It was one of those February days that seemed to get hotter with every passing hour, and the searing, north-westerly wind blew the fine red sand across the road like snow drift off a Himalayan mountain. The temperature had been above forty degrees since nine o'clock that morning and would probably stay there until well after sunset. I was working as a technician in the Servo Optical Section, on the Woomera Rocket Range, South Australia, and it was mid summer 1966.