Woomera – a test range in the outback

Woomera – a test range the size of England – was a famous Cold War site, where the Anglo-Australia Joint Project was established in 1946. The name comes from the Aboriginal word for “spear thrower”. At its heyday some 7,000 people lived in a specially constructed town in the middle of the desert, 500 km north of Adelaide, South Australia.

Over the years it has been used for missile testing and rocket launches. At one stage it was second only to NASA’s Cape Canaveral for the number of rockets launched. It also played a useful role supporting the US space programme.

With the end of the Cold War it fell into disuse for a couple of decades and the permanent population shrank to only 150 today. But in recent years the value of such a huge range, with little disturbance from people or radio interference, has again been recognised. A number of Australia’s allies have been able to use the site. Once again the town is busy with scientists and engineers, whilst kangaroos and emus dot the surrounding bush.

With my Defence Advisers, I visited a BAeSystems facility there to learn more about their activities at Woomera. Whilst we were there we popped into the very interesting heritage museum which tells the story Woomera has played in aerospace developments over the last 70 years.

Almost the entire Australian population lives in cities perched around the coastline of this huge continent. The vast interior is empty and generally inhospitable to humans. But it is really fascinating to visit some of the remote sites where, for reasons like mining or defence, human ingenuity has carved out settlements in the face of all the challenges.

Almost as impressive is the determination with which the “grey nomads” – retired folk who circumnavigate Australia in camper vans – seek out these remote locations, leading to packed campsites and road-houses in the most extraordinary places like Woomera.