Aeradio and the 1949 Kempsey Floods

In Belshaw's World - Kempsey disaster – six killed, huge damage, I tried to tell the story of the 1949 Kempsey floods. In doing so, I drew from the story of Kempsey Aeradio.

This photo shows the submerged Aeradio facilities at Kempsey aerodrome. You can seethe extent of the flooding pretty clearly. 

Following a series of crashes especially along the east coast aviation route, the stations were established to try to improve safety by providing radio contact with pilots.

The next photo shows two of the Aeradio team (Charles Peddell (left) and J Pickles) operating from temporary headquarters in the Kempsey police station. Communications was a major problem during the flood, phone lines and the local radio station were both down, so the Aeradio people's radio skills came in handy. Charles Peddell was later awarded a Certificate of Merit by the NSW Commissioner of Police for his work on restoring communications during the flood.