Peuce, it sounds as if in those days the management of the Department of Civil Aviation was similar to the management at Airservices Australia. That is, trying to do everything to make sure they were not accountable for any accident, rather than ensuring the resources were allocated to reduce the chance of an accident.
Fortunately, the FSOs that I knew did everything they could to look out of the window. I’m particularly thinking of Dubbo, Coffs Harbour, Cooma and Charleville. At different times at these locations I have heard an FSO announce that there was an aircraft taxiing on the wrong frequency. This is a great safety advantage.
Remember, there are ATSB reports to show that a Qantas 737 departed Ayers Rock, even after the Air/Ground was installed, but gave all its calls on the company frequency. Luckily the Air/Ground operator was able to warn other aircraft.
Then at a later date, an Airbus took off from Avalon giving its calls on the wrong CTAF frequency. It would be interesting to know why the air crew ignored the beep back unit, or was the beep back not operating?