guest

From Tricia Henkel (now Gosling) Yamba NSW
December 2007

I want to wish ALL ex CDA employees a great Xmas and even better new year. Say, how about more contact from all the old admin. girls… We were there, too, you know.   What are they doing now, I'd love to know.
Tricia

From Brendan Nolan
(CE/EIC - BHP Newcastle) (CE/EIC-ABS Canberra)
November 2007
Subject: Memories--Oh Memories

What a fantastic find!
From a bright-eyed novice CE at BHP Newcastle in 1974 to being the one who turned the lights out for the final time in the Canberra office in 1994, it was a hell of a trip.
I remember the despair I felt as I watched the Newcastle 3500's disappear on the back of a truck to the scrap metal yard in 1984.
I still reckon I could troubleshoot a BDP fault today- to say nothing of those darn J84 bus transmitters that always gave trouble.
I can still remember so many highlights along the way (including Garry Whykes' movies in a motel room)-woah! And all the people I met during my 20 odd years. - John Urban, Ken Fox, Mario Raposio, Lawrie Lee, George Pace(a great bloke) and all the others.

It's great to see so many familiar faces among the photos--I'll be sure to add some pics of the BHP site, and my own of course ASAP.

I'm currently working hard on my Macadamia-Nut Farm which I bought in 2000,and with 4,000 or so trees, I am not idle.
I still have the end-skin from the ABS Canberra 810 on the wall to remind me of the fun times and the hard work during my time with the Company.

I am still in occasional contact with John Urbani, and Mike Olditch and will be sure to let them know of this site.

Looking forward to posting some more info soon.
Regards,
Brendan Nolan (CE/EIC-Bhp N'cle) (CE/EIC-ABS Canberra)

From Bob McPhail Califoria
Thursday, August 2007

Just discovered your website and it was great to see a lot of names and pictures of people I recognize - like Mike , Ron , Gavin , Wilson , Marcel , Frank Holland and lots more!
You may recall I came to CSIRO Canberra with the 3600 in 1964 on a 12 month assignment and stayed ten years with CDA - some of the best years of my life I must say .Spent the last couple of those years at 598 St Kilda and then back to Minneapolis in 1974 as liaison for the Melbourne manufacturing facility making the Victab terminal. Left CDC in 1979 when we started International Lottery and Totalizator Systems - retired from that in Jan 2006 after 27 years. Have attached a pictures for your " rogues gallery "- we all seem to have aged a few decades !
I now live in Carlsbad Ca. between San Diego and LA. Cell phone # 760 213-7488. You can post my contact numbers on the site and I would be glad to hear from any of the old gang - and they are welcome to drop by anytime. I expect to be in OZ later this year and will time my visit to Melbourne to attend one of your lunches - maybe in Oct or Nov.
Hope you are all well and look forward to seeing some of you one of these days.
Best Regards   Bob McPhail

From Hal Barnes USA
30/07/2007

Greetings!
My name is Hal Barnes, and I'm an ex-Control Data employee (1987 -
1992) here in the USA. I was google-ing a few terms this rainy Sunday
afternoon and came across your website, which was a very pleasant surprise,
especially as it had notes regarding the CDC 50 year celebration that will take
place in October of this year. Thanks for posting that information, as well
as all the other information on the site - it brought back some very nice
memories for me. And with those memories comes a question. I've see the logo a few times now, the dot-double arrow-dash, but I'm not sure what it is. Was that one of the older CDC logos, or something used for a specific purpose like service awards, or ? The only logo I knew of for good 'ol' CDC was the self-facing C's, but I know they changed it once or twice.
Thanks again for the website - I'll have to see if I can find a similar
one here in the states!
Hal

Note from John O'Neil
The dot-double arrow-dash was the original logo and was the original CDC
Symbol logo. You may have seen it on the original CDC tie clips. I understood that the dot and dash represented data, (as in Morse code),
and the double arrow represented control. You may also recall the
black and white Control Data Corporation rectangular logo, used on
equipment name plates, boxes etc - the Control Data Australia Pty Ltd
one on our web site is a modification of the Corporate one.

