Woomera is an Australian Defence Force facility
supporting the RAAF Woomera Test Range, the western world's largest
defence systems test and evaluation range, and an Australian
strategic national asset. Woomera village is a critical part of the
ADF's 'Woomera Capability.'
The town itself is located in the 'outback'
desert area of South
Australia
,
approximately 488 km/305 mls north of Adelaide
along the
Stuart Highway. It is
177 km north of Port Augusta, and 80 km south of the
mining centre of Roxby Downs. The Transcontinental Railway passes
Woomera at the nearby Pimba rail siding.
The
'Woomera Capability' includes; the RAAF Woomera Test Range - the unit
responsible for operational management of the range and the
prohibited area of Woomera, the RAAF Woomera Airfield and its
satellite Evetts Field, the Woomera Prohibited Area
- the area controlled by Defence for its activities
at Woomera, the Woomera Defence Village, the Nurrunga Prohibited
Area, and Camp Rapier. BAE Systems Australia are the
currently contracted service provider to Defence for operational
and garrison support to the village and Defence's range activities
at Woomera.
History
Establishment. Establishment of the Woomera
Village in South Australia's far north-western outback began in mid
1947. The principle need was to create a comfortable operational
and domestic support centre for the many thousands of people that
would be moving to Woomera as part of the Anglo-Australian Project.
This project would last for 30 years and would see Woomera become
one of the most secret allied bases established during the Cold
War. During its 'hayday' period (1949-69), the village population
reached around 7000. However, by the end of the 1960s the
Anglo-Australian Project was rapidly winding down following the UK
Government's dwindling interest in further experimental work.
Additionally, and in the absence of any long-term plans for Woomera
by the Australian Government, the test-range elements of Woomera
were destined for a long period of withering - despite some
passionate forward thinking by a small number of nationalistic
visionaries about what Australia should be doing for itself in air
and space research and development.
For both Woomera and Australia, there was no vision from the
politicians at the time to continue development in such
technologies, and the continued use of the purpose built facility.
The two (and a third never completed) historic old Eldo rocket
launch sites at Lake Hart, towering ten stories high over the
northern side of this inland dry salt lake, are now mute testament
to Australia's once renowned position in space research and
development that once saw Woomera as second only to Cape Canaveral
in the number of annual rocket and missile launches.
Choosing a Name. The name 'Woomera' was chosen by
the Board of the Long Range Weapons Establishment in April 1947
(refer: 'Fire Across the Desert' by Peter Morton (AGPS) page 117).
The new town was to be established on Commonwealth land procured
for the purpose, and it was felt appropriate that it be named after
the Aboriginal spear throwing implement of the same name due to its
synergy with Woomera's intended purpose as a launch site in much
the same way a
woomera
launches the spear. During the 1960s, over 7000 people lived and
worked out of the Woomera Village and at the Koolymilka campsite
near the RangeHead (approximately 42 km west of Woomera
Village and deep within the Woomera Prohibited Area).
Deep Space Station 41. During the early 1960s,
Woomera became part of the Gemini space program capabilities.
Specialised tracking and communications stations were set up at Red
Lake (about 50 north of Woomera) and at Mirikata (about 200 km
west of Woomera). These stations also played a critical part in the
first Moon landing mission. However, one of the most significant
facilities installed by the USA was the nearby, and highly
specialised, 'Deep Space Station 41' (DSS-41). This facility was
constructed at the edge of Island Lagoon (about 25 km south of
Woomera) and was directly supported from the Woomera Defence
Village. DSS-41 played a critical role in the 'race for space' from
the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s when the main tracking systems were
dismantled and returned to the United States. While none of the
DSS-41 facility exists, the roadworks and building sites for this
historic facility can still be seen.
Nurrungar Project. In 1969, and as the
Anglo-Australia Project was winding down, the United States Air
Force began construction and installation of the Nurrungar Joint
Tracking Facility. This facility was located approximately
18 km south of Woomera. Over the next 30 years, this project
ensured the maintenance of the Woomera Village infrastructure, and
indeed, was responsible for considerable improvements and
modernisation of the village's general facilities. During the
period of the Nurrungar Project's operations, around 1100 USAF and
ADF personnel (and their families) were accommodated at Woomera
Village and the village population was generally around 4000.
