History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Editing/Coastal

Overview
The wireless telegraphy station at Geraldon with callsign VIN commenced operation on 12 May 1913. It was the first station in Western Australia constructed by the Commonwealth. VIP Perth / Fremantle / Applecross had commenced previously, but that station was constructed by the Australasian Wireless Company under contract to the Commonwealth. The station provided a vital link between VIP and VIZ Roebourne during the daytime (thence to VIO Broome, VIW Wyndham and stations further North) and particularly when land telegraph systems failed. Operationally the station's duties remained relatively constant for several decades, being essentially a communications link between the huge numbers of ships that hugged the Western Australian coastline as well as the huge mail liners that connected Australia to Europe and ports between. Organisational control however was constantly changing:
 * initially a possibly unwanted part of the Postmaster-General's Department, but with officers professionally classied
 * following the commencement of WW1, increasingly, if informally within the gamut of Defence
 * then, late in WW1, a reluctant transferee to the Department of the Navy as the Royal Australian Naval Radio Service (RANRS)
 * well after the conclusion of WW1, finally transferred back to the Postmaster-General's Department
 * in 1922 bought under the control of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd as it increased its grasp of Australian wireless
 * in 1928 the hard assets of the coastal radio network formally sold to AWA
 * Upon commencement of WW2, again the coastal radio network control vested in Defence
 * in 1946 briefly under the control of the PMG again
 * in 1948 transferred to the newly created Overseas Telecommunications

Design, construction, maintenance

 * John Graeme Balsillie, 1913, Commonwealth Wireless Expert who designed the wireless system deployed and oversighted the network establishment
 * Walter Moss Sweeney, 1913, construction project supervising engineer for the Postmaster-General's Department
 * R. C. Cox, 1913, assistant project engineer for the Postmaster-General's Department
 * R. D. Munson, 1913, project foreman-rigger for the Public Works Department's portion of the construction project
 * Sydney Trim, 1930, mast replacement project supervising engineer for Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd.
 * S. Broomehall, 1930, mast replacement project mechanic for Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd.

Station staff

 * James Joseph Wiseman Lamb, senior wireless officer, March? 1913 to May 1914
 * Mark Mortimer, senior wireless officer, May 1914 to ??
 * Arthur McDonald, wireless officer, circa January 1915
 * A. E. Pell, wireless officer, ?? to July 1915 (leave for war service)
 * B. Hooker, wireless officer, ?? to August 1915 (leave for war service)
 * Broomhill, wireless officer, July 1915 to ??
 * H. Selfe, wireless officer, circa May 1920
 * Louis Alfred Fontaine, wireless officer, circa Jun 1923
 * E. W. Tymms, wireless officer, circa April 1925
 * Reginald Charles Goodland, wireless officer, January 1924 to December 1925
 * George Franklin Cook, wireless officer, circa 1928
 * Harold E. Cox, senior wireless officer, circa 1929 to March 1931
 * Newman Dobson Pusey, ??, 1926 to August 1933
 * E. H. Smellie, wireless operator, 1930 to March 1931; senior wireless operator, March 1931 to November 1933
 * H. B. Wolfe, wireless operator, March 1931 to ??
 * F. H. Chrismas, senior wireless officer, circa November 1935 to May 1949+
 * R. C. Anderson, wireless officer, circa September 1936 to September 1940; relief January 1949 to May 1949
 * C. Lemmon, ??, December 1940 to ??

Station guard WW1

 * Second Lieut Gibbings, guard commander August 1914 to ??
 * Second Lieut E. S. Everett, guard commander ?? to February 1915
 * Second Lieut Hutton, guard commander February 1915 to ??
 * Corporal W. Pass, guard troop, died France February 1917 "no greater love"
 * Private George Compton, guard troop August 1914 to January 1915, died France July 1918 "no greater love"
 * H. H. Opie, guard commander ?? to ??

In-line citations
