A view from‘down under’

Some of you may be surprised to learn of some of the inventions originating from Australian endeavours — the black box flight recorder, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, over‐the‐horizon radar, combine harvester and the all important ‘esky’ cooler, to name but a few. However, in the 1980s the Australian electronics industry found itself in somewhat of a knowledge vacuum when it came to surface mount technology. The introduction of this technology and its advancement were happening overseas and it was taking some time for the information to get down under for Australian designers and manufacturers to apply this new enabling technology.