A new exhibition at the Airways Museum at Essendon showcases the photographs of Ivan Hodder, who helped build Australia’s first aeronautical radio stations in the late 1930s.
Photographs documenting the birth of Australia’s aeronautical radio network will go on display at the Airways Museum at Essendon Airport from Saturday 24 October.
The Early Days of Aeradio: Images from the Ivan Hodder Collection is presented by the Civil Aviation Historical Society (CAHS). It draws on two albums of photographs taken by Hodder, one of the first Department of Civil Aviation radio inspectors.
In the late 1930s, Hodder travelled around Australia supervising and helping with the construction of the first Aeradio stations, which provided radio communications and weather information to aircraft. A keen photographer, he created a rare record of the stations and the work they did. The CAHS has scanned and restored the albums for the exhibition.
The opening will also see the premiere of a short film built around a tape recording Hodder left behind, in which he talks through the photographs in one of the albums. Visitors will hear him describe stations from Alice Springs to Dili, in what was then Portuguese Timor, in his own words.
CAHS Patron Roger Meyer OAM will tell the story of the early Aeradio network in presentations throughout the day.
The museum will be open from 10am to 4pm on the opening day, and entry is by donation.