Mike Knox-little – Casey 72, Mawson 74, 76, 79 and 82, Macquarie Island 85 and Davis 1990
Vale Mike Knox-little – Casey 72, Mawson 74, 76, 79 and 82, Macquarie Island 85 and Davis 1990
Sad to advise that this afternoon I took a call from Brian ‘Pud’ Taylor from Hobart advising me of the passing of KL this morning. Mike had been ill for quite some time.
Mike served ANARE at Casey 72,Mawson 74, 76, 79 and 82, Macquarie Island 85 and Davis 1990.
Any Radio Operator who had the pleasure of working a schedule with KL knew they were working with a consummate professional. He was a valued member of many an expedition.
Our thoughts are with Ulla at this sad time. The funeral is to be held at his property details to come later.
Email from Noddy Fletcher 22 Jul14
From Vin Gibson – I am sending you this short resume of the period when I knew Mike, you can use it as you see fit, or not use it at all. We hardly met during the latter years, never at the same station together, he Roic at one and me at another whenever we happened to be down together.
Mike Knox-Little. I first met Mike when he came to work at OTC in Sydney. A very affable likeable man, consciencious in his work and eventually became a skilled operator in his field. Mike’s love was the wide open spaces, we had something in common in that regard. Towards the latter end of the 1960’s we planned several month long trips during our holidays to Andamooka opal fields. Mikes interest was fossicking’ for opal. From there we went up the Birdsville track, Windorah, Quilpie, Eromanga, an old opal field at Duck Creek near Cunamulla, down through Lightning Ridge and home. We had many interesting adventures on these trips. I remember near Cunamulla, after the evening meal, lying on the ground beside the camp fire looking at the myriad of stars, seeing the satellites pass over, the occasional plane 7 miles up on the way to Europe and the howling of the dingoes in the distance. We planned our next trip for Cape York, however in the meantime Mike was transferred to the Brisbane branch of OTC and the next word I heard from him he had applied for a job in ANARE to work in Antarctica.
After that he spent many years returning to Antarctica. The in between years were generally spent in remote areas of Australia in various occupations from prawn fishing up north to working on remote cattle stations.
He was a gentleman, a man of honour, I have many great memories of our adventures together, I will cherish them. Vale Mike….. Tribute recd from Vin Gibson
An obituary from David Pottage can be viewed here.
