If all you ever learned about the Apollo 11 mission was from the Australian movie The Dish, you would be sorely mistaken about what really happened when man landed on the Moon.

Key points: This month marks 50 years since the Moon landing

This month marks 50 years since the Moon landing Footage of the first steps on the Moon came from Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station

Footage of the first steps on the Moon came from Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station But the film The Dish gave most of the credit to Parkes for the transmission

To be fair, the film did get a lot of things right — the astronauts did decide to walk early, and it was windier than usual in Parkes on the day of the Moon landing.

It was also true that the Moon was originally too low for Parkes to get its signal, and for a few seconds, the picture transmitted was upside down.

But what the movie creators did not include was that, because of these things, a NASA-run tracking station just outside of Canberra became responsible for broadcasting the first eight minutes of man's arrival on the Moon.

Honeysuckle Creek beamed the first eight minutes of the moon landing to the world and, with its antenna, crucially kept a watchful eye on the space craft for the entire mission. ( supplied: http://www.honeysucklecreek.net )

The story of Honeysuckle Creek

Mike Dinn worked at the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station, just outside of Canberra, during Apollo 11. He said the Parkes station was just one part of the overall story of how Australia helped transmit footage of the Moon landing.

"Parkes was complementary to the network, it wasn't fundamental," Mr Dinn said.

"If we'd had no Parkes we could've still supported the mission, if you'd had no Honeysuckle, you wouldn't have had a mission."

Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the landing, Mr Dinn pointed out that, unlike Honeysuckle, Parkes was not a tracking station and did not have a transmitter, meaning it could not process the data being sent back from the Moon.

"Parkes had a very important role and carried out very well the majority of the television during the [Moon walk].

"But television of the first step came from Honeysuckle Creek."

In fact, the first eight minutes and 50 seconds — which included Neil Armstrong famously climbing down the ladder and putting his feet on the Moon — broadcast to hundreds of millions of people watching around the world, came from the dish outside Canberra.

Then Prime Minister John Gorton at the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station on the day of the Moon landing. ( Supplied )

Far from drinking tea and celebrating with the Parkes mayor, another piece of creative license in the Working Dog Productions film was a visit from the Prime Minister of the day, John Gorton.

But, so important was Honeysuckle Creek, that Mr Gorton decided to make a surprise visit there early on the big day.

Right place, right time, right angle

So why did Honeysuckle Creek end up playing such a pivotal role?

The Dish tells the story of the workers at the Parkes radio telescope. ( Supplied )

"It really came down to Honeysuckle being in the right place at the right time with the Moon in the right position to be able to receive those signals," Glen Nagle from the CSIRO said.

"At the time when Neil was coming down the ladder the Moon wasn't high enough … so Parkes weren't getting a clean signal from the Moon."

Being slightly further east, slightly higher in elevation and slightly smaller meant the Honeysuckle dish could angle itself better to receive the pictures sent back by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

Mr Nagle said because of the timing, another radio telescope in California at Goldstone was also receiving images, but human error and an upside down picture meant NASA turned to Honeysuckle Creek instead.

The Honeysuckle Creek satellite was perfectly positioned to capture the Moon landing when Parkes could not. ( Supplied )

"When they received the picture they had to send it to Houston, Texas, but somewhere along the way in all the excitement somebody had forgotten to flick a particular switch which would invert the picture coming in from the Lunar Module," he said.

"But of course at Honeysuckle Creek, the picture's the right way around, and that's what the world got to see."

Eventually, once the Moon was high enough for the larger, more powerful dish at Parkes to receive a signal, NASA broadcast those clearer pictures for another two hours.

So, while Parkes can claim the auspicious title of beaming the Moon walk to the world, Honeysuckle is to thank for Armstrong's first steps — and the famous words he uttered when man first set foot on the Moon.

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