We've got worse bases than that, like the one at the top of Canada/Greenland. They do their jobs a little to well that's where they get promoted to work! XD
Funny story about the Alice Springs base. I was in the outback to see Uluru and our guide was like to me (the only American) that there was a secret US base near Alice Springs (where he lived), and he could tell who worked there because they’d always say they work in hospitality (which there is none in Alice Springs). So anyway, after he told me that I didn’t believe him as I thought he was pulling my leg. Turns out, after I told my grandfather about this he goes and says “yeah I used to do work at a facility near Alice Springs, did you visit there?”, and I was pretty shocked to hear that. Not even my mom knew her dad did work in Australia. He didn’t tell me anything they do there, basically what you hear is from people who don’t know much, because the people who do know what’s going on would never tell since that pool is so small.
Lol i am Aussie this base has never been a secret and ever since cold war Australia has been one of first to be hit by nuke here because of it. Not very secret it is the Southern Hemispheres intelligence gathering site and said to be the biggest of the 3 USA has. One in USA,UK, and Pine Gap. joint shared by USA and Australia ASIO . they say one room no Aussie can enter. We can thank it for no terrorist attacks in Australia either. always stopped before begin. It listens to all Faxes, computers and telephone comunications. satelites etc. If any Yanks live in Alice Springs then they are spooks.
I spent a few years flying general aviation aircraft out of Alice Springs. There was a prohibited zone around the base (I think it was 2.5 nautical miles radius and 15,000' over the top) and it was a game to see how close you could go without infringing the zone. There are about 600 US citizens working at the base , mostly software engineers on 3 year contracts; they can bring their US registered vehicles with them. They are under very strict instructions not to cause any disturbances or disruptions in Alice Springs or it is an immediate return to the US. There is a first class baseball diamond in Alice Springs courtesy of the US residents and the present airport owes its existence to the base as the previous airport (which is still there) was not long enough to take the military jets when the base was being constructed (the altitude above sea level is just under 2,000' and mid-summer temps. often exceeds 45 deg. C which absolutely wrecks takeoff performance for a jet) so they lengthened one of the runways which is the one jets use today. Every Tuesday a US military jet flies in with supplies for the base (it's all wrapped in plastic sheeting so you can't see what's on the pallets but the joke was that it was Hershey Bars and real Coke). The base is not quite located on the geographic centre of Australia, that is few hundred kilometres further east and it is plainly to be seen on Google Earth a few kilometres to the south west of Alice Springs. While it is claimed it is a joint US/Australian base and the deputy commander is an Australian, the only other Australians working there are maintenance staff, visible security (there is supposedly a Marine detachment there but I never saw any evidence) and power and water supply staff.
About 20 years ago they built special housing on every Australian Base just for Marines, Pretty sure Philippines just did the same when they got the same agreement. So wouldnt be a shock if Pine Gap also had Marines.
While geostationary orbits are a type of geosynchronous orbit, you might want to specify that the type that stays fixed above a point is geostationary while most geosynchronous orbits are at an angle to the equator and therefore return to the same locations every day but move north and south relative to the equator
They are in an elliptical orbit and looking at them from the ground it would like a lopsided figure 8 over a 24 hour period. With small satellite antennas 10M should track on a beacon. These types of antennas have a controller that peaks the dish and over time they build a database to anticipate its next move.
@pyropulse Both. There are use cases for elliptical orbits for a geosynchronous satellite. Some devices such as spy satellites have a limited altitude of operation so as to meet resolution needs. The orbital period required to bring it over the target at the right time every day can be adjusted by raising or lowering the opposite side of the orbit while keeping the target side of the orbit at the required altitude.
I've lived in Alice for almost 10 years now, there's so many running jokes and theories behind the base. One of the wilder ones is a theory that it's for refuelling submarines that use a secret tunnel that's supposedly near Darwin. If you work there, you're either a chef, gardener or janitor. Literally the only interesting part of the town is the base, never gets boring theorizing about it.
My physics professor was doing gamma ray research for UCR near Alice Springs and needed an atomic clock set. Only atomic clock available to set his was at Pine Gap. He got in contact with them somehow and they told him to leave it on the dirt road and come back later and it will be set. Few hours later it was sitting on the dirt road set with no one in sight.
I've found odd items unattended amid the Australian outback while using Google Earth. Zooming down on some geological item close enough to see vehicle ruts. Long shadows help if interested. Know who uses tents that look like Zebra hides ?
