My name is Steve, I live in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Having a keen interest in electronic communications, my working life began in the late 1960’s with the PMG as a trainee technician, in Sydney, NSW. I served with the PMG (became Telecom in 1975) for 21 years, although my exposure to actual telephones was quite limited.

As a trainee, my first placement  was at a  CB manual telephone exchange in a reasonably remote, north western NSW town. I look back with pleasure at having the opportunity to catch the end of a long lost era, when the telephone handset was lifted, and the operator asked ”number, please”.

Minor centre telephone switching systems that weren’t already SE50 Step by Step exchanges soon became ARF102 Crossbar switching exchanges.  Bless you, LME. The SE50’s soon followed suit – oil and dag gave way to the white dustcoat.

After qualifying as a technician, my primary work area was in the Long Line and Carrier Telephony section, in a medium sized telephone exchange on the mid north coast of NSW. Long line and carrier telephony  embraced the “trunk line” section of Telecom, where primarily, single telephony channels are analogue multiplexed through group, supergroup and super mastergroup orders of multiplex, compatible with the STC 12Mhz 2700 channel Coaxial Cable system and the Seimens 1200 + TV coaxial cable system. These were the primary bearers passing through our centre, connecting Sydney to Brisbane.

Typically, the Carrier Room in a medium sized town in regional NSW had a diverse range of small, medium and large capacity analogue and digitally multiplexed bearers, from 3 channel open wire systems, 30ch PCM systems, 24ch VFT systems, 140Mb digital coaxial cable system, and a host of radio systems ranging from single channel and medium capacity FM radio systems through to high capacity microwave links.  

All in all, my workload and working environment with Telecom was full and challenging - it would be a gross understatement to merely say that I enjoyed my career with Telecom. I moved on when the first wave of privatisation began in the 1990’s.  

I have been employed by several employers since parting with Telecom (or, for the current generation, Telstra), and have now retired from the workforce after 15 years serving the Queensland Department of Emergency Services (Technology Support Services). I have enjoyed my career in electronic communications, the constant changes in communication technology has always been challenging and rewarding.

However, I will always remember the comradarie, sense of belonging, humour, and technical challenges during my Telecom career, with a strong feeling of heart warming nostalgia.

Rudy, Spatz, Craig, Robbo, Sheriff, Webby, Ward, Prairie, Lewie .....

I don't know where you are or what you are doing now, but I do remember you all, often.

I cherish the opportunity of once being a part of “The Big Game”, riding high on the reckless and rowdy wins, and falling with heart wrenching losses that sank us to the depth of despair.

May good fortune follow you all for the rest of your days.