Radio operator seated (sort of) at an operating desk at Darwin, 1919.
Then Darwin was little more than a shanty town, and suitable housing was hard to find, so the Department of the Navy commissioned six houses on a site near the radio station, overlooking the Botanical Gardens.
Life in Darwin's tropical conditions was difficult, with no fresh cow's milk, limited supplies of fresh meat and no refrigeration. Lamb could be bought only every six weeks from a steamer service sailing to Australia from Singapore.
Medical services were also scarce; there was only one qualified medical practitioner for the entire Northern Territory.
The conditions for reception of radio signals were particularly bad immediately before and during the wet season, and at times the atmospherics were so severe that it was impossible to read messages from a ship anchored in the harbour.
Ships' messages routed through Darwin were few, but within several years of AWA's control of the CRS, Darwin became the contact point for many outstations in the Territory. These radio outposts, operated by cattle station owners, missionaries and hunters, communicated with Darwin using pedal-powered radio sets, later replaced by teleradios.
Darwin also became an integral part of the Northern Territory Medical Service, and when the air-ambulance service was established, Darwin was used as a radio base.
With the advent of a regular commercial aviation service, aeradio became the next step in the radio revolution. In 1934, AWA equipped Darwin Radio with special equipment so it could communicate with aircraft on the London-Australia airmail/passenger service operated jointly by Qantas and Imperial Airways. Darwin Radio monitored the Darwin-Timor leg of the flight.
From 1938, the Commonwealth Government took responsibility for aeradio services, and AWA supplied and installed transmitters all over Australia. AWA operated these stations until 1939, when the Department of Civil Aviation began to take control. Many radio operators opted to work in the new service.
During World War II, Darwin was one, of the stations intimately involved in the Royal Australian Navy's Coast Watching Scheme. All outstations around the Northern and north-western coast were on the alert for enemy activity, and Darwin was used as a link between these coast watching stations and Naval Intelligence.
In 1941, a new RAN radio station was built in Darwin and to ok over the naval maritime functions from Darwin Radio. Darwin reverted to communications with merchant shipping.
Darwin station showing truck, car and petrol supply burning after a
Japanese air raid, June 1942
Perhaps the
most eventful period in the history of Darwin Radio was its partial
destruction by Japanese bombing in 1942. The station was damaged in
two raids, one in June and the most severe in August.
Until 1950, when a new station opened at Parap near Darwin, VID managed to keep operating under makeshift conditions in the old radio station buildings. Housing was sub-standard, but the staff battled under these post-war conditions, despite many frustrations and set-backs.
Darwin operating room showing bomb damage after the Japanese attack
