About Woomera
Woomera is an artificial town specifically designed by the Long Range Weapons Board of Administration to provide accommodation and facilities for personnel – scientists, technicians and ancillary staff – who came to work at an isolated experimental station which was used to test rockets, weapons and missiles. It is located in the South Australian desert and the average annual rainfall is only 190 mm. The visitor leaves the Stuart Highway at Pimba, which is nothing more than a roadhouse, pub, service station and a few houses located near the railway line, and drives 6 km across the desert to Woomera.
Woomera is an artificial town specifically designed by the Long Range Weapons Board of Administration to provide accommodation and facilities for personnel – scientists, technicians and ancillary staff – who came to work at an isolated experimental station which was used to test rockets, weapons and missiles. It is located in the South Australian desert and the average annual rainfall is only 190 mm. The visitor leaves the Stuart Highway at Pimba, which is nothing more than a roadhouse, pub, service station and a few houses located near the railway line, and drives 6 km across the desert to Woomera.
During the 1960s Woomera had a population of over 5000. Today the population is around 120. Over the years it has changed from an important location for experimenting with rockets which, at various times, has been used by the Australian armed forces, Great Britain, the US Air Force, NASA and West Germany. Between 1969 and 1999 the Nurrungar joint US – Australian Ground Station operated in the area. It was located 19 km from Woomera and was closed to the public. And between 1999 and 2003 it was used by the Federal Government as the Woomera Immigration Detention Centre. It housed asylum seekers who had arrived in Australia by sea. Today Woomera township is open to the public. Its main appeal is the Woomera Heritage Centre and the Missile Park (sourced from the Aussie Towns website – click for more).
It was a 400km road trip from Moonta Bay to Woomera (trip maplink) for a 3 day visit (should have been shorter – just sayin’).
On the way we passed the newly constructed Hornsdale Tesla Lithium Battery site (World’s largest) at Jamestown (maplink), near Port Augusta. The tower at the centre is so bright you can see it from about 100kms away.
Woomera is a pretty quiet town with an emu strolling down the main street being the most excitement we had. The happy hour at the Woomera Traveller’s Village and Caravan Park (maplink) was a great way to meet with other traveller’s. Went for an hour and spent 4.
Toured through the Woomera Museum which was actually really good with lots of history from the 1950s to 1970s where rocket development and testing was carried out by the Australian, English and US air forces.
Len Beadell the bush surveyor
Whilst at the Woomera Space Museum we learnt about a famous surveyor by the name of Len Beadell who developed a lot of the roads in the area, in particular the “Gunbarrel Highway” which was built to allow the rocket recovery teams to go out into the desert to locate the remains of rockets after they were fired. This stretched for over 1,350 km from Woomera to central Western Australia.
Hornsdale Tesla Lithium Battery site
