The Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) was established by Australia in August 1946. It inherited facilities and resources from Amalgamated Wireless Australasia (AWA) and Cable & Wireless, and was charged with responsibility for all international telecommunications services into, through and out of Australia. In effect, all overseas telecommunications was nationalized. Australia was adopting a Commonwealth-wide policy that had been adopted at the Commonwealth conference in 1945. The main goal was to end the artificial routing of traffic to cable or wireless depending on private financial profits.F. K. Crowley, Modern Australia in Documents. Vol. 2 1939-1970 (1973) pp 143-44.
On 1 February 1992 it was merged with Australia's domestic telecommunications carrier, the Australian Telecommunications Corporation ("Telecom Australia") to create the Australian and Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (AOTC). The new organisation underwent a corporate identity review and was subsequently renamed Telstra.
When first established in 1946, OTC inherited facilities which had been depleted during World War II, and faced rising costs and falling profits. From this tenuous beginning, the organisation was to grow over the years to gain world standing on the international telecommunications stage.
Throughout rapid developments in undersea cable networks, global satellite systems and burgeoning digital technologies, OTC closely monitored its services to ensure continued quality. It also maintained and developed its links with maritime services, one of the initial arms of Australia's international telecommunications network.
OTC Timeline 1946 to 1992
Background
When first established by an Act of Parliament in 1946, Australia's international telecommunications carrier – OTC – inherited facilities which had been depleted during World War II, and faced rising costs and falling profits. From this tenuous beginning, the organisation was to grow over the years to gain world standing on the international telecommunications stage.
The commission's role was the establishment, maintenance and operation of telecommunications services between Australia and other countries. Through the OTC communications, telegram, telephone, telex and photo-telegrams were relayed to other countries around the globe. To undertake these functions the commission was part owner of overseas cables and international satellite facilities and it also operated international and coastal radio services in Australia and its territories. The OTC could well call itself and its services ‘the World Shrinkers’
OTC's history shows how, by internal restructuring, upgrading its public image, making long-term investments in technologies and networks, and becoming a major player in international cooperative efforts, it played a vital role in the provision of Australia's international communications.
OTC maintains monitoring of its services through the use of global satellite systems and digital infrastructure. In support of these efforts, the OTC developed its links with maritime services, such as the initial arms of Australia's international telecommunications network.
1940s 1946 7 August: OTC established by the Overseas Telecommunications Act, 1946. 23 August: First Commission appointed – James Malone appointed Chief Commissioner. 1 October: OTC and AWA signed a Caretaker and Management Agreement under which AWA continued to control and operate radio services until such time as the commission had the resources to assume full control. 19 October: JES Stevens appointed first General Manager of OTC.
1947 1 February: OTC assumed full control of radio services from AWA. 28 May: Trials of 5-unit teletype equipment conducted on the Sydney-San Francisco RCA Multiplex. June: Tests conducted with the RMS Orlon as part of a series of experiments on the development of circuits to handle radiotelephone traffic with small ships in local waters, and overseas vessels leaving/entering Australian ports. 1 July: Interim Management Agreement signed by OTC and Cable & Wireless. OTC assumed managerial control of the Australian international cable network but the assets remained with Cable and Wireless Ltd. 7 July: Bassendean receiving station, Western Australia, closed. 1 September: New shore-end laid for Pacific Cable at Fanning Island. November: Beam Messenger Service discontinued. 20 November: Direct Melbourne-Wellington, New Zealand, picture-gram service opened.
1948 25 January: First Wagga Weekend (OTC annual staff sports carnival). April: OTC's first Annual Report tabled in Parliament. 11 May: First International Telecommunication Union meeting since World War II began in Brussels. 12 July: Work commenced on a new station building for Darwin Radio.
1949 15 January: Adelaide cable station closed. 11 April: Arrangements completed for establishing a radiotelephone service between Australia and Royal Australian Navy ships at sea. 1 May: Assets of Cable & Wireless purchased by the commission. 2 May: Aerogram service commenced between Australian coast radio stations and Qantas and BOAC flights on the Sydney-UK route. 19 May: International Telegraph and Telephone Conference (CCITT) began in Paris to revise international telegraph agreements. 31 May: Commonwealth Telecommunications Board formed. 14 December: OTC's first staff Christmas party held on Sydney Harbour.
1950s 1950 1 February: Flat rates introduced for traffic to major foreign zones from Australia. Commercial rates to most foreign destinations also amended. All rates increased by 3d per word. 1 April: Ownership and control of Cable & Wireless's assets in Australia passed to OTC. All staff except those hired locally at Fanning Island and Suva became members of OTC. 5 May: Gangers arrived at Willis Island to remodel the radio station. 8 June: New transmitting station opened at Port Moresby. 15 June: Old Darwin Radio station closed. New station at Parap opened. 5 July: Worldwide unification of telegram categories became effective. 30 August: PMG's Department extended picture-gram service to all Australian capital cities, transmitted via OTC's Melbourne office. 3 November: JL Mulholland appointed General Manager of OTC. New OTC logo sourced from Radio Hobbies Magazine.