From Tony Williams in Sunny California
Tuesday Feb 13 2007

Hi All
Just a brief note to say how much I have enjoyed browsing through
the ex-CDA website. Sure brought back a lot of happy memories,
although it was sad to learn of those who have passed on.
Attached is a reasonably recent photo for your mugs gallery!
I don't get to see many of the old crowd here in sunny California,
except for Bob Farrell who visits occasionally and encourages
me to punish my liver!
I am still working, I am sure I will be till the day I die - I enjoy selling
the 'American Dream'. Mainly retirement homes for us baby boomers.
My interest is still with computers, I try and keep up to date with
technology - went to a sales conference the week before in San Francisco
for the release of Office 2007 and Vista.
Got to brush elbows with Bill Gates' vice presidents and the Intel
chief - Microsoft gave away a free copy of Office 2007 Pro for attending.

Still get a bit homesick for good old Melbourne - it is a great city.

Cheers to you all, wish I could join you for a pizza and a bottle of
red - used to LOVE those lunch times!

Tony Williams
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From: Garry Whykes
Sent: Sun, 7 Jan 2007 16:55:21 +0900
Subject: G'Day From WA
G'Day Folks
I was browsing the web site when I saw that my name was on the Where IS? List. I'm here in WA, where I have been for the past twenty odd years.My contact details are attached.
I have been to a couple of reunions and pizza lunches and I keep in
regular contact with Cluggers (Mile Clugston). I also have a couple of
bits of memorabilia. Like ACCESS Magazine, CDI Scene, etc. along with a number of telephone directories dating back to 1977, if you are
interested.
Regards - Garry Whykes   WA
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From: Paul Derby
Sent : Fri, 29 Dec 2006 10:04:08 -0500
Subject: Hello from the US

Hi there,I enjoyed checking out the Control Data Australia ex employee's website.During my time of managing the Demonstration Center/Benchmark Lab at CDC HQ in Minneapolis it was my pleasure to have many people from Australia work side by side with our staff.

I made it down to Australia a couple of times, too, for the Australia VIM meetings.
Best wishes for the New Year

Paul Derby Arlington VA
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From : Bruce Smith
Sent : Friday, 15 December 2006 3:17:30 PM
Subject : CDA EX Employees Website.

Well who would have thought the surprise I got when Dave Innes (Perth)
forwarded on to me an email from his younger brother Peter, an email
comprising amongst other things, one of the biggest, if not the oldest bunch of ex CDA staff ever gathered in one place.

The last time I met Wilson, John O'Neil, Noel Diviney etc was at lunch in
Blackburn many years ago, not sure exactly.

Anyway please sign me up, and we will definitely be at the next reunion.

We will also be coming down in March next year for the Grand Prix, as we
have for the last 3-4 years, usually with very little time during the day
for anything, but if you luncheon is on about GP time in March, then we may be able to organise something.

My wife sent your info on to Russell Morgan ex CDA Melbourne and Canberra, so you should hear from him also.

Regards To Everybody,

Bruce & Glenda (EX CSIRO Canberra) Smith

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From: David Innes

Sent: Monday, 18th December 2006 3:02 PM
Subject: CDA Employee David Innes 1966 - 1972

My brother Pete, also CDA, alerted me to your website.
I must get to one of your get-togethers next time I'm in Melbourne.
I am living near Perth WA now.

Arrh yes the memories!

Seeing Wally Cavil at the Yarralumla Embassy in "66" and being offered a job in Vietnam. Weeks later, over in Saigon with Bruce Smith, Bill Messenger and Bernie Pohl. Chas Yates as Tech. Support.

Just missed the Tet. offensive of 68 as I was helping out at the Bangkok site and then back to Sydney at CSIRO's national Standards Lab in Sydney Uni. with Dov. Brenner.

Down to Port Kembla with Peter Singer, Denis Lee, Hans Haupli, plus others for the first Master real-time installation on twin 3300's and crashing 814 big disk systems.
John Duggan and brother Pete set up a similar site for BHP Newcastle.

