This telecommunications tower, behind a telephone exchange rises above a row of town houses in Birrell Street, in the eastern suburb of Waverley. The original Waverley Radio Telephone Tower was built in 1945. This 82 metre structure supports radio systems for telephone, television and data services.
Lovely post for SWF!
ReplyDeleteMy B&W Blog: http://hanshb.wordpress.com/
Beautiful how it points to the gorgeous blue sky!
ReplyDeleteit looks out of place, but the sky is beautifully blue.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a tower, and I like the deep blue sky!
ReplyDeleteThe sky is so blue ! In Belgium it is not allowed to put up such a tower in areas where people live. It has to be on industrial zones or outside town. We believe that it is unhealthy to live near or under such a tower.
ReplyDeleteThey don't put them so close to homes her either these days but I guess back then the residents didn't have concerns and didn't protest against them.
DeleteWonderful photo, impressive tower!
ReplyDeleteLovely blue!!
ReplyDeleteit is an impressive tower, but I agree with others, it is in a strange spot. :-)
ReplyDeleteWonderful sight of construction. Thanks for linking up!
ReplyDeleteMersad
Mersad Donko Photography
Impressive tower and no doubt does a good job but wouldn't want it in my back yard. Great photo though.
ReplyDeletewow! That's quite an old one.
ReplyDeleteIt is like that in our town. Right up next to someone's place. I know they have to be where they are affective. I am using this for one of the spotlights.
ReplyDeleteSome reports say the tower was built in 1945 but my recollection is that only a smaller tower existed on top of the exchange building in Botany St and the current tower supporting m/w dishes was built behind it on land in Council St near the intersection of Birrel and Carrington Rd, around 1970 - I had heard that my first (NEC. 25 watt) car phone in 1980 -81 had one of its 5 cells (YES) centered at this tower - the 2 others I knew about were at Pitt St city, and Homebush - the maximum number of phones in Sydney and Melbourne only was 6000 for each city. The first non-automatic system started in Sydney (and Melbourne too I think) around 1948 with only 200 mobiles - connection was via an operator - only 20 mobiles could use it at any one time and by the 1970's there was a considerable black-market for a mobile of around $10,000.00 and hard to get - this push to talk manual system ceased with the introduction of the automatic system - I have a 1952 'phone directory which provides instructions to call a car-phone from a conventional line. Whilst the mobiles could only make 'phone calls - very expensive - and no other 'tricks, not even a missed call or telephone answering facility, on the other hand one could make direct overseas calls which wasn't yet possible on land lines. I still have my original boot mounted brief case sized big box unit and console mounted hand-set. From memory the unit was marketed for around $6000.00 by Telecom (as a monopoly provider) or rentable for around $1000.00 PA, + similar PA for connection + call costs - Telecom being the previous name for Telstra and it was said that they had a sense of humor by giving the system its unique prefix > 007!
ReplyDeleteI didn't read your whole im sorry.. but I clearly remember watching men working on that tower when I went to pre school nearby.. 1974/5
DeleteSome articles state that the tower was built in 1945. I have lived in Bondi all my life and my recollection is that only a smaller tower existed on top of the exchange building in Botany St and the current tower supporting aerials and M/W dishes was built behind it on land in Council St near the intersection of Birrel and Carrington Rd, around 1970.
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I had heard that Telecoms first automatic car phone system in 1980 - 81 had one of its 5 cells (YES) centered at this tower - the 2 others I knew about were at Pitt St city, and Homebush - the maximum number of car-phones in Sydney and Melbourne only was 6000 for each city.
The little known first non-automatic car-phone system started in Sydney (and Melbourne too I think) around 1948 with only 200 mobiles - connection was via an operator - only 20 car-phones could use it at any one time and by the 1970's there was a considerable black-market for a car-phone of around $10,000.00 and hard to get. I have a 1952 'phone directory which provides instructions to call a car-phone from a conventional line.
The push to talk manual system ceased with the introduction of the automatic cellular system in 1980. Whilst the 1980 model mobiles could only make 'phone calls - very expensive - and no other 'tricks, not even a missed call or telephone answering facility, on the other hand one could make direct overseas calls which wasn't yet possible on land lines. I still have my original NEC brand, 25 watt boot mounted brief case sized big box unit and console mounted hand-set. From memory the unit was marketed for around $6000.00 by Telecom (as a monopoly provider) or rentable for around $1000.00 PA, + similar PA for connection + call costs.
Telecom - being the previous name for Telstra - it was said that they had a sense of humor by giving the system its unique prefix > 007!]
Thanks for the info.
DeleteI worked on this tower every day building the antennas on it….amazing views on top
ReplyDeleteThe tower is no more. It was dismantled a couple of weeks ago and replaced with a monopole.
ReplyDeleteIt was a bit of an eyesore but it's still sad that it's gone now.
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