Verlort Radar tower.

This is the later configuration of the Verlort Radar. This and the next two photos must have been taken some time after April 1963.

The solid spun-metal type parabolic antenna has been replaced by the lighter weight expanded-metal type antenna.

For details, see page 2 of the Goddard Technical Information Bulletin, Volume 1, Number 3, April 5, 1963 (PDF). On this page.

13. The Verlort Radar.

14. The Verlort Radar.

15. The Operations Area in the T & C Building.

On the left is the Mercury Command Console. At centre-right is the CommTech console.

“TGIF” (Thank God it’s Friday) written on the blackboard to the right of the CommTech console confirms this photo was taken on a weekend!

Large, Larger.

16. The Mercury Command Console.

(Photo apparently taken at another time.)

17. The CommTech console.

Large, Larger.

18. The Acquisition Console.

Large, Larger.

19. The Telemetry area.

Note the Exide car / truck batteries at left, presumably for power backup.

Large, Larger.

20. The Comms area.

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