Woomera Test Range

History

The Woomeara Test Range, as it was formerly known, was a rocket testing facility created in the wake of the emergent Cold War split in 1947. The centre line of the airfield was surveyed by Len Beadell in early 1947.

The first aircraft to use the field, a Dakota, landed at Woomera on Thursday 19 June 1947. It brought General Evetts and a party of British scientists to inspect the airfield which had just been completed.

The range was constructed at its current location as it avoided major civilian areas and it provided for a long testing corridor. Since the early 1950s there were around 6,000 rocket launches conducted by a joint Australia-United Kingdom task force weapons and aerospace test in the far west of the WPA at EMU and TARANAKI test sites. British Blue Streek and Blue Steel missiles were launched from the site periodicaly.

During the 1950s, nuclear testing took place here when the United Kingdom conducted ground-based tests of nuclear weapons. These sites were later 'cleaned up' by the UK under a massive environmental remediation program. Various other projects were conducted to evaluate air and space capabilities.

RAAF Bace Woomera

The RAAF (the Aussie air-force) still maintains an major airbase there.

Rocketry

Germany's use of V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets during World War II prompted the British to establish their own rocket testing programme. However, the density of population in the United Kingdom made testing risky, so the British turned to Australia, asking for a site with a long testing corridor containing minimal population.

British Blue Streek missiles and Blue Steel missiles were launched from the site periodically.

Today Aussie anti-shipping missiles and British UAVs are tested there.

Space

WRESAT

Atomic test blast controversy

Prior to selection, the Maralinga site was inhabited by the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal people, for whom it had a "great spiritual significance". Many were relocated to a new settlement at Yulata, and attempts were made to curtail access to the Maralinga site. These were often unsuccessful.

British nuclear tests at Maralinga were a series of seven nuclear tests conducted within the Woomera test range area between 1955 and 1963. Two major test series were conducted at the Maralinga site: Operation Buffalo and Operation Antler, intentional killing several Abos and Aussies in the process.

The site was contaminated with radioactive materials and an initial cleanup was attempted in 1967. The McClelland Royal Commission, an examination of the effects of the tests, delivered its report in 1985, and found that significant radiation hazards still existed at many of the Maralinga test areas. It recommended another cleanup, which was completed in 2000 at a cost of $108 million. Debate continued over the safety of the site and the long-term health effects on the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land and former personnel. In 1994, the Australian Government paid compensation amounting to $13.5 million to the local Maralinga Tjarutja people.

Minerals

The South Australian Government and Geoscience Australia prospectors have assessed that over the next decade that about $35 billion worth of iron ore, gold and to a lesser degree, other mineral resources are potentially exploitable from within the larger and all encompassing Woomera Protected Area.

Also see

Nevada Test and Training Range
Thule Air Base, Greenland
Kura (Kama) Test Range
Vandenberg Air Force Base