Woomera missile and aircraft park preserves activity heyday from 1947 of rocket range in South Australia desert
Woomera aircraft and missile park displayed dozens of exhibits of missiles, drones, jets and bombs from the range activities in South Australia's outback desert from 1947.
Woomera aircraft and missile park has well-preserved examples of most missiles and rockets launched at the range set up from 1947 about 500 kilometres north of Adelaide in the South Australian outback desert.
The Woomera town was established to support the rocket and missile tests for Britain, the United States of America, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), West Germany and Australia.
Woomera also was the site for developing early deep-space tracking, nine nuclear bomb tests including Maralinga, and the 1967 launch of a satellite, designed and built at the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) at Salisbury, north of Adelaide, making Australia the third nation into space, after the Soviet Union and the United States of America.
Between 1969 and 1999, the Nurrungar joint United States-Australian ground station operated near Woomera and was closed to the public. From 1999 to 2003, it was used by the federal government as Woomera immigration detention centre for asylum seekers who’d arrived in Australia by sea.
Although the Australian government defence department maintained the Woomera prohibited area of 122,188 square kilometres as the largest land testing range in the world, run by the Royal Australian Air Force, the Woomera village was downgraded from a population for more than 5,000 in the 1960s to around 120 in the 21st Century.
Woomera township stayed open to the public with the missile park and heritage the main attractions. Maintained by the Australian defence department, the aircraft and missile park’s dozens of exhibits of missiles, drones, jets and bombs included:
• 1950s Australian-designed and -built Jindivik target drone, used by the Royal Australian Navy at Jervis Bay from the early 1960s until the 1997.
• the Black Arrow large rocket launched four times in 1969-72. The first unstable launch was destroyed almost immediately. After second and third experimental launches, the fourth put a Prospero satellite into orbit.
• a Meteor Mark 7 British jet aircraft used against German V-1 rockets. This trainer aircraft joined the RAAF in 1951 and in 1960 took part in trials at Woomera range. Powered by two Rolls Royce Derwent engines, it flew at more than 500mph (800 km/h).
• Ikara, an Australian-developed anti-submarine weapon, able to deliver an American 44 type homing torpedo by radio tracking/ guidance. Flight trials were at Woomera 1961-69.
Woomera heritage centre museum displays included Aboriginal artefacts and the story of the local Kokatha people; a display on Len Beadell, who opened up central Australia with his vast road building projects; a display on life for those families who moved to Woomera in the 1950s and 1960s; and a detailed history of Woomera's rocket and aircraft history.
