March marked the 50^th anniversary of the opening of Moree’s earth station – at the time Australia’s most advanced commercial earth tracking station. This year also marks 30 years since the station was decommissioned in 1988.

To celebrate those two milestones, former employees who worked at the station during its 20-year history returned to Moree for a special reunion.

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For some it was the first time they’d been back in Moree since working here, while others haven’t seen their colleagues for 40 years.

Reunion organiser, and former OTC technician, Graeme Hanigan said it was a great weekend.

“It went really well,” he said.

“It’s the first time we’ve all gotten together since leaving Moree.”

The former employees, who travelled from all over Australia including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, got together at Moree Services Club for a dinner on Saturday night.

There was a constant slideshow of photos running throughout the evening and a display of memorabilia, prompting plenty of reminiscing and storytelling.

“People were just getting up and telling their stories and memories,” Mr Hanigan said.

“There were a lot of technical jokes. It was a great night.”

Sunday was also full of reminiscing as the group returned to their old stomping ground, which now houses Irritek.

Irritek owners Helen and Jim Spain organised a morning tea and gave the ex-staff members a tour of the old building.

Mr Hanigan said while it was great to go out to the site, it was a bit sad that the satellite is no longer there.

“A lot of people were also sad that we weren’t all still working together; it was a fun mob,” he said.

“We played tricks on each other.”

Mr Hanigan said there were plenty of stories told about working at the station – which was staffed on 24-hour shifts, seven days a week – during the Moree floods.

“They would take food out and travel to work in the back of a back hoe,” he said.

“They’d have to get the SES to takle them out in boats when the water got too deep to take staff out to relieve guys who had been working for days on end.

“When one lot turned up with a supply of food there were all these bottles of vinegar. We found out the wives had tipped the vinegar out and filled them with wine. They had to have some time off, they weren’t working the whole time.”

About 70 people attended Sunday’s morning tea, including some Moree townspeople who were interested in learning more about the earth station.

Helen Spain said everyone was so happy and interested to see the changes in the building.

“They were so excited, they were like schoolboys coming back,” she said.

“They were going around, saying ‘that’s different’, or ‘that’s where my desk was’. They were excited to go up to the tower.

“They told how they used to do sprints to the top of the tower to stay awake during shifts.

“They were so full of stories and excitement.”

Mr Hanigan said it was all over far too quickly, but now the group are planning on reuniting next year in Parkes to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing.

While not all of the ex-staffers worked in Moree back then, many had worked on other Apollo missions over the years. 

Mr Hanigan would like to thank Moree Services Club for a great meal and accommodating the group’s needs, Helen and Jim Spain for the morning tea on Sunday, Tian Harris from Tourism Moree who set up the display of memorabilia, Moree Plains Shire Council’s Catherine Davis for providing material and Jenny Smith who did so much work organising the reunion locally.