CANBERRA (ACT)
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TRALEE SPEEDWAY 1997
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previous year www.speedwayandroadracehistory.com/canberra-tralee---fraser-park-speedway-1996.html
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1997 - QUEANBEYAN AGE NEWSPAPER REPORTED
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17th March 1997 |
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1997 - THE CLOSURE OF TRALEE
The Speedway closed in the 1997 to make way way for a housing development.
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2013 - TRALEE SPEEDWAY Walkabout.
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2002 - TRALEE SPEEDWAYS Location.
The speedway circuit's were located in Jerrabomberra on the New South Wales side of the ACT - NSW border near Canberra, the capitol city of Australia.
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2013 - TRALEE SPEEDWAYS Location.
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THE BRIDGE WITH A SECRET
West Coast Speedway News facebook feature
For those people who attended Tralee Frazer Park Speedway, The bridge in the photo should bring back some memories as it was the entrance from the highway to the speedway, but did anyone have any idea of its history.
COOMA MONARO RAILWAY inc REPORTED
Midweek Media - Death of a spy bridge: Recently there was the uncelebrated demolition of the Queanbeyan - Bombala Railway's link with the cold war, Yet even in death the remains of the bridge provide a clue to a modern intrique.
For those new to the story, Australia's great home grown spy adventure centred around Vladimir Petrov and his wife Evdokia, Vladimir served during World War two as a cipher clerk and was privy to top secret communications, In 1951 he became an intelligence agent and was sent by Soviet Security Chief Lavrenity Bera to Australia to recruit spies and keep a watch on Soviet citizens, making sure that none defected.
In 1954 Petrov became a colonel in the newly-formed KGB, But he felt his life was in danger, After Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, Beria had been arested and shot by Stalins successor's, Fearing a purge of "Beria men", Petrov decided to defect before he was recalled to Russia.
Petrov contacted the Australian Spy Agency ASIO and passed them Soviet secrets before his spectacular defection with his wife, who was also a Soviet Security officer, secrets were passed using a dead letter drop, a place were Petrov could hide his secrets for an ASIO agent to latter collect, This is were our railway line came into play.
Adjacent to the now industrialised ACT suburb of Hume was a short wooden bridge over Arnott street that connected to Territory Parade, which runs parallel to the railway line inside the New South Wales border.
It was in the slats underneath the bridge that Petrov would hide his intelligence, Sadly, this memorial to the Cold War has now been demolished.
Reporting in the Canberra Times. 22nd May 2018, quotes a Transport New South Wales insider saying the demolishion was taken on public safety grounds, Following consultation with Queanbeyan Palerang Council.
The under bridge had been struck by vehicles on multiple occasions and blue metal from the track was falling onto the road below, Removal of the bridge gives council the option to construct a wider road, improving access and safety for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists, the problem is, right now there is no need for motorists, pedestrians or cyclists to travel past the track.
The old Frazer Park Raceway on the New South Wales side was closed in 1997, and access to Territory Parade has now been forbidden, so there is no reason to go beyond the railway corridor. Perhaps a clue to the bridge's demise is on a sign on a gate blocking the Northern access to Territory Parade.
Hanging on the gate is a sign stating the area beyond is a construction site of the South Jerrabomberra Residential Estate, Is this the real reason for the historical bridge's sad destruction ?, is it now an open path for transporting huge earth moving equipment to clear acres of earth at the old speedway to build more brown houses, with grey roofs on small blocks of land ?.
While we mourn the loss of a cultural icon, we must admire how real estate developers have been able to do what the entire Soviet Empire could not do-destroy Petrov's hiding place.
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Allan Baker recalls: While researching one of my other great passions, Australian Railways i cam across this information pertaining to the speedway.
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2020 - TRALEE SPEEDWAY Walkabout.
Canberra & Southern NSW Speedway History facebook pictorial feature
