I
N JULY 1970 a completely new modern airport at Tullamarine, on the outskirts of
Melbourne, Australia, opened for international operations. The following year domestic
operations moved up the road from the old Melbourne Airport at Essendon. For all its
modernity and space, the new Melbourne Airport was something of a “sleepy hollow”
for the first few years of its life. That all changed in October 1973, when a strike by
government communications technicians in Sydney over pay equality with other public service
classifications shut down virtually all air traffic in south-eastern Australia. The strikers included
the crucial radio and radar technicians of the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA).
Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport, Australia’s main international air hub at that time, was closed
indefinitely on October 3 following the failure of a key air-to-ground communications centre at indefinitely on October 3 following the failure of a key air-to-ground communications centre at
Woronora, 17 miles (30km) south-west of Sydney. After the failure of two more essential navigation
Melbourne Airport, October 1973: parking was in such short supply at Tullamarine
that the taxiways had to be pressed into service. In the foreground of this
photograph taken at the time are three Boeing 707s parked nose to nose and tail
to tail, comprising British Caledonian’s G-BAWP — a rare visitor to Melbourne —
Qantas’s VH-EAF, named City of Townsville, and BOAC Cargo’s G-AVPB.
AIRSERVICES AUSTRALIA/CASA/CAHS