Staff at Melbourne Radio, 1921
Melbourne Radio was the first of the Government-owned stations in operation, opening on 8 February 1912. The main function of the station, located in Melbourne's Domain, was to communicate with ships travelling down the east coast of Australia. It was a continuous watch station and also issued twice daily time signals.
During World War I, Melbourne was a training post for many operators.
In May 1923, radios were installed into police cars in Melbourne and staff from the station trained police in the operation of these new wireless sets. VIM became the control centre of the infant police radio network.
When AWA began its modernisation program of coastal radio stations in the late 1920s, it decided there was no need for the old station in the Domain.
In 1931, the transmitter was transferred to the AWA transmitting centre at Braybrook and the receiver was relocated to Rockbank. Both transmitter and receiver were controlled from AWA's premises in Queen Street, Melbourne.
The old buildings of the radio station in the Domain were demolished in May 1932.
