New South Wales
2CR · Cumnock and Orange
The transmitter was at Cumnock; the first public broadcast gathered listeners at Orange’s Strand Palais.
The starting point
One panel, many places
Martin’s childhood memory of a radio beside his bed leads into this photographed dial. We use it as the visual index for the series, then pair each selected call sign with its map location and documented history.
The dial shows 2AN, which the Australian Broadcasting Control Board says began service at Armidale on 19 February 1962. If that mark was current when this panel was printed, the dial dates from 1962 or later. The radio’s maker, model and exact manufacture date remain unknown.
Watch the English Australia pilot
The first dial-led film is now public. Martin’s opening memory leads into regional call signs, maps and the histories behind selected stations across Australia.
Other Australian state and territory episodes are in production.
Orientation map
The old call-sign rows are not state borders
The dial groups stations by historical call-sign prefix. The row marked “SA” also includes Darwin and Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory. This map shows the prefix groups and present-day state and territory context; it does not show station coverage.
Nine regional services
The quieter marks first
Each story keeps the dial position visible and separates a station’s town from its studio or transmitter site when the evidence allows. Locator dots identify places; they are not transmitter surveys.
Victoria
3WV · the Wimmera
A regional strategic back-up to Melbourne’s 3LO, later part of the wartime communications story.
Queensland
4AT · Atherton Tablelands
A regional commercial station from 1939, serving communities across the Tablelands.
South Australia
5AU · Port Augusta
Taken off air with 5KA in 1941 and officially reopened in December 1943.
South Australia
5PA · Penola
Entered service in November 1956, adding another regional service to the dial.
Northern Territory
5DR · Darwin
A Darwin service with wartime roots. A 1946 decision brought it into the national service; as an ABC station, it began transmitting in March 1947.
Northern Territory
5AL · Alice Springs
An ABC relay that began in 1948, sharing the 5 row with Darwin.
Western Australia
6WA · Minding near Wagin
A mast construction setback in 1936 and a major transmitter upgrade in 1957 frame this service’s story.
Tasmania
7QT · Queenstown
A west-coast station whose local signal mattered in rugged terrain. Period sources describe 7QT’s start differently: the 1938 yearbook lists 29 May 1937 as its commencement date; a 1946–47 profile says it was officially opened on 31 May.
5DR · Darwin. Date not recorded by the archive.
Courtesy of Library & Archives NT · PH0704/0052 · CC BY 4.0. Territory Stories 721313.
English: Library & Archives NT describes this photograph as 5DR radio station in Darwin; the date is not recorded.
Jack Davey at 3AW · Melbourne · 6 January 1945.
Photograph by Henry Frederick Charles Barrington · Australian War Memorial, item 086348 · copyright expired, public domain. View the catalogue record.
Beyond the photographed panel
Five more services in the 1959 lists
The Australian Broadcasting Control Board’s operating lists for 30 June 1959 include commercial stations 2BS at Bathurst, 2VM at Moree and 7SD at Scottsdale, as well as ABC national services 2WN at Wollongong and 4QS at Toowoomba. None is visible in the supplied dial photographs. That comparison does not tell us why they are absent or whether this receiver’s dial was intended to show every service.
The row images provide visual context only. They do not establish exact tuning positions. The radio’s date and intended dial coverage remain unresolved.
Scope and method
A first journey through the dial
The working transcription records 161 visible marks, but not every mark is yet confirmed as a broadcast station. This national introduction gives selected regional services the story first; later state and territory episodes will take the wider station inventory further.
Dates and locations follow the available evidence. The radio’s exact manufacture date remains unresolved, and the illustrated maps show modern locality references rather than historic transmitter coordinates unless a source establishes otherwise.
Research notes
Sources and further reading
- Australian Broadcasting Control Board, Fourteenth Annual Report, 1961–62 (2AN Armidale service commencement)
- Australian Broadcasting Control Board, Ninth Annual Report, 1956–57
- Contemporary report on the 5AU and 5KA reopening in December 1943
- Australian Broadcasting Control Board, Tenth Annual Report, 1957–58
- Australian Broadcasting Control Board, Eleventh Annual Report, 1958–59 (Appendices A–B: 1959 Australian station lists)
- National Film and Sound Archive catalogue record for the Board’s Eleventh Annual Report (published 1959; catalogue ID 1620683; not digitised there)
- 1939 Broadcasting Business Year Book, 4AT entry
- 1959 Broadcasting and Television Year Book
- ABC, 2CR Cumnock and its role as an inland broadcaster
- ABC Wimmera, about the Wimmera and 3WV
- Radio Heritage Foundation, 4AT Atherton
- 1940 Year Book of Commercial Broadcasting (4AT service listing)
- ABC, early broadcasting in Darwin
- National Archives of Australia, Government records of the Northern Territory (5DR chronology and 5AL Alice Springs)
- The Broadcaster, March 1989, Darwin 5DR retrospective (page scan not yet inspected)
- Broadcasting Business, 20 March 1947, “Darwin National Opened” (indexed text reports the 12 March opening; scan not yet visually inspected)
- Australian War Memorial, photograph 088689: 5DR during establishment, Darwin, 13 April 1945 (public-domain image candidate)
- Australian Dictionary of Biography, Reginald Stephen Wilson Irving (early Army Amenities 5DR operator)
- WA Heritage Council, Minding Radio Station 6WA assessment
- WA Heritage Council, Minding Radio Station place record
- Western Australian Government, 6WA Minding transmitter history (2001)
- 1938 Broadcasting Business Year Book — 7QT entry
- Radio Heritage Foundation, 7QT Queenstown
- Australian War Memorial, Jack Davey at 3AW broadcasting studio, Melbourne, 6 January 1945 (item 086348, public domain)