You guys did manage to get UHF CB, which we dont have a direct analog of in the states, GMRS is close, but not licensed by rule, you have to pay for and obtain a license, so its not all screwed up. ;-)
I'm aware of that. Sorry I can't post images here or I'd send a copy of the preface and list of names that head the Citizens' Radio submission to parliament as I was in on that act as well (but I was only one of many). We even had a large rally of vehicles that travelled the few hundred miles from Sydney to Canberra and we made a nuisance of ourselves lobbying politicians on mass. The government eventually caved in to pressure and did 27MHz first and then UHF.
That CB effort was a little before the FM lobbying (it was useful for me as I gained experience dealing with politicians). (For the record, as far as I know I'm the only common link between the CB and FM lobbying efforts).
Nothing's perfect anywhere but I've told you very little of the full sordid story about how commercial AM interests killed the introduction of FM for 30 years from just after the War to the mid 1970s. It's complicated long and horrible (Rupert Murdoch's father, Keith Murdoch, was involved in these political machinations, need I say more!)
In fact, a stranglehold on the political process stopped any new radio station—AM or FM—in Sydney from the early 1930s until December 1974. Incidentally, that new station was not AM but FM. Yes, it'll be 50 years in December since that victory.
Getting the spectrum changed here in Australia was damn hard and determined work, fortunately the pent-up energy meant we had some very dedicated like-minded people to help. These efforts were a bit like Armstrong and Farnsworth versus RCA's David Sarnoff. (Incidentally, some months ago I posted a description on HN of my time working for RCA, therein I described my rather short meeting with Sarnoff when he visited here to open a new RCA record factory.)
It's a shame we've been so bad at documenting our radio history especially the FM side as bits of it are quite interesting. Some of our own skulduggery that I mentioned is hidden deep within the archives and is unlikely to ever see the light of day unless one of us mentions it (and there aren't many of us left).
For instance, we sought help to beat the entrenched opposition (all-and-sundry including Government department gnomes (ABCB, etc.), commercial interests such as FARB (Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters), local manufacturing and such who argued for the status quo or for a lame-duck UHF system). We approached commercial equipment importers and others with vested interests such as academic educators (broadcasters) for help and the information many provided was very useful.
One particularly helpful source was the local Rohde & Schwarz agents who brought out to Australia the no nonsense, straight-talking very-opinionated Dr. Lothar Rohde who gave evidence to the Royal Commission. Rohde had spent time in South Africa helping to establish its FM network a decade or so earlier.
Before the Commission was established both serendipity and some good political acumen by few of our lot led us to the wily and very cleaver politician James McClelland† (the cognoscenti knew him as Diamond Jim). McClelland had been looking for ways to rout his 'dodging' bureaucrats especially the ABCB on a number of matters and by chance we met him informally after giving evidence to a Senate Committee hearing on other matters (about education, arts and science). McClelland was its chairman. He was quite delighted as we gave him the technical evidence he needed to shaft them (he was a lawyer and not technical). How that meeting happened is a great story but I've not time to go over it here.
That encounter led McMcClelland to obtain the services of Sir Francis McLean‡ who had been head of BBC Engineering as one of the Royal Commissioners. I'm not sure if the Hansard (parliamentary transcript) was taped or not but I'd love to hear a reply of the dialog between Rohde and McLean, it was wonderful. After that, we were rubbing our hands with glee; we knew that the Inquiry had to come down in our favour.
Incidentally, a while after the Inquiry we approached McLean (who by then was long back in the UK) to become the patron of first properly licensed FM station in Australia. Not only did he accept the offer but he came to visit us and was very interested in our 'homemade' bespoke transmitter (that too is another great story).
McLean was a very intelligent and charming man; it was a privilege for me to have known him.