The New Era of Woomera. When the Nurrungar Project
come to an end in 1999, the future of the village appeared to look
bleak. However, The RAAF was set to take over the range following a
long-term study of Defence needs through to 2035 which found, in
simple terms, that the Woomera Test Range was the only test and
evaluation range left in the western world capable of testing the
next generation of ADF defence systems within its land borders -
and it could be utilised all year round given its climate
advantages. At this time also, the Federal Government also decided
to establish a number of immigration detention centres around the
country to deal with a growing issue of asylum seekers arriving via
sea across the northern sea-air gap, and Woomera was chosen as a
site for such a facility.
The establishment of the Woomera Immigration Detention Centre in
1999, through the refurbishment of the original Woomera Village
construction camp at 'Woomera West', eventually brought in new
permanent staff (as the Nurrungar people were leaving) to settle
and maintain the village population at around 1200. The immigration
detention centre, however, proved to be a highly controversial
facility and it closed in early 2003 after only about 36 months of
operation, at which point the land and buildings were handed back
to the Defence Department.
Camp Rapier. Following the closure of the
Immigration Detention Centre, and the return of the site to the
ADF, Woomera West was redesigned, altered, and re-established as a
secure Defence garrison support facility and renamed 'Camp Rapier'.
It is now frequently used by the Australian Army and Air Force
Airfield Defence Squadrons as a base camp for specialised training
and testing activities.
Post 2003. During the USAF period, Woomera's
population was about 4000. When this facility closed, the
population dropped to about 400 but rose to about 1200 when the
Detention center was active. Post 2003, the village population has
stabilised with a core population of about 400. However, since the
RAAF assumed operational command of Woomera in 1999, there has been
a very marked increase in the number of 'temporary residents'
associated with the conduct of test and evaluation activities on
the Range itself. While not permanent residents, the Range's
transit population is now significant and appears to be
growing.
Woomera Village is, in 2009, still the largest ADF domestic base
support facility in Australia, but (and perhaps oddly) the village
itself is also open to public access (this occurred in 1982 once
the Anglo-Australia Project had completely withdrawn from Woomera).
These days there is a very high visitation rate by tourists to view
the famous 'National Missile Park' in the centre of the town (which
features aircraft, rockets, bombs and missiles covering the full
period of the Range's operations up to the present day), the
brilliant
Woomera Heritage Centre (which
features a introductory AV presentation and a very professional
interpretive gallery that tells the story of this famous national
historic site), and finally the community museum maintained by the
town's volunteer community board (this is located within the
missile park precinct display).
Generally, all the residents at Woomera are Defence workers or
contractors, or working in some capacity for defence. There are no
privately owned homes in the town although some are leased to
agencies such as the Bureau of Meteorology. The facilities in the
town are first class and include a gym, hotel (see article
ELDO Hotel Woomera), swimming pool,
hospital, picture theatre, school, the two museums and the famous
missile park. There is a large IGA, a radio station, post office,
bank, bowling ally and a very active football sports club, RSL and
lawn bowls club, as well as a fine 'outback oasis' diner. Breen
Park is a great picnic spot and features a bird aviary. The Woomera
Marine Centre (next to the Community Centre and opposite the
missile park in the centre of town) is a must-see - and a truly
unique experience for 'the middle of the desert'.
World Historical Aerospace Site. In 2007, the
Woomera Test Range was acknowledged by the American Institute of
Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA) as a site of world aerospace
historical significance. Woomera is now a legendary equal part of
the historic evolution and development of air and space technology
as such places as Kitty Hawk - the site of the worlds' first
recorded heavier-than-air flight took place, and the Sea of
Tranquility - the site of human's first landing on the moon. (See
further article:
AIAA - Dedication of Woomera Test Range
Historical Aerospace Site 2007)
Woomera Village Today
Today, the population of Woomera is steady at about 450 permanent
Defence residents. However, this number can triple overnight with
the constant passage of personnel moving in and out of the village
as part of range trials activities. These days also, there is no
need to maintain the sort of numbers of people at Woomera that were
there 40 years ago. Modern communications technology means that
scientists can virtually work from their offices anywhere in the
world to access the test data gathered at Woomera - a far cry from
the 6000 or so that once needed to be there!
The management of the village infrastructure is the responsibility
of Defence Support Group (DSG), but the Woomera Community Board is
a long-standing and integral part of the town's management
structure. The Woomera Board is composed of elected members from
the town's permanent residents. The aim of the Woomera Board is to
build the sense of community given that it has no established
'council' or 'mayor'. The community voice of the Woomera community
is expressed through the weekly 'Gibber Gabber' newsletter (see
issues of the Gibber Gabber here:
http://www.woomera.com.au/community/gibber_gabber.htm).