Its so top secret that we know the exact longitude and latitude of the base, the shape, the amount of buildings, its purpose, when it was built, why it was built, who runs it, and not to mention its "Official codename 'RAINFALL'"
@@ares01397 couple of buildings, seems like majority of the activity is related to satellite operations and weather watching from the looks of it from the air.(as well as what this video explained) From the air it would just appear to be a weather station. But from Google earth it looks like it may be intended to launch rockets in the near future too.
It's amazing how many people in the comments are trying to refute the "secret" aspect of the Pine Gap base, on the basis that every man and his dog knows it exists. The existence of the base is not the secret, what goes on there is the secret.
The US government is not joking when it said its military has over 1,000 actual physical, intel "nodes" across the world's most strategic spots. Those "nodes" are intel facilities range from small, few dozen individuals to large actual military bases... You name it: ----- Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, half a dozen countries from Morocco to Egypt, to Central to Southern Africa, to Central America, to South America, to the heart of Europe, from Norway & Finland down to the tip of the Italian peninsula & southern Greece, from Portugal to Ukraine, from Turkey to Jordan to Saudi Arabia/Qatar..... to the few Central Asian countries whose leaders are easily bribed .... even if outwardly they tend to show some bellicose disposition. Virtually all small Western allied countries in and around Europe... to most of the garden variety, to Second and Third world little dictators who have a firm hold on power.... Small time Third World individuals who rule though authoritarianism are always easier to "deal with" (aka bribing: offshore accounts, etc, due to American and Western Europe's corrupted offshore account set-up laws, with Americans and Western Europeans also CONTROLLING all the "international" electronic & banking mechanisms overseeing those "offshore" scams and schemes, FOR themselves first and foremost, of course: Amazon, Intel, Coke and Pepsi, Walmart, GM, Google, FB... they ALL use such "offshore" scams and schemes to hide weath and paper trails of their businesses). Anyway, he more freely elected leaders who are subject to the whims of the masses, from one election to the next.... those are the most tricky for the US government to deal with in military and intel agreements.... because you never know, whether a newly elected leader would follow the outgoing guy's lead on being quietly receptive to American intel work in his country or not.... So, yes, BOTH America and its main opponents, China and Russia, prefer to deal with small Third World dictators, again, due to their "stability" politically... so long as whatever they do to their local citizens Americans --- especially Americans ---- don't say shit about it... And we know Russians and Chinese do the same shit to their local citizens, so those two nations will never interfere in local politics in Third World nations...
In the late ‘80s it was not possible for Australians to see the large US base at Exmouth, but the cash stapped Soviet Union started selling aerial photographs and The Bulletin magazine acquired some aerial photographs of the Exmouth base and published them. The cover illustration had a Russian officer showing an aerial photo with a pointer as if he was delivering a briefing.
If I recall correctly that's also how the US public officially found out about area 51 the Soviet Union published a bunch of photos forcing the US government to admit it was real
I remember watching the Sunday show back in the 80s or early 90s, they had a whole episode on the secret Echelon spying at Pine Gap. They said they were monitoring phone calls and more for certain words way back then before the internet days.
@@klaykid117 From my understanding it was actually because a bunch of people in that area were getting sick and the Courts forced them to reveal that there was a base there and what it was.
@@klaykid117 I know this isn't needed, but for talking about 'government cover ups' it's pretty weird to choose Russia as the good guys. They wouldn't even warn the world about the largest nuclear disaster in human history, but were forced to admit when every agency in the world measured such high radiation levels that we already knew what happened.
I lived there for a while, my skater buddy was a yank and his dad would only say he 'worked in intelligence' and 'worked with satellites' and we we're all like 'Yeah, tell us something we DON'T know...
When I was relocating to a remote weather station named Giles, which was located about 850km to the WSW of Alice Springs, (just avcross the WA border) we had to fly just to the S of Pine Gap. My colleague was able to get some amazing photos of the base. Interesting.
I did a special assignment there in the 90s while in the U.S. Air Force. All of the really cool things you think about when you want to visit Oz pretty much dont exist in Alice Springs. Its a world unto itself. But I grew up in rural East Texas, so the isolation didnt affect me as much as someone who grew up in Queens or L.A. Alice is a cool town though, and the people were pretty friendly. I can only imagine its a 1000 percent better with Internet access. My replacement arrived a few days before I left, thinking he was just going to drive to Sydney in 3 or 4 hours. This was pre-Internet, so unless you bought an Atlas, you wouldnt necessarily know how deep in BFE you were.