1951 March: Installation of new phototelegram equipment completed at the Melbourne office. 30 June: OTC's rates book revised to include zoning of rates to certain countries, unification of rates and abolition of government rates to certain countries. 1 September: First Annual General Meeting held of the Sydney Office Staff Sports and Social Club. 1 October: Ships' Letter Telegram service opened to all classes of vessels.
1952 26 March: Sydney-San Francisco circuits converted to 5-unit code. 15 April: Sydney-London telegraph traffic transferred to Electra House, Sydney. All London-Sydney traffic handled without tape relay at Melbourne. 9 June: Transfer of coastal radio operations from Applecross to Bassendean. Applecross became remote controlled. 20 October: Electra House became the single operating centre in Sydney.
1953 1 June: Cost of all telegraph rates from Australia (excluding urgent press and press messages to USA) reduced by one-third. 2 June: Radiotelegraph and cable channels rearranged to cater for heavy traffic during the Coronation of Elizabeth II. Two additional phototelegram channels opened. Bassendean Radio equipped with phototelegram equipment. 8 August: OTC's central workshop facilities moved from Pennant Hills to Marrickville. November: Sydney's central telegraph operations moved to Spring Street. 6 December: Melbourne facsimile section received the first-ever picture for publication from a ship at sea (the Royal yacht Gothic en route to Fiji). 15 December: First transmitter at Doonside brought into service.
1954 January: OTC's acceptance office in Perth closed. 2 April: Doonside transmitting station closed and all services diverted to Fiskville and Pennant Hills. 23 August: SF Kellock appointed new Chief Commissioner of OTC.
1955 16 January: Cooktown Radio station closed. 28 February: Adelaide acceptance office closed. 9 July: Bringelly commenced monitoring Island Services. Transfer began of radiotelegraph channels from La Perouse to Bringelly. 10 October: Bringelly HF radio station officially opened.
1956 19 April: Trevor Housley appointed General Manager of OTC. 27 April: Severe solar flare activity interrupted OTC's radiotelegraph services. 17 August: Qantas leased a two-way radio teletype circuit to Singapore. 25 September: First trans-Atlantic co-axial telephone cable, TAT-1 came into service. December: During the Melbourne Olympic Games, a record amount of traffic was sent over Australia's international telecommunications channels. 9,408,254 words were sent over 22 leased channels which operated for some 5465 hours. 6730 radiotelephone calls were handled and 2296 phototelegrams were sent. 285 hours of radio broadcasts were sent over R/T channels.
1957 OTC adopted a new logo. 28 February: Doonside transmitting station officially re-opened. 5 October: Bringelly, Rockbank and Bassendean stations began monitoring transmissions from the world's first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, launched by USSR. 28 October: Lodgement of international telegrams via the international telex network came into operation - known as the 'printergram service'.
1958 OTC updated its logo. 31 January: USA successfully launched its first satellite - Explorer 1. 17 March: Direct radiotelephone service opened between Australia and Japan. November: Official opening ceremonies heralded the new international telex services to Japan, USA, UK and Canada. December: The USA launched its first delayed repeater satellite: 'Score'.
1959 20 April: Commemorative cairn celebrating the landing of the Java-Darwin submarine telegraph cable unveiled in Darwin. 28 September: The Pacific Cable Conference hosted by OTC in Sydney was officially opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies. At this meeting, plans were drawn up for the construction of a new transpacific submarine telephone cable to be known as the Commonwealth Pacific Cable System (COMPAC).
1960s 1960 4 February: OTC's new Melbourne office at Lonsdale Street officially opened. 21 April: First meeting of the Pacific Cable Management Committee began in London. 22 August: Ceremony held in Paddington to mark the commencement of work on OTC's new international terminal. 23 August: MRC Stradwick appointed Chief Commissioner of OTC. 31 August: Direct Australia-New Zealand telex service opened. 14 November: Historic No 1 transmitter at Fiskville closed down. 15 November: Radioteletype and voice frequency circuit opened between Sydney and Honolulu as part of preparations for a communications system being developed for NASA's Project Mercury (America's first crewed orbital flight).
1961 3 January: A radioteletype and voice frequency circuit opened between Perth Radio and a ship in the Indian Ocean as part of preparations for NASA's Project Mercury. 27 July: Delegates from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaya, Hong Kong, Sarawak, India, Pakistan, Brunei and North Borneo met in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the construction of a proposed new telephone link between Australia and SE Asia: the Seacom cable. 23 September: Giles Chippindall appointed Chief Commissioner of OTC. November: 5-unit code equipment installed at the Cottesloe cable station. 12 December: The new trans-Atlantic telephone cable, Cantat, opened.
1962 March: Commonwealth Telecommunications Conference began in London to discuss satellite communications. 19 April: Shore end of the COMPAC cable landed at Bondi Beach. 2 June: The final splice was made on the trans-Tasman section of the COMPAC cable. OTC technician, Orme Cooper, made the first direct voice contact over the cable from Sydney to New Zealand.