Auckland Radio ZLD - Architecture and History
Auckland Radio – ZLD
By Ian Walker (ZL1BFB).
First Published in the Newsletter of the Suburban Amateur Radio Club Inc
(NZART Branch 86) September 2001.
The Radio Station at Musick Point can be inspected by appointment, or on the 2nd Sunday each month prior to club meetings. Call at the station at noon - the club meeting starts at 1pm. To make an appointment to view at other times, please phone Ian Walker.
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION.
The Musick Memorial Radio Station is a concrete building in the ‘moderne’ style, now known as ‘Art Deco”. At the time of its construction (by D C Street Construction Ltd., Hamilton) it was likened to the forepart of an aeroplane with two single storied wings on either side of a tail tower. The driveway and grounds represented the jet stream of an aircraft.
The Transmitting Station at Oliver Road continued this theme. A two – storied, streamlined bay with generous windows represented the aircraft’s nose. The building is approached from the southern side via a formal driveway dominated by the tower. The vertical aspect of the tower is emphasised by a tall narrow bay of windows extending for the two of the three floors above the centrally located entrance.
The main entrance opens into a small memorial hall approximately five metres square. Although this area serves as a central lobby, the heights and symmetry of the hall bestows a form of dignity befitting its function as a memorial. The eastern and western walls bear an American Eagle in plaster relief and a bronze plaque.
Plastered walls are a striated marking. Also evident but less clearly defined on the building’s accommodating the former ground to air radio room. A corridor runs from the memorial hall along the south side of each of the wings. The eastern wing was originally staff quarters. The eastern wing accommodates a work room and emergency generator room.
The main operations rooms were originally housed on both floors of the building’s curved northern section overlooking the sea.
Administrative accommodation for superintendent and supervisor on both floors was devilled from the main operations room by a low wall; however, this space was later formalised by internal partition walls.
The flat-roofed areas of the streamlined bay and wing sections provide a promenade.
The Oliver Road transmitting site was one of the two essential components to the Musick Memorial Radio Station complex, the other being the receiving station. One could not operate without the other. To this end, the transmitting station was built in the same Modern décor. The transmitting station is located three miles back along the point from the main building. It housed 18ntransmitting sets in 1946 and the largest had a power of three kilowatts, while the smallest was 100 watts.
The transmitters had a selection of 29 aerials spread over an area of 35 acres. Miles of underground cables connected the transmitters with the main building. The area of the transmitting site covered what is now the Ocean Point sub-division, existing transmitting paddock and the playing fields oat MacLean’s College.
The transmitting station comprised a main transmitting hall (approx. 17 metres by 13 metres) an engine room (approx. 4 metres by 3 metres) a technician’s workshop (approx. 5 metres by 3 metres) Kitchen, storage room and toilet facilities.
The influences of the Moderne style, with its commitment to the aesthetics of the machine age are evident not only in the building shape but also in details such as metal framed windows divided by metal sash bars and door catches. A circular window also occurs on the external wall each side of the second floor operations room. Circular windows with their nautical associations were an appropriate motif for a building from which amphibious flying boats were guided.
ARCHITECTURAL QUALITY
The Music Point Memorial Building and Transmitting Building express modern life in an ‘aesthetic’, which was developed by the movement architects in Europe such as Gropius and Corbusier.These modern architects based their architectural forms on the products and methods of industrial technology, the ship, aeroplane and car, so that buildings too could be in context with modern life. The two buildings are very representations of their type. They are good examples in the New Zealand context, which adds to their importance as a regional asset.
The Musick Memorial Radio Station, constructed in the shape of an aeroplane has been little altered and retains its architectural integrity and memorial function. Designed and constructed when the international industry was in its infancy, the building is a fitting tribute to American aviator Edwin Musick and his crew.
HISTORY
Prime Minister Peter Fraser officially opened the Musick Memorial Aeradio Station on January 12 1942. The building and headland upon which it stands, takes its name from Captain Edwin Charles Musick (b.1894 d.1938), a pioneer of long distance ocean flying.