On to VicTab with Geoff Hipwell where we were upgrading the first on-line remote betting system based on 1700's collecting agency bets and interfacing to the Carbine 3300 systems there.

Finally ending up at Mike Haseler's Census site in Canberra.

Arrh yes! Those were the years my friend. Good years and wonderful workmates. I hope to catch up with many of you again soon.

Dave Innes WA

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From: Gavin Sutherland
Sent: Sunday, December 10 2006 7.27 PM
Subject: Christmas Reflections 2006.

The last 20 years have gone quickly, with many changes & not much worth remembering. The previous 20 years with CDA, however, brings back a lot to memories.... loved those mainframes!

As a support engineer for many years - especially with the 3000 systems (installations, training & problem solving), I knew these systems so well, & I remember that they were a binary system, with an octal word structure, many large boxes with superb hinged aluminium & blue glass doors, connected by under plenum, 61pin, cables and large motor generators - out of sight somewhere. Executing software instructions that were processed by the CPU at a speed of 1.2 micro seconds, using 'and' gates and 'or' gates, flip-flops & ferrite core memory.

Reflecting on those years with CDA, there are some events that seem as if they occurred only yesterday. This was meeting other CDA employees, their courtesy, & continued friendship. So many invited me to their homes for a meal or a party, and this was often followed up with a stay over.
Sadly, some, or their partners, are no longer with us, but their memories are, forever.   more

Best Regards to all.
Gavin

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From: Tricia Henkel
Sent: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 10:58:37 +1100
Subject: Congratulations from Yamba NSW

From TRICIA HENKEL (now Gosling) ex CDA Melbourne for 20 years.

I left for the Gold Coast 1989 and last year moved to picturesque Yamba on the NSW coast.

I've kept in touch with Colin Elliott who kindly put me onto the
new site and I must say, how mindblowing.
To see all the old familiar faces after all this time, especially the girls, Allison Bryant, Joy Rock, Janice Wells.

That is the best part, seeing their faces brings back such happy memories.

Keep up the good work and I'll be looking on a regular basis for all the news, past and present.

There are a few in the Memories section that I was unaware of. How sad.

Again thanks for your efforts.
Tricia xxx

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From : Bob Godefroy
Sent : Thursday, 5 October 2006 9:06:21 AM

Subject : Congratulations

G'day Mike and Co,

What a great idea for a CDA web site and what a great job you all have done in creating it. I will be visiting often. I loved the photos from the recent reunion and all of the other info on the site.

Currently we are retired in paradise up at Noosa Heads. If any ex-CDA people are ever up this way we would be pleased to see them.

My regards to all.

Cheers,
Bob Godefroy

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From: Allen Robins Engineering Services
Sent: Friday 10th November 2006 22:30:05

Gents, fabulous effort in getting the website going.

However, I notice there is a distinct lack of Engineering Services people listed as known entities and on the "wanted list"

But fear not I have a June 1976 ES card with all the names of the people employed by ES at that time which I will gladly hand over. There are some notable people who I am sure once the word gets around about the site will enjoy looking back and reflecting.

Adding to your "Remember" page, Robert Pereira who left us suddenly a couple of years ago and Max Louden who was killed by a tram in St Kilda Road in about 1984/5 when we were all at 493 St Kilda Rd.

I will be at the Xmas lunch on the 8th of December and will hand over the card and some other memorabilia I have from the good old days.

Warm regards

Allen Robins

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From: Billy Pettit USA
Sent: Tuesday 14th November 2006 9:36 AM
Subject: CDA
David Lee alerted me to your web site via the elist Controlfreaks. Controlfreaks is an elist of ex-CDC employees, primarily if the US, but focused on the CDC computers and technology.
I am American, but in 23 years with CDC, made many Australian friends. I have long been searching to contact a couple of them and see how life has treated them. First is Jim Callahan, who was a tech support engineer with me in London, England circa 1968-72. The other gentleman is Rob Potter, PhD, who I worked with on the Cyber 170 in Mississauga, Ontario, 1972-76. more

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