@@DeaTheBitch I agree. Sorry if I didnt make that more clear. I think most Americans think of Oz as either swimming/surfing, or wrestling crocs in the NT. 😆 I was fortunate to spend time in Brisbane, Sydney and the Gold Coast as well as Alice, so I believe I got a reasonably good snapshot of Oz during my year there. I actually loved it, and gave strong consideration to immigrating there in the early 2000s, when Oz was offering immigration incentives to ppl from other countries of a certain age, professional background and education level (but I had to care for my elderly mom following the completion of my military career). I had a great group of friends there, and loved the mindset. I played alot practical jokes in those days. I told a fellow American that the bar we were in was running a promotion, and if he told the bartender "I'd like to have the best beer in Australia. Fosters," he'd get a free pint. The reactions were priceless. 😆
The location, being toward the middle of the Australian tectonic plate, also means it's a good, stable location for seismological measurement, as it is far from major seismic fault lines; the goal of which is to pinpoint earthquakes caused by banned underground nuclear weapons tests. And since that involves intel about nukes, you can expect such a facility to be equally well-guarded.
@@jiujitsuguy74 Military, not CIA. I was solicited for the seismology gig when I joined the Air Force. I ultimately chose a different job that had a higher enlistment bonus. The assignments listing for the 9S100 field included Alice Springs.
First I heard of Pine Gap was in The Power and the Passion by Midnight Oil: “Flat chat, Pine Gap, in every home a big mac And no one goes outback, that's that” It was a while later before I understood the reference.
One of my best friends in the US Air Force managed not one but two assignments to Alice Springs -- not Pine Gap, but a small detachment of an organization that detects nuclear "events" worldwide. This was the most in-demand (and hardest-to-get) post in our organization. The stories about our Alice Springs detachment were varied and interesting -- for example, the boat races in a dried-up river bed. Sponsored yearly by the town of Alice Springs if I remember correctly. One of our other locations was near Fairbanks, Alaska. Relating to this video, a big (VERY big) chunk of real estate that we managed/controlled on that Air Force base was known by everybody else as "MYSTERY HOLE" (just like that, in big capital letters). That real estate was really nothing but a large instrument site that needed physical isolation because it was part of the "seismic" arm of a worldwide nuclear "event" detection network. That array looks down on China (and much more) while the Alice Springs site looks up toward China (and much more). There are also other sites around the world (the "network"). But the point here is that the "MYSTERY HOLE" thing was born only because (until about the mid-80s) we never advertised what was there, what it was for or (much less) what we utlimately did with its product. But the "KEEP OUT!" signs were there, with no obvious explanation for them, which created a void of information, a vacuum. And of course vacuums tend to suck everything into them, mostly fables in cases like this. The bigger the mystery the more outrageous the fables can (sometimes) get. Area 51. But (drawing on other knowledge I accumulated over 20+ years) Pine Gap and Five Eyes are very real and this video seems substantially authentic. Consider the "Controlled" Area sign at about 5:10: The word "Controlled" means "lethal force" is authorized, whereas in "Restricted" areas it is not. BIG clue right there.
Good old Det 421. I’m a civvie but operate plant in Alice Springs, mainly laying water mains pipe. I’ve come across Det 421’s seismic indicators once or twice. Lol
@@speedoy2k Cool. Yep, 421. I never knew where the instrument array was in relation to Alice, it would've been pretty far out, isolated from the noise of the town (traffic etc) as those devices were extremely sensitive -- and I can imagine that laying water pipe made lots of noise lol. And then I can imagine somebody inside 421 saying "What the F was that?!?" (lol) before they were told what it was, and then everybody would know what it was in the future. Another thing about being a member of that organization was that if you were "maintenance" versus "operations" you might be taught how to climb utility poles and string or repair the signal wiring that was up there. All in all it was/is a fairly interesting profession.
Just so you know, the Idea that it is used for detecting nuclear events, for the purposes of nuclear non-proliferation, is a cover story used to justify its existence, not what it actually does.
I was an Army intelligence analyst, had heard of the facility at Alice Springs. Never heard what they did there, but it was a prestigious assignment that a few of my colleagues wanted to get but never did.
