WOOMERA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

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A purpose built town created in the late 1940s by the Long Range Weapons Board of Administration to provide an isolated experimental ground for testing rockets.
Location: 486 km north of Adelaide; 180 km north of Port Augusta; 165 metres above sea level.
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.
Natural features: Lake Torrens; Island Lagoon; Lake Funniss; Lake Everard; Lake Harris; Lake Hart; Lake Hanson; Lake Windabout; Pernatty Lagoon; Lake Dutton; Lake Macfarlane
Built features: Arcoona gold mine (30 km north); Nurrungar Joint Defence Space Communications Centre
Heritage features: Woomera Aircraft and Missile Park and Heritage Centre; 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