Short answers, pulled from the story.
The script does not explicitly name the elderly man, but he returns to the site years after the events of July 1969. He drives his car through the old entrance and trespasses on the grounds before being stopped by a technician.
Power cuts struck the observatory when Mitch performed an incorrect maintenance procedure on the backup generator. The dish lost all tracking computer programming and could no longer locate the signal from Command Module Columbia until four men manually repositioned it.
Wind speeds exceeded 30 knots and climbed toward dangerous levels over 60 miles per hour while regulations required stowing the antenna. All four team members decided to risk total collapse of the structure and their own lives to maintain the connection for the moonwalk.
NASA's Honeysuckle Creek station actually received the signal first and Goldstone station picked up the transmission earlier than Parkes. No power failure occurred during the actual mission, there was no friction with multiple NASA representatives, and Prime Minister John Gorton visited Honeysuckle Creek instead of Parkes.
The movie opened officially on the 19th of October 2000 across 281 screens nationwide. Final box office totals in Australia reached $17,999,473, making it the top-grossing Australian film released during 2000.