cb-banner-large.jpg
pic01.jpg



DEC Australia


Barrie Hunter contributed this report circa 2020.  Sadly, he passed away unexpectedly on June 14, 2022.  We miss him very much.

The ex-Digital community is alive and well “downunder.”

  • Max Burnet (mburnet@bigpond.net.au) is a well-known Australian computer historian and expert, with the largest private collection of working computers in Australia.  Max hosts the annual Computer Old-timers lunch in Sydney in November:

    • Dear Computer Old-timer,
      This has been sent to you as a computer old-timer, who has attended our famous annual Sydney lunch in the past. This is an early advice so you can make a diary note and perhaps combine it with other business in Sydney.
      The 20th annual Computer Old-timers lunch will be held at noon on Friday 15th November 2013.
      Yes, all golden-oldies are invited to gather at The Little Snail Restaurant, 50 Murray Street, Pyrmont, NSW.
      If you used punched cards or paper tape in your career, you qualify. And if you used 8" floppies you qualify too!!
      Les Hayman, our guest speaker, was hired into DEC Australia by Max Burnet almost 40 years ago. Over his career Les worked for DEC, Xerox, Data General, Wang, Sun and SAP. Every time he managed to join each company during its most prominent growth phase. As a result, he now lives in a Chateau in the Bordeaux region of France. He is a prominent speaker on the management of I.T. in Europe.
      Once again you can enjoy a wallow in nostalgia, a welcoming drink and a splendid 3 course meal for just $60. Cash bar available during lunch. For more information or to confirm your attendance please send email to mburnet@bigpond.net.au

    • Mick Duncan (mduncan3@bigpond.net.au) hosts an ex-Deccies lunch in Sydney each Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November) in Sydney. No bookings required - just turn up on the day. The genesis for Mick’s event is: “I was having lunch with a few friends on the last day at Digital and suggested that we get together once a year to keep in contact. This developed into a full blown annual reunion, which became known as the "Divorced Digits Reunion". Not that we needed to be divorced, only that we had separated from Digital. We then expanded it to include all current Digital/HP employees. It is held on Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November) every year at the Oaks Hotel, Neutral Bay, in Sydney. No bookings required - just turn up on the day (possibly something poetic about having the reunion on Thanksgiving Day, as I have never met anyone who ever regretted working for Digital.)  Pat Molloy is always threatening to get over from Florida for the next reunion – a bit of publicity in the Decconnection Newsletter may help entice others to make the journey."
  • Melbourne:  Alan Williamson hosted an ex-DECcies lunch occasionally.  alan.williamson@live.com.au

And if you plan on visiting Australia or New Zealand, and or just want to get in touch with an ex-Deccie the best person to contact is Max Burnet (below, with Gordon Bell). He has a mailing list for about 330 people and is always prepared to attempt to locate others.
Max Burnet with Gordon Bell

Copyright© 2006-2023 by The DEC Connection TM and DECconnection TM.   All rights reserved.