Our Time with Dick Smith Electronics

After I left ATC in 1994, I was Mr Mum for a couple of years and also spent some time instructing at the ATC College in Brisbane.

I had some lengthy discussions with one of the other Instructors whose brother-in-law had a Dick Smith Electronics shop in a WA country town.

DSE was just in the throes of allocating Franchises (as opposed to Stockist outlets) in some larger country towns and we put up our hand for one and were chosen to open a DSE Franchise in Mandurah, just outside the Perth Metro area.

It suited us very well and we opened in November 1998.

 



Our first day:

 

 

We certainly stocked up for Christmas sales, and post Christmas sales. Robyn and I would come in on Christmas day afternoon to put the stock out for Boxing Day.

 

 

Our annual conferences were just outstanding. We had such fun. One in Adelaide was a  Murder Mystery theme with all sorts of characters and shenanigans.

 

At these Conferences we were given previews of all the new products for Christmas and the coming 12 months.

 



DSE Head Office was kind enough to provide sponsorship for the Third Australian National 4WD Gathering at Mt Augustus in 2000. My 4WD Club in Perth were the organisers.

 

 

In late 2006 I approached Head Office to see if they were interested in buying our Franchise back from us. They were, and in February 2007, we handed our shop back to the Company. This was our last day (it seems all that changed was that I shaved off my moustache, oh, and my hair went grey and Robyn's didn't. How does that work?):

 

 



 So "our" shop was a Company store from February 2007 until sometime in 2014 or so when it was sold to an Equity Firm that floated it on the stock market. The less said about that the better.  

 

Dick Smith Electronics, for so long a household name in Australia, went broke and the stores progressively sold off all their stock and closed their doors.

 

The Mandurah Forum shopping centre began a comprehensive revamp and expansion and today, Wednesday 11th May 2016, this was our old shop:

 

 

We spent almost 9 very happy, hard working years there with some excellent staff. Thanks to our daughter Elizabeth, Adrian, Dennis, Carl,  Dyo, Kate, Storm, and John with considerable help and support from HO Staff, Susan and Steve. 

 

Special thanks, and love, to Robyn who took on this challenge and ran the best organised back dock ever.





 



Retrospective: Our 4 Years in Papua New Guinea: Part Three: Lae & Nadzab

After Madang we were transferred to Lae.

 

Approach Control was a lot harder here than at Madang. All Procedural Control in those days, no such thing as radar. A microphone and a pair of binoculars were our tools of trade.

 

 

Our daughter Elizabeth was born in Lae in August 1978.

 

 

Here's our house, just inland from end of the runway. Those two houses to the lower left weren't there in 1978. We were the last house on Oleander Avenue before Raun Warra (Round Water).

 

 

We inherited Patch the dog from the previous residents after they returned to Australia.

 

Things were about to change. Nadzab airport, several kilometres up the Markham Valley that played an important role in WW2, was re-opened and we moved operations from Lae which was later closed down. It was a 20 or 30 minute drive to Nadzab each day. 

 

 

 

This is what it was like in 1944.

 

 When we were in Lae I used to catch a few rides up into the Kabwum Valley. Very interesting, if not a little scary.

 

 

We left PNG in early 1979 to come home. We flew up to Hong Kong, then down to Singapore and boarded the Centaur for the trip to Fremantle.

 

 

Michael got to drive it for a little while.

 

And so it was back to Perth Airport and eventually back onto Approach Control.

 



 

 

 





 

 

 

Retrospective: Our 4 Years in Papua New Guinea: Part Two: Madang.

We transferred from Goroka down to Madang sometime in 1976. Madang is on the north coast of PNG and is (was) a beautiful town.

 

We had a new Control Tower with all the modern features.

 

I must have been on one of my regular diets, probably beer-based.

 

Here's my little helper preparing the Flight Data strips for me.

 

This is a typical tropical afternoon build-up. Sometimes the rain was huge, as were the occasional thunderstorms with lightning cracks that seemed able to split the roof.

 

I bought a Honda XL100 trail bike in Madang and used to go out exploring with some Radio-Tech friends. Anything larger than a 100cc engine had lots of import duty on them so I happily straddled this baby bike.

 

 

 

 

 

Some times I would come home absolutely exhausted and Robyn would find me sitting at the bottom of the stairs too knackered to climb them.

 

 

There was no shortage of wreckage from WW2 to explore. It was fascinating and really opened up my eyes as to how close the war was to Australia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bought a second hand boat in Madang, a Savage Tasman. We often went across to Siar Island for picnic lunches and a swim.

 

 

 

Our house in Madang was typical of most DCA houses. It was a CR1 (Commonwealth Residence 1). Very comfortable, up on concrete pylons with floor to ceiling louvres on most external windows. That way we were able to catch most breezes and get some relief from the tropical heat and humidity (much different to Goroka, at 5000 feet AMSL). 

 

 

Here we had a parade passing in front of the house.

 

 

Madang was very pleasant. We enjoyed many relaxing meals in the Haus Wind in the Coastwatchers hotel, and Smugglers Inn. The job was good, busier than Goroka, and the social life was good too.

 

An enjoyable year and a bit.