History

RTV1 Launch Circa 1949

The development of the Anglo-Australian Joint Project in the desert regions of South Australia saw the construction of Woomera, a restricted entry town. In 1982 Woomera Village was de-restricted and subsequently a wealth of historically significant information has been unearthed.

The sparse, relatively flat and uninhabited site identified Woomera as an ideal location for a rocket testing range. Previous to this, exploration in the 1800s saw the area labelled uninhabitable and hostile.

Woomera is located on a stony plateau comprising Pre-Cambrian rock and red salty clay. The Village is landscaped predominantly by trees and shrubs from Woomera's Arboretum which tested plants for suitability in the local climate. Introduced species require manual watering and fertiliser to counteract the saline soil. The most common native vegetation in and around the Village is 'saltbush'.

Development of Woomera Village was born out of the need for Britain to develop its military capability following a number of attacks during the closing stages of World War II. Most significantly were strikes by the V2 long range ballistic missile, the first to be used as a weapon of war. These events identified a substantial gap in Britain's defence capabilities and as a result the search for a suitable testing range began.

In 1945 the Minister for Defence, Duncan Sandys announced that Britain would start work on developing a nuclear deterrent. The ideal weapon was a system of ballistic missiles armed with atomic warheads. Blue Streak was the result, it was three metres wide, 21 metres long and consisted of thermonuclear warheads weighing about two tonnes. Blue Streak was designed in such a way that it emerged from an underground silo and then travelled for 20 minutes into the atmosphere on its ballistic trajectory. Launch Area 6 at Lake Hart was built to test the Blue Streak vehicle. In April 1960 Blue Streak was cancelled as a weapons system primarily because the technology had been superseded, its main design fault was that it was launched from a fixed launcher. Blue Streak was never deployed as a weapon and was later used in the Europa launcher for the European Launcher Development Organisation, ELDO.

In April of 1947, following several initial investigations of the area by representatives from the British government, Arcoona Station land was leased to the Department of Defence. Len Beadell surveyed the area and construction started soon after. While the Village was built a temporary site for work crews was established at Philip Ponds.

In 1948, thousands of construction workers began work on airfields, roads, pipelines and utility lines on the edge of Arcoona Station. Previous to this only small numbers of Indigenous Australians, traditionally nomadic in lifestyle, and transient explorers passed through the area.

To counteract the extremely low levels of rainfall and the unreliable water supply an alternative water source was necessary. Consequently in 1948 a pipeline was laid transporting water from the Murray River to Woomera Village.

Between 1960 and 1970 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) operated a deep space tracking station at Island Lagoon, located about 25 km south of Woomera.

In 1962 France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands in partnership with Britain and Australia formed the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO). This collaborative project launched the Europa rocket which stood 32 metres high and weighed 105 tonnes, representing the largest vehicle to be launched at the Range.

The Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA), originally covered 270,000 square km, extending from the Old Ghan Railway West, almost to the Western Australian border and north along the Transcontinental Railway to latitude 27 degrees South. The WPA also contained the Emu and Maralinga atomic test sites.

During 1972 approximately 40% of the WPA was de-restricted. This included the opal mining communities of Coober Pedy and Andamooka as well as almost 90% of the Maralinga Prohibited Area. Today the WPA covers an area of 127,000 square km, still the largest land locked range in the world.

To find out more about the history of Woomera visit the Woomera Heritage Centre, Visitor Information Centre.

Information presented in the History sections of this website have been predominantly informed by Morton, P. (1989), Fire Across the Desert: Woomera and the Anglo-Australian Joint Project 1946 - 1980, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.