Land at Qawra

Every now and then one hears about the land at Qawra that used to belong to Maltacom.

It might interest readers that the said land had been acquired by Rediffusion, probably before the last war and if I am not mistaken from the very beginning of Rediffusion (or better still its predecessor). Eventually, in the 1970s, when Rediffusion was nationalised, the said land reverted to the government as part of the acquisition of all Rediffusion's assets.

To my memory, the land area was greater than indicated by certain quarters. The scope of the land was the setting up of a receiving station. One of the two Rediffusion's channels had been dedicated exclusively to the repletion of BBC World Service, which used to be transmitted from UK over the short-wave band.

Before the satellite era, transmission and reception was not very advanced. A clear reception area, away from any type of interference, was essential. The attached photo, taken in the mid-1950s, show the actual, still virgin land, enclosed by a fence with many aerial carrying poles in the background. The scene looks towards the south-east.

I do not know whether PBS still has records that go back to the beginning of broadcasting in Malta, or someone might be tempted to carry out detailed research in the public deeds at the Public Registry. I am sure that Rediffusion had bought the land.

For record purposes, the photo, taken 50 years ago, shows a group of children who had been taken to Qawra to see for themselves the facilities available and why Rediffusion could attain a better reception than the normal person was able to do on his home radio. I am standing in the back-centre with Salvino Tellus bending and pointing towards one of the children.