Douglas Harold Maxwell BLACKWELL [1326]

  General Notes:

Douglas worked at various occupations on leaving school, including for Smith and Nephew at Wonthaggi and Containers Ltd at Dandenong. He gained employment as a communications technician installing radio equipment and towers for PG Wallace until late 1988. He was living in Glenhuntly, Victoria. He then got a position for another communications firm installing car telephones and the like. He had only been working at the job for two weeks and was on his way to work on his on his motorbike about 2kms from his home when he hit a speed hump in the road and was thrown into a fence. The accident occurred in Lyons Street, Glenhuntly at the edge of R M Lord Park or Koornang Park. Douglas sustained serious injuries and was transported to the Alfred Hospital where he remained in a critical condition for one month where he died as a result of his injuries. Douglas did not marry or have any children.

Douglas was the second child and only son of D. Geoff Blackwell and Nancye (Bonham). He lived at Garfield, Victoria, Australia, until he was 14 years old, when his family moved to Wonthaggi, Victoria, Australia. Douglas spent some time unemployed after he finished school, and later worked at Smith and Nephew in Wonthaggi and at Containers Limited, a packaging factory in Dandenong, driving from Wonthaggi to Dandenong daily. He moved to Glenhuntly in approximately 1985 where he had obtained a job working for P.G. Wallace and Co, a Prahran based company, who installed, serviced and maintained communications antennas. He worked all over Victoria installing these towers, but most of the work was carried out in the Melbourne area.

Douglas was an early adopter of computer technology and was adept at computer programming. He was also an amateur (ham) radio operator and enthusiast. He assisted in the early stages of organising and installing equipment for the formation of a local radio Station in the South Gippsland area, now known as 3MFM. He was undertaking a course in electronics at the Swinburne Institute of Technology.

The Rialto Towers (often The Rialto) is the second-tallest reinforced concrete building and the tallest office building in the southern hemisphere, when measured to its roof (several other skyscrapers in Australia are taller if their spires are included, as are some other structured in Australia such as communications masts and observation towers). The building is located at 525 Collins Street, in the western side of the central business district of Melbourne, Australia.

The Rialto Towers featured Melbourne's first skyscraper public observation deck which operated between 1994 and 31 December 2009 It was also the location of Melbourne's first Tower running event.

At the time of its completion it was the 23rd tallest building in the world and the 2nd tallest outside of the United States (behind First Canadian Place in Toronto, Canada). Construction of the Rialto Towers was completed in 1986.*(Wikipedia Feb 2012)

P G Wallace and Company installed the communications towers on the top of the Rialto building. Douglas, who was initially very unhappy working at height, soon got used to it, and would proudly recount the fact that he and his workmates used to fly paper aeroplanes from the roof of the Rialto building during its construction and the installation of the communications towers.

Douglas left this job with P.G. Wallace and Co in mid 1988 and commenced working for a company called Australnet Communications that installed car telephones that operated from Mount Waverley. This was an infant industry at the time.

In his younger years Douglas played the cornet in the Wonthaggi Citizens Band, and played competition table tennis at Wonthaggi. He also enjoyed archery. As a child and into adulthood he built and flew model planes, eventually branching out into radio controlled equipment including planes, cars and boats. He competitively raced radio controlled sailing boats on the Albert Park Lake in Melbourne.

As children, Douglas and his sisters learned to ride motorbikes, which were ridden at Garfield on Theadora Fenn's land which was about 6 acres. Eventually Douglas obtained his motorbike licence and rode his bike to work in Melbourne trying to save fuel costs. He had purchased a 125cc racing motorbike which he was preparing to race in 1989.

Douglas was on his way to work at his new job at Australnet Communications, where he had been working for only 2 weeks, when his motorcycle hit a speed hump in the road, only about 2 kms from his home in Glenhuntly. He lost control of the machine and was critically injured and taken to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, where he remained in a critical condition for one month, but finally succumbed to his injuries on the 5th of December 1988.

Douglas did not marry or have any children but loved his nieces and nephews dearly. ²³⁷⁸

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Residence: 46 Garfield Road, 1960 to 1974, Garfield, Vic, Australia.

2. Residence: 4 Hunter Street, 1973 to 1987, Wonthaggi, Vic, Australia.

3. Residence: 7 Blackburn Road, 1977, Mooroolbark, Vic, Australia.

4. Occupation: Communications Engineer, 1985 to 1988. P G Wallace for some years in Carlton, Vic 1985 - 1988 approx then worked at as a car telephone installer for 2 weeks prior to his accident at a company called Australnet Communications

5. Residence: 14 / 25 Royal Avenue, 1985 to 1988, Glenhuntly, Vic, Australia.

6. Residence: James Street, 1985, Glenhuntly, Vic, Australia. Lived with the Reverend Kenneth Henry and Mrs Joan Lynda Moorhead, possibly Booran Road, Glenhuntly.