Had a mate that worked there, the most he could tell me was a data analyst - Even when we were drinking, couldn't get anything out of him. Well adept for the industry.
Yes: One of the most remote towns on the planet that has little rainfall. When I was in Alice Springs 40 years ago. Water 💧 🚿 🚰 was brought to "the Alice" by train from the Murray River 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) away.
@Wrong Profile (ClandestineOstrich) im going to go ahead and report this for misinformation, adn then block you, so i dont ever have to hear your crazy again.
I remember being on a tourist bus that went past Pine Gap in the early 80's, you could see the domes and some buildings from the road. The bus operator said that there was more concrete used creating the base than was in the whole centre of Sydney. It seemed a bit over the top, but it did outline how much is underground, even if it was half true.. I also remember there was another, not so well known smaller base that we went past that I can't remember the name of and a quick look on google gives no hints, strange.
BULLSHIT! 🤣🤣🤣 There is no tourist bus that goes past Pine Gap and allows you to see the domes. There is only 1 access road into the base from a main road where tourist buses would/might run past and you can't see shit from there. The base is built into a low depression and has small hills almost on every side hiding it from all main roads. I've worked there a couple of times and the common joke conspiracy theory told is there is a secret deep underground submarine base located there that stretches all the way to Darwin. Maybe that's where all the concrete went? 🤣🤣🤣
@@gavreynolds2689 I remember seeing it in the distance. It was early 80's, perhaps it was the other. Just saying what happened. Glad you got a good laugh.
I’m guessing you were being spun a yarn by a tour operator to fill an empty commentary. Apart from what is actually heard; there’s nothing secret. It’s a surveillance base. It listens to communications worldwide. It’s not like it has death squads sitting there.
all of the EMF radiation coming out of that place would be enough... I hope you are not too close.... I wouldn't want to be anywhere near it let alone work there
How about the fact it is an instrument of death for mass genocide used against the people of the middle east? What about how our best prime minister, Gough Whitlam was removed in 75 just for daring to remove it for Australian independence, and instead they removed him using their inside British man, John Kerr?
Aye. You finally did the video on Pine Gap! It's funny how the base is supposed to be classified and super secretive but it is still so famous. Pine Gap even has a Netflix Limited Series about it called... "Pine Gap".
The base itself isn't super secret, nor even the gist of what it's for. It's the details that's secret; what information it deals with, what it finds out, exactly what satellites it controls or interfaces with, and what it is capable of finding. Security through obscurity is a precarious position, so it works much better to have security through isolation and tight control. I've no doubt that the large town nearby gets a considerable boost to its economy from Pine Gap's presence, and no doubt that the people working at Pine Gap greatly appreciate the comforts, services, food, and more offered by that large town.
Alice Springs has a population of 32,612 as of June 2022. By Australian standards, it is not a small town Indeed it is the largest town in central Australia. It is thus a major regional center, in the same way Mt Isa, Kalgoolie, Port Augusta, Mildura and Broken Hill (among others) are. These towns are far more important than their populations would suggest. The number of people in Alice Spings at any one time would exceed 40,000 due to the high number of tourists that go there, as well as it being on the Stuart Highway between Adelaide and Darwin and it being on the rail line between those two cities. It's also served by a very modern airport.
@@DavidWilliams-nr6uk Sure, but it's still completely normal for someone to use the standards they're familiar with when choosing adjectives. It's like how someone from the UK who is visiting Australia might describe a 28 degree day as 'very hot', even if by local standards it might only qualify as 'kinda warm'. Does it help If you think of the word "Australia" in "small Australian town" as adding detail to "small town", rather than "small" modifying the "Australian town" bit?
I was at one point trying to be a CTN in the Navy, and I became aware that they worked at a lot of remote location bases and that one of them was in the dead center of Australia
A cartographer called Bruce Lambert determined the geographic centre of Australia which is in southern Northern territory about 200km south of Alice Springs a lot further south than pine gap. There are the various points of inaccessibility , and furtherest from the coast points, so it really is a moot point. Summed up Pine Gap is stuck out in the middle of the Desert Australia not far from Alice Springs where it's staff fly in and out from. It's now a joint facility with the Australian defence force. Nurrunga was another facility in south Australia which was a launch on warning site near Woomera in South Australia which is now closed (1999). It was also a joint facility with Australian defence. It is strange to think now that the Nuclear Armageddon could have been triggered by reports from a desert in Australia during the cold war, that the Soviets may have launched nuclear missles and was detected by monitoring satellites communicating to these Ground Stations. Pine gap is still utilised as a ground receiving station for Electronic intelligence and monitoring of any missile launches.