Woomera is unique in that it is a town owned and operated by the
Australian Department of Defence. But equally unique, it is also
one that is open to the public to visit at any time. It is a very
active and vibrant town for its size and, in line with the name of
is tourism heritage centre, it remains something of an 'Oasis' in
South Australia's far north-western 'Outback'. Non-defence visitors
to Woomera are able to stay at the famous 'ELDO Hotel' - a former
officer's mess facility when it was a closed base, or the nearby
'Travellers Rest Caravan Park' offers a different style of
accommodation (see this site for more details:
http://www.woomera.com.au/tourism.htm)
At a glance, the town's services and features include; Australia
Post (Office), Supermarket, Westpac and BankSA outlets, Fulltime
Emergency Services (Fire/Rescue/Hazmat, Ambulance, Police and
Hospital), Area School, Marine Centre, Movie Theatre, Swimming
Centre, 6-lane Bowling Ally, Eldo Hotel, Swimming Pool, Squash
Courts, Fitness Centre, Police Station (both State and Federal),
Radio Station, Missile Park, Heritage Centre, Outback Diner,
Woomera Travellers Village (Caravan Park), Sports Club (including
district Cricket team), Returned Services League & Lawn Bowls
Club and Diner, as well as a number of extracurricular activities
and events throughout the year. See this website for more
information:
[78691]
Tourism
Woomera's attractions include visiting one of the world's most
historic aerospace sites, access to the Woomera National Aerospace
and Missile Park (located in the center of the town), it features
missiles and rockets developed and tested at Woomera over the last
60 years as well as a number of historic aircraft used in trials at
Woomera. There is a comprehensive visitors information centre and
heritage interpretation centre as well as a museum which was
formerly a recreation centre for U.S. Air Force personnel working
at Nurrungar and their families. Other attractions include a Movie
Theatre, bowling alley, Swimming centre, shops and stores, pubs and
clubs. Woomera is also a haven for observing and understanding
Australia's desert flora and fauna. The Woomera Marine Centre
(located next to the Community Centre) is a must see and an ironic
attraction for the middle of a desert environment.
Evolution of the Woomera Test Range
Background to Establishment. Why does the Woomera
Village exist? It exists because of the need for a support base for
the Woomera Test Range, and the need for the range grew out of the
rapid progress in rocket based weaponry developed during the second
world war and which subsequently translated into that period of
'west vs east' stand-off of "mutually assured destruction" that was
know as 'The Cold War'.
The Need for the Range. The use of the V1 and V2
rockets by Germany in World War II against the United Kingdom
resulted in the UK's desire to undertake its own rocket research
and development after the war. However, the density of population
in the UK made it difficult to establish a test facility in the UK
so they approached the Australian government for a site in
Australia. The site of the town and the prohibited area were
surveyed by Len Beadell. The major criteria for selecting a site
were, that it provided a very long testing corridor, and avoided
populated areas.
Declaring the Prohibited Area. The township of
Woomera is part of the wider Woomera test and evaluation capability
that the ADF operates at Woomera. The Range was first established
in 1947 under the Anglo-Australia Defence Project and the Woomera
Prohibited Area (WPA) was declared for the purposes of 'testing war
materials'. The range itself, is less than half the size it
originally was, but it still covers an area of around 127,000 km2
in area - or an area roughly the size of England or the State of
Florida.
Test Activities at Woomera. In 1947, the Woomera
Test Range was (and still is) the western world's largest
land-based defence test and evaluation range, that is usable all
year round for testing defence air and space systems including
missiles, rocket assisted payloads, and artillery. In recent years,
it has been in very high demand for UAV flight testing.
In the early 1950s, the range was nearly twice the size it is
today, but within even its current land borders, the range still
has a clear centre line exceeding 600 km in length. By simple
comparison, the massive China Lake Test Range in the US fits inside
the RAAF Woomera Test Range about three times. Thus the apparent,
and significant, increase in testing activities at Woomera in the
last ten years is not by coincidence. As the only operational test
and evaluation range in the western world fit-for-purpose and
capable of testing the new generation of 'beyond visual range'
(BVR) aerospace systems within its land borders, Woomera seems to
be entering a new era in history and it is getting the support of
the Federal Government to finally upgrade its systems with clear
references to Woomera in the 2009 Defence White Paper.
