At lunchtime on Monday July 21, 1969 people watched on grainy black and white televisions as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first landed and then climbed down a ladder to take mankind's first steps on the moon.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Cynthia Chappell was 26, an accounting machinist at the taxation office. She was among the 600 million people worldwide who watched as images were broadcast.
"I was standing beside my bosses desk watching on the television she brought into work."
"The whole office stood around watching" Ms Chappell said.
Meantime, Ms Chappell recalled her cousin Professor Bernard Mills, an astrophysicist, and influential pioneer in the field of radio astronomy. He worked with the radio astronomy group within the CSIR (later the CSIRO). There he revolutionised the Mills Cross - an antenna able to receive radio waves from the deep universe - telescope, the first at Fleurs (now Badgerys Creek).
Later, he took the concept to the next level and designed and built a telescope at Molonglo, it was completed in 1967 two years before the moon landing.
The residents of Viewhaven Lodge at Crookwell recalled where they were on one of mankind's most significant days.
