A purpose built town created in the late 1940s to provide an isolated experimental ground for testing rockets. Woomera Rocket Range was one of the world's busiest launch sites for testing rockets and missiles during the 1950's and 1960's. It also was used as the launch site for two satellites.

Where is it?: Outback South Australia. 486 km north of Adelaide; 180 km north of Port Augusta; 165 metres above sea level.

Synonymous with the testing of long range missiles and rockets during the Cold War, and the launch and tracking of spacecraft in the early days of the Space Age. Woomera today offers travellers to the South Australian outback an oasis in the harsh desert landscape. One of Woomera's major attractions is the Woomera Aircraft and Missile Park and Heritage Centre, which tells the story of the town and its rocket range.

Blue Streak rocket launch pad

The Woomera Test Range is still a strategic defence asset used mainly for aerospace test and evaluation activities. It remains the largest land-based range in the world and hosts a wide spectrum of ground, air and space activities for Australian and international government and commercial organisations.

Natural features: Lake Torrens; Island Lagoon; Lake Funniss; Lake Everard; Lake Harris; Lake Hart; Lake Hanson; Lake Windabout; Pernatty Lagoon; Lake Dutton; Lake Macfarlane

Heritage features: Double Swamp Aboriginal occupation site (150 km north); Yeltacowie Aboriginal site containing stone arrangements and engravings (50 km east of Pimba); Wild Dog Creek Aboriginal engravings site

Woomera Cemetery

Woomera Cemetery: At Woomera Cemetery, outback travellers can also drop in and pay their respects to the man who made travel through much of Australia's outback possible, Australia's most famous outback road maker, Len Beadell.

The babies' graves in the cemetery are a sad, disturbing reminder of the decade of nuclear testing that took place in the 1950s at Maralinga, up to 600km away. More than 60 lives were lost, many without explanation. Among them are the Woomera babies, some stillborn, others hours-old babies and toddlers who account for more than half the plots for the 1950s and 1960s. In all, the cemetery contains 23 graves for stillborn babies born in the hospital between December 1953 and September 1968, and a further 46 graves for other children who died around that period.

Autopsies were not always conducted and it is understood the medical records of those 23 stillborn babies remain sealed and held by the National Archives of Australia. Many parents of these children have joined a class action against the British Ministry of Defence, over deaths and disabilities they believe were caused by nuclear testing at Maralinga more than 50 years ago.

Olympic Dam surface mine

Tours of Roxby Downs (BHP Billiton) Olympic Dam surface mine site tours available. Bookings essential) and Andamooka are highly recommended when staying at Woomera.

Origin of name: of Aboriginal origin, it is the name of a short stick used to launch spears.

Brief history: In 1946 the Australian government received a formal request from Britain to establish a rocket range 1600 km long and 300 km wide in Australia. The vast wastelands of north-western South Australia were chosen as the test site in favour of another site nominated by Canada.

The township was created in 1947 near the railway siding at Pimba as the site for launching British experimental rockets. A restricted area until rocket launching ceased in 1982, the facilities are today used for space observation, tracking of satellites and rocket launch testing by US Air Force, NASA and West Germany. The Woomera Test Range is today operated by Defence Research Centre in Salisbury SA. Military accommodation is now used as an illegal immigrant detention centre.