Nurrungar Project. From 1969 to 1999, Woomera
village was the domestic support centre for the nearby Nurrungar
satellite ground station ( 31°19′26″S 136°46′37″E31.323809°S
136.776942°E. This facility closed in 1999 when new satellite based
technologies allowed withdrawal of monitoring systems back within
the USA. Despite many contrary opinions, the facility was always a
fully integrated AUS-US facility. The Nurrungar Prohibited Area is
separately administered from the WPA and is appears to now be
managed as a Defence training area by Defence Support Group.
The Anglo-Australia project concluded in 1977 and until the RAAF
took operational control of the Range and main airfield in 1999,
the operational capabilities of Woomera were firstly administered
by DSTO and then by the Australian Defence Support Group (DSG),
until it became apparent to Air Force that while the village
remained well supported, the operational systems supporting
aerospace test and evaluation needs on the range had become
run-down. With the new aerospace systems being planned to come into
service with the ADF over the next 30 it was clear that the unique
capabilities of Woomera were going to be needed. The RAAF's
foresight in the late 1990s thus saved a critical national asset at
exactly the right time.
Since 1999, test and evaluation activities has appears to have
significantly increased at Woomera, and the recent announcement of
substantial upgrades to Woomera's operational systems by the
Australian Government underpins the critical nature of this unique
facility to Australia's long-term security.
Air and Space Research
Rocket Programs. Woomera has been used as an
aerospace rocket and missile test and evaluation range since the
early 1950s.
During its first 30yrs of operations, over
6000 rockets of varying sizes were launched, with many reaching
altitudes as high at 300-400 km during joint Australia-United Kingdom
weapons and aerospace
testing (including nuclear testing-
in the 1950s the United Kingdom conducted ground-based tests of
nuclear weapons) in the far west of
the WPA at EMU and TARANAKI test sites. These sites were
later 'cleaned' by the UK under a massive environmental remediation
program.
Although many
sounding rockets were
launched from Woomera, only two satellites were launched there
successfully. These satellites were the British satellite
Prospero in 1971 and the Australian
WREsat in 1967. Most of the old 50s and 60s launch
pads have been removed and the land remediated. The historic ELDO
launch sites with their 10-story concrete launch ramps remain in
existence. Launcher 1 at the rangehead is still fully active and
hosts several significant rocket launches each year into
sub-orbital zones.
The HiFIRE and JAXA hypersonics programs launch to around
330 km or about twice the altitude of the International Space
Station. The Air Force provides significant support to Australian
universities' space education programs through such activities run
by the
Australian
Space Research Institute which conducts several launches each
year of sounding rockets. However, the ADF remains a high-rate user
testing rocket propelled missiles such as Hellfire and AMRAAM
through the year.
Note:
JAXA used Woomera in 2005-2006 for
testing their NEXST-1 supersonic aircraft.
Kistler Project. In 2006, Woomera was chosen by
Kistler Aerospace as the first
launch site of their
K-1 RLV. However,
Rocketplane
Kistler failed to win the NASA
Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services contract to supply a reusable space
logistics support vehicle, resulting in cancellation of the
agreement by the U.S. space agency in October, 2007.
Australian Air & Space Test & Evaluation (T&E)
Activities at Woomera. Australia's
Defence Science and
Technology Organisation (DSTO) remains a high-rate user of the
Woomera Test Range. DSTO is Australia's version of DARPA (USA) or
DSTL (UK). However, the prime users are all Defence Test &
Evaluation (T&E) agencies such as the AOSG's Development &
Test Wing (which includes the famous Aircraft Research &
Development Unit or 'ARDU'), IW Wing, and other agencies such as
ADTEO, Army, Navy, and many allied services acting jointly with the
ADF or Australian DOD.
Recent media reporting indicates that the range is once again very
busy in the space rocket/rocket missile test business and is in
high demand as a test centre for UAVs which require very large
'safe' areas during their testing phases. The Australian Government
has also recently announced very significant funding (in the order
of A$118M) to upgrade range systems and it can be very difficult
the get accommodation at the ELDO for about 10 months of the year.
Also, very high profile media reporting about the sale of mining
assets within the WPA has led to some clarity about the longer-term
need of Woomera to Australia's strategic defence needs. (See
article: 'A Rocket OZ Should have seen coming' at:
http://business.smh.com.au/business/a-rocket-that-oz-should-have-seen-coming-20090329-9fj7.html)
Gallery
Image:Woomera.jpg|Missile Park southern
sectionImage:Woomera2.jpg|Missile Park northern section
See also
References