Captain Musick, one of Pan-American Airways first pilots, surveyed various air routes and inaugurated scheduled airmail flights across the Pacific.
On 22 November 1935 the flying boat “China Clipper” under his command landed in Manila, having flown from San Francisco. This link established the airline in developing a similar connection with Australasian area of the South Pacific. “Imperial Airways” had already connected Australia by air with Britain, leaving Auckland as a Pan American airway destination, a four-day trip by air from California.
On 30 March 1937 a crowd of 30,000 greeted the Sikorsky flying boat, called the “Pan Am Clipper II”, which landed on Auckland’s Harbour. The skipper on this survey flight was Captain Musick. A second survey flight arrived at Auckland on Boxing Day of the same year. On this occasion, Captain Musick and crew were officially welcomed by Prim Minister Michael Joseph Savage.
The first airmail from New Zealand to America was carried on the return flight, which left three days later. Just two weeks later, however, the inaugural commercial flight, again under Musick’s command, ended in tragedy. The flying boat and crew were lost off Pago Pago, Samoa, on the northern leg of the journey to San Francisco. Further services were postponed until July 1949.
The New Zealand public felt the loss keenly. Prime Minister Savage announced the memorial in the form of a beacon would be erected for the direction of aircraft arriving at Auckland. In 1939 temporary buildings (superseded just over two years later) were erected at Musick Point to provide the radio communications facilities and navigational aids required for the inception of the New Zealand – Australia air service by Imperial Airways on 30 April 1940. Pan American Airways commenced schedule services between New Zealand and the United States later the same year; however, these ceased early in December 1941 with Japans entry into the war and were not resumed until June 1946.
When the station opened in 1942, the Post Office operated both aeronautical and maritime communications from the sites. With increasing air traffic however, the Civil Aviation Department took over the upper floor operations floors in 1952. The Post Office continued to operate the shipping section from the ground floor. In 1972 a communications pattern of 30 years was broken when long-range frequency radio traffic with overseas aircraft was transferred to Mangere Airport. The maritime radio station remained in the memorial building at the end of the East Tamaki river, however, it was one of three such coastal radio stations in New Zealand.
It is important to point out that the influx of radio operators and radio technicians doubled the population of Bucklands Beach in 1942. While the transmitting and receiving station’s operations were top secret during the war years, socialising by the staff was not. In effect, it changed the lifestyles of many of the local inhabitants.
Some settled and stayed for the rest of their lives.
Both the transmitting station and the receiving station were manned for 24 hours a day, the transmitting station until 1972, and the receiving station until its closure in 1993. This meant that accommodation had to be provided for the staff. Consequently, housing settlements were built adjoining both stations. In addition, a substantial hostel for single operators and technicians was built at Musick Point.
Other memorials to captain Musick were a Liberty Ship christened in his honour and launched on 11 February 1944 at Richmond, California and the Musick Memorial Trophy. The trophy, financed by public donations in Auckland in 1938, has been displayed at Auckland’s International Airport Terminal since 1975. Originally awarded for the most valuable contribution to safety of life in the air and most efficient aircraft operations with special regard to trans-ocean flying, the trophy was last awarded in 1957. Prior to its return to Auckland in 1975, it was displayed at New York’s Kennedy Airport for eight years.
A previous report of “No commercial HF signals” at Auckland Radio appears to be slightly incorrect. I have since been advised that one of the stations transmitters was converted from “CW” to “AM” during the Queens Visit to NZ, to broadcast the Queens message to the world. The year was1952, and the time of the Tangiwai train disaster, when communication was established between Auckland to Waiouru. The conversion to the transmitter number “950” required that a 1kw rated modulation transformer to be fitted, and the quickest way was for one of the technicians ( a Radio Amateur), to get his own one from home.
Apparently there was little time as the advice that the transmission was required at short notice.
Those were the old NZPO days. This was a once only time for this type of operation. (de ZL1ADE Eric Duffy Senior Technician).