Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to mark the passing of a distinguished Canberran. Thomas Reid MBE, who died on 2 October, was an engineer whose work at the Tidbinbilla, Honeysuckle Creek and Orroral Valley space tracking stations in the hinterland behind Canberra was an important and far-reaching contribution to Australia’s role in the exploration of space. Few Australians may be aware of the role Tom Reid played on that memorable day 21 July 1969, the day that man first walked on the Moon. On that day Tom Reid was the station director of Honeysuckle Creek space tracking station when the crew of Apollo 11 landed and conducted the first ever moonwalk. Honeysuckle Creek station received the first television pictures from the lunar surface—pictures relayed to a record worldwide audience. Tom Reid, however, was also well known around this building and Old Parliament House. He cut a convivial and personable figure in every part of this place, as well known to the attendants and staff as to the members and senators, courtesy of his role as husband of the then ACT senator and later President of the Senate Margaret Reid.

Though a Canberran for nearly half a century, Tom was born a Scot, as would be apparent from even a short conversation with him. Born in Glasgow in 1927 and encouraged from an early age to study as a means of getting on, he won a bursary to prestigious Morrison’s Academy at Crieff for his secondary education. His time there coincided with children being evacuated from Glasgow during the war, and he and his brother and sister were sent to a village called Braco which was nine miles from Crieff. Tom travelled to Crieff each day to attend Morrison’s. He completed his education there and, like many other 17-year-olds leaving school at that time, he joined the Royal Navy. He was a chief petty officer radio mechanic in the Royal Navy.

After the war he attended the University of Glasgow and graduated with first class honours as a bachelor of science in electrical engineering. He received numerous awards and prizes during his university course, including the Howe Prize in Electrical Engineering in 1952, awarded to him as ‘the student who has attained the highest standard of excellence in the work of the lecture and laboratory classes in electrical engineering of the second, third and fourth years.’ A letter on graduation from the professor of electrical engineering said in part:

It has been a great pleasure to have had you in the Department as a student and I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your distinguished undergraduate career.

During his time in the Royal Navy he served on ships in Japan, Singapore and Sri Lanka and spent time in Sydney, where young sailors were often offloaded to enable married UK servicemen to return home sooner. There was something about Australia that attracted Tom, and he decided that he would if he could return to Australia, which he did by joining the Royal Australian Navy in 1952, arriving in Melbourne on Melbourne Cup Day of that year. During his five years in the Royal Australian Navy he served at HMAS Cerberus, on HMAS Vengeance, at HMAS Leeuwin and on HMAS Warramunga as electrical officer. In 1957 he moved to South Australia and became scientific officer at the Weapons Research Establishment at Woomera, where he stayed until 1962, when he moved to Adelaide and became a senior lecturer in electronics at the South Australian Institute of Technology.

He moved to Canberra in 1964 to become the first director of the NASA STADAN station at Orroral Valley where he remained until 1967 when he moved to the NASA MSFN station at Honeysuckle Creek. In 1970 he became director of the two NASA DSN stations located at Tidbinbilla.

I should say a little bit about these important stations and why they were very significant in Australia’s involvement in the important scientific endeavour which was the manned space flight program. Honeysuckle Creek station was located a few miles to the west of here. It was built in 1967 primarily to support Apollo moon missions, mainly communications with the Apollo command module.

As I mentioned, on 21 July 1969 it received the first pictures of Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon’s surface. Honeysuckle Creek and Tidbinbilla stations had voice and telemetry contact with the lunar and command modules. The last major mission supported by Honeysuckle Creek was Skylab, which was the first space station the United States launched into orbit. Honeysuckle Creek closed in 1981, but it was later depicted, fictionally at least, in the Australian movie The Dish in the year 2000.

The Tidbinbilla Deep Space Tracking Station has for over 40 years played a key role in the exploration of space as part of NASA’s Deep Space Network. I should say that the complex at Tidbinbilla was opened by Sir Robert Menzies and is still in operation today.

For his contribution to the manned flight program he was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List in 1970. He was awarded the NASA Public Service Medal in 1975, and actually presented with it by visiting Vice President Dan Quayle in April 1989.

In his book Uplink-Downlink: A History of the Deep Space Network from 1957 Doug Mudgway says of Tom Reid:

His crisp management style and penchant for clear lines of authority, particularly in his relations with JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and NASA personnel, made a visit to ‘his’ complex a memorable experience for many Americans. He ran the station in a disciplined, formally organized way that attracted and retained the best technical staff available. As a direct result of their teamwork and his leadership, the CDSCC played a critical role in all of NASA’s deep space missions in the years 1970-1988.

He remained in that position until 1988 when he retired, but he remained a consulting engineer to NASA until 1990.

His first wife, Elizabeth, died in 1965. He married Margaret in 1967. Interestingly, he was engaged to Margaret within three days of them meeting I am told. Those of us who know Margaret Reid would not associate the word ‘impetuous’ with her, but on this occasion she was very impetuous. I might say that what she lacked in caution she made up for in very good judgment. It proved to a very solid match, enduring very strongly for more than 40 years.

Former senator Sue Knowles recalls one occasion which reflects well on that relationship between Tom and Margaret:

I recall during one late night sitting of the Senate, Marg came into the chamber and said, ‘Tom has called and was rather concerned’. She said that Tom had ‘lost Apollo’ and didn’t know when he’d be home. Never to be phased, Marg just told him to keep looking and she’d see him whenever the two found home.

Some time later Marg came into the chamber again and announced to me that she had found Apollo. She said “I’ve just watched it drop into the ocean on TV”. Needless to say, she advised the director of Tidbinbilla tracking station of this find.

To hear Tom’s version of this story was very funny as, even with all his gadgetry and high-tech wizardry, he always knew when he could rely on his wife—his princess as he called her—to fill in the gaps and be the repository of wisdom if and when required.

He had a great sense of humour. To illustrate the effect he had on people one only has to speak to anyone who started a parliamentary delegation not knowing Tom but returned feeling they had a new best friend. Apart from all the gentlemanly courtesies that stamped Tom, they would tell of the laughs and fun they had with him, especially when he was often the only male spouse—which was very often in those days.

Tom Reid was an organ donor or, if you like, a body donor. He left his body to medical research when he died. As former Senator Sue Knowles put it at his wake:

How appropriate is it that Tom has now gone back to the university to contribute to science? He said to me only last July over a glass of wine or four that he hoped he could get a high enough mark to be accepted.

With this man’s passing, Australia has lost a person who contributed to the great scientific advances of the 20th century, particularly in his role at Tidbinbilla and other places in the hinterland of Canberra. His family and friends have lost a great raconteur, a stalwart and a friend. I extend my sympathy tonight particularly to my friend Margaret Reid, who I know has lost her rock. Her loss is shared by many of us who knew Tom Reid as a great man and a great person to be friends with.