Category:OTC site group

English: The Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) Site Group (formerly Bringelly Radio Receiving Station) is a now-demolished heritage-listed site of the Overseas Telecommunications Commission (OTC) in Bringelly, New South Wales. It was a simply designed and detailed "domestic" scaled and detailed building using traditional materials: facebrick external walls, corrugated asbestos, cement roof and timber framed sash windows. A three-storey brick tower with concrete slab roof was a distinguishing feature. The entrance porch is covered by a flat concrete slab roof, supported on steel pipe columns, a detail of its period. The building exhibited a Post-War Functionalist style of architecture.

The site group included the radio receiving station, staff housing and water tank and at one time were listed as heritage items under the Liverpool Planning Scheme. The Bringelly Radio Receiving Station site consisted of a total of 317.58ha, occupied by the main radio receiving station building, which was surrounded by a number of masts and a small 1950s staff housing development consisting of fifteen domestic dwellings. The staff housing was arranged in a semi-circle around a central swimming pool and there was an associated cricket ground and tennis court. The radio receiving station buildings were constructed in 1950-51 and commissioned in 1951. The station consisted of a main station building which housed radio receiving equipment and a storage building which housed a diesel generator and battery room. The station was later decommissioned except for a single storey wing which housed HF receivers and operated as an unmanned facility which was inspected weekly, and later became the main Receiving Base for Maritime Services from Ships at Sea and Qantas. The complex become redundant when the service it provided was taken over by a new facility located in Brisbane.

A historical plaque at the entrance of the complex read:

Bringelly Radio Receiving Station

Officially opened by
The Postmaster-General
The Hon H.L. Anthony MP

On Mon 10/10/1955

With the advent of technology, by the c.1969 the station was able to operate as an automatic facility and the staff housing complex became redundant. By the mid-1990s the housing had been let, several retired staff housing from the radio station stayed on and a number of the houses were vacant and in disrepair. At the same time the technology itself also became redundant by new satellite technology resulting in the decommissioning of the complex. In 1996 Liverpool City Council required a conservation plan prior to considering any change of use of the site.

The Bringelly Radio Receiving Station Complex represented an important period in the development of the technology of the overseas telecommunications network. It was one of only three pairs of public stations in Australia of the period and the only receiving station in NSW. It was the last of the type built and the last receiving station in operation, which was an important aspect of the site's significance. The last technology in the station was second generation and did not relate to the building envelope which was representative of its period and of brick utility buildings.

The site was neglected for some time, with a report of October 2014 noting that the site entry was damaged leaving an overall "air of abandonment." (AMC, 2014) The receiving station was demolished sometime in 2008 and the site is now used for the Western Sydney International Airport. As of July 2023 the only remaining marker is a brick wall that marked the entrance of the site.

References

• Portions of this description come from the Heritage NSW item description, which is licensed under CC-BY 4.0.
• FORM Architect (Aust) Pty Ltd (2004) Liverpool Heritage Study Review, Liverpool City Council
• Badgerys Creek Initial Environmental Survey: Historic Heritage for SMEC Consulting^[1], Australian Museum Consulting, October 2014