NURRUNGA gaint golf balls in middle of nowhere. Stayed in Nuclear bomb shelter in the military restricted area (about the size of the state of Tennessee).
@@robertmurray8763 All this info is dated, and limited as well. People these days think they know everything about classified installations because they “researched” on Wikipedia, and UA-cam. Simply put, there’s many things that go on at the facility, and others, that the world doesn’t know of. I can also guarantee, there are numerous SAPs, and uSAPs, that coworkers working there don’t even know of.
@@syabilazri the secret service’s existence isn’t supposed to be a secret. It’s the fact that you think you’re looking at 8 guards in suits when in reality it’s like 40 guards in plain clothes.
@@syabilazri the secret service itself isn't secret, their operational details are secret. Same with this base or even area 51. It's well known to exist, but everything done there is top secret.
Honestly, this guy does a fantastic job with his videos, but I’m finding it hard to sit through them anymore with him emphasizing every 5th word like this. I wish he’d change that up, because his videos are otherwise really good.
Yeah…I much prefer HAI. If I’m gonna listen to someone basically just reading a Wikipedia synopsis of something interesting but not well-known, I’d rather they have some good jokes and present quickly than do what this channel does.
Well, I for one love it, but only when it get caught in one of those infinite loops of each emphasis being strong than the last - it gets so comical, I literally lol - so, the chance for that to happen is reason enough to sub.
The American Discovery TV network about 25-30 years ago did a documentary on Pine Gap with footage from the inside. That included a C-141 landing which they said was weekly to pick up video footage ejected from a satellite and caught mid-air by specially equipped planes. They said in that era real time cameras with the kind of definition they needed had yet to be developed so the tape came to Pine Gap first before on to Washington.
I have heard of it. My uncle lives in Alice Springs and I’ve visited the town. I could literally see the base from a short distance. But the dead give away was walking into a popular bar and hearing a bunch of American accents. I asked my uncle and he said oh that’s just our secret American friends spying on us. Lol I was thinking I could just walk up to one of them and buy them a few drinks and discover some huge secrets of our society in a matter of minutes. Lol
My father used to work there. When we lived there I was instructed to tell anyone who asked "my dad works on computers". My parents were very strict about not mentioning Dad's military affiliation though everyone knew that all the Americans in the area worked at Pine Gap. I remember seeing a gum tree with a camouflage pattern and exclaiming "Dad that looks like uniform". I was promptly spanked
14 eyes alliance countries started in the 1950's The 5/9/14 Eyes alliance is essentially a global surveillance alliance, which has far-reaching implications for personal privacy. The full extent of how much the intelligence agencies in these countries know about you is vague, but Snowden’s leaks and other media stories make it clear that your online activities, phone conversations, and other sensitive information is all fair game. 2022 Population ---------------------------- United States 338,289,857 Germany 83,369,843 United Kingdom 67,508,936 France 64,626,628 Italy 59,037,474 Spain 47,558,630 Canada 38,454,327 Australia 26,177,413 Netherlands 17,564,014 Belgium 11,655,930 Sweden 10,549,347 Denmark 5,882,261 Norway 5,434,319 New Zealand 5,185,288
It's because he making commercials not giving a shot about his viewers. He read two Wikipedia lines and jumps to advertising his stupid video websites nobody going to buy. Thumbs down
I’m Australian, never been to Alice springs in my life. I’ve never been to Pine Gap but I somehow know that the computer room is the size of the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground).
My favourite of that trick is River Monsters. Jeremy always starts a show off as if he's Stanley and Livingstone and when he finally gets there, there's tourist boats bobbing around.
There is even an Australian TV series about this place. It is well known . This base is part of the Five Eyes infrastructure and one of the reasons Australia is included.
At around 4:30 in the video the east/west extent of the range of Pine Gap is shown. The line to the east is noticeably closer, which seemed odd. After doing some math I realized that the line was labeled correctly as 153 W, but was plotted as 153 E. That is, it was plotted about 54 degrees of longitude closer than it should have been. I'm surprised that the obvious visual discrepancy (the two lines should be the same distance from Pine Gap, logically) wasn't noticed at some point.
This is why Murikkkans shouldn’t use the internet and don’t have passports to know how often they get basic things way wrong about the world outside their insular self obsessed bubble.
Alice Springs township is a great base to use as a tourist to venture out to heaps of different tourist destinations you can squeeze in - in a day. Except for Uluru which needs an overnight stay. But lots to see around the area. Glen Helen Gorge, Ross River homestead, Palm Valley, Kings Canyon etc etc.
Its a global sattalite array that is always hovering directy above to collect data on basically everywhere they isnt the americas. Would suprise me if its also the gps 😂
You might think otherwise if treated by an Australian military hospital during paid employment outside Australia where strategy can hurt or kill my reader. I had a week to mend before paid travels resumed. Had chats with citizens with World War experiences and attended personal speleology interests, SE coastline and west amid the Blue Mountains.
It's CRAZY how the narrator ALWAYS manages to EMPHASIZE something REGARDLESS of WHETHER OR NOT it actually fits in WITH the flow of the STORY. It's INCREDIBLY distracting how that INVARIABLY happens.
I had the chance to fly into this base in the mid 90's. But my flight plan got changed at the last minute. With that mission scrubbed, we were rerouted to RAAF Glenbrook. It worked out because the entire flight crew got to spend time in Sydney. What an extraordinary city!
The construction company I used to work for did a lot of the maintenance and building projects for the new area of the base. I've been to the facility 3 times now. It's nothing spectacular, if you didn't know what was going on behind closed doors it would be the most boring place on Earth. There isn't much to look at and it's not like there's a whole lot of military hardware laying around just white buildings and a whole lot of civilian vehicles and trucks
@@devoncsmith2696 nothing was classified, we had to have special inductions and sign in to get onto base but nothing major. We had a security guard that was near by all the time but it wasn't any area 51 that's for sure
A "secret base"? Yea, secret from the US citizen, nobody else. I worked at one in Morocco, '66/'67. Everybody knew what we did except the people who paid for it. Underground bunkers were the workplace, surrounded by an antenna field. Marines patrolled the fence line. I took my meals at a private club, passing on the "free food". It was brutal. I left base every chance to visit Rabat for ice cream and movies. I couldn't go far with only 72 hours.
I went on R&R in Australia. I spent 4 days in Alice Sorikgs and when ever I met someone and they asked me what I do I told them I work for the U.S. Government and everyone said oh ok I got you. I had no idea what they were talking about until I found out about this CIA location. I told people I did not work there and they said yea right why would an American come to Alice Springs. Seriously I had no idea the place was there and by the way stay away from Alice Springs in February.
As a previous SIGINT analyst there (For DSD, now known as ASD) There is so much wrong with this information unfortunately. Just briefly, it is not a US base which is a big misconception. It's a Joint Defense Facility staffed and equally by both the US Government and Australian government. You mentioned personnel from the CIA, NSA and NRO which is correct. There roughly equal the ammount of Australian Intelligence personnel from: ASD (Australian Signals Directorate) AGO (Australian Geospatial Intelligence Organization) D.I.O Defense Intelligence Organization and a few from ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Service) The facility is absolutely critical in th collection of SIGINT,ELINT,GEOINT and FISINT across all of Asia, Russia and most of the middle east. The current chief of the facility is a CIA director and the 2IC (acting chief of facility when the COF is away) Is an Australian director from ASD. It is completely transparent and both countries share every bit of Intelligence gathered from the facility.
The existence of Pine Gap (allegedly run in conjunction with the Australian Signals Directorate) has been known for decades, you can drive right up to the the main gate (many media and protesters have done so over the years) and there's quite clear pictures of it on Google Maps. If one is to believe the information released by Edward Snowdon, the significantly smaller facilities at East Chapman, Western Australia and Shoal Bay, Northern Territory perform similar functions to Pine Gap. Currently, both of these are also clearly visible on Google Maps.
Despite denials by the government it is another spy base linked to the 5 "Spies" monitoring all Australian communications. A group with which I am familiar have been watching their movements when they leave the base. Satisfying to spy on spies
I agree. It does matter from a generational perspective however. Older Australians are more likely to know as previous PMs made its removal an election issue. No one ever DID actually act on that idea (except perhaps maybe Whitlam before the Constitutional Crisis) but for a time it was a big deal.
14 eyes alliance countries started in the 1950's The 5/9/14 Eyes alliance is essentially a global surveillance alliance, which has far-reaching implications for personal privacy. The full extent of how much the intelligence agencies in these countries know about you is vague, but Snowden’s leaks and other media stories make it clear that your online activities, phone conversations, and other sensitive information is all fair game. 2022 Population ---------------------------- United States 338,289,857 Germany 83,369,843 United Kingdom 67,508,936 France 64,626,628 Italy 59,037,474 Spain 47,558,630 Canada 38,454,327 Australia 26,177,413 Netherlands 17,564,014 Belgium 11,655,930 Sweden 10,549,347 Denmark 5,882,261 Norway 5,434,319 New Zealand 5,185,288
a lot of us know it there. It not a secret. It not the only base here in Australia. Also they have a cross to a major oil basin to the east of Pine gap. Also a very large airstips in Australia. Many of them
Used to drink at the Alice Springs Army Base with the American “gardeners” of Pine Gap, one of them got into a fight and Police were called. Before morning he was on a plane back to America without question, his car stayed on the street for at least a week or two and pretty sure he had a wife and kid over here with him too!
Heard a story years ago from a bloke who worked for a air conditioning company that had a contract to service the ac's at pine gap. He said when they did his back ground check they knew more about him than himself, they knew every girl friend he'd had and every bank transaction he'd done.
So as an Australian, I only found out about this base a few weeks ago. On the Australian subreddit an American posted asking what Alice Springs was like as they were offered to move for work. I can't remember if they mentioned they worked for the military but essentially most of the comments were about Pines Gap. Had no idea it existed until a random post on reddit. Wild.
Aussie here, and have known about it all my life. I guess it just depends on how old you are, as there WAS huge media attention drawn to it in the 70's, when the protests were going on. If you were born in the last few decades, then I can understand it not being known to you. It's far from being kept a "secret" though....... and there have been docos and also a mini series done on it (which included much poetic license , as to what actually goes on there, if you know what I mean...lol).
900kms from the base to nearest coast is actually more like1600kms which is a long drive! Years ago a man I knew who owned a remote central Australian cattle station (Ranch) purchased a decommissioned ray dome from a government auction in Alice Springs, it was originally used at Pine gap and was dismantled and intended to be sold as scrap, constructed of aluminium frames and fibreglass panels. This fella bought the whole structure and reassembled it on his property to be used as a covered parking area for his trucks. Apparently it created a bit of a stir between the Russians and Australia when the structure was spotted on images from Russian spy satellites, they thought another base was constructed in the Outback without their knowledge!
I remember reading about treaty signed in the late 50s between Australia and the USA that if in the event of a full scale nuclear war half of the surviving US population would be relocated to Australia while the other half would be sent to South America. I’m not sure whether that treaty is still in effect today.
There is nothing "top secret" about this base. Its existence is well known in Australia and quite controversial. It was even mentioned in the lyrics of a (now classic) Australian song in 1983... The Power and the Passion by Midnight Oil.
But the nitty gritty details about what happens there are top secret. Even notice how the guy says "there are threee KNOWN satellites..." it controls. Imagine what we don't know.
WRONG... when people refer to it as "Top Secret" ... they are NOT referring to is simple existence..... FOR FUCK SAKE everyone knows its there.... Whatthey are referring to is WHAT THEY DO THERE.... THAT remains sposecret
Perhaps what you're thinking of is "clandestine operations" that are deliberately hidden from view and conducted in the most secretive and invisible ways possible? Nobody ever questioned it's existence, don't be so simple and narrow minded Mr. Cleary, think larger. Knowing or suspecting of an established area by certain individuals/coalitions/governments etc. etc. is not what "Top Secret" means. Top secret simply means "highly confidential" or something otherwise exceedingly similar. Matters, transactions, personal, logistics, operations, tactics, strategies..... etc, etc, are what are "top secret". Yes, you obviously know there are structures and some operations being conducted by Government Officials yet you/we are truly clueless to what actually occurs as we can only speculate to the aforementioned .
I’ve been a long time subscriber and always very impressed by your videos. Unfortunately I’m avoiding your videos lately due to unnecessary emphasis you put on almost all facts. Just gets my BP going high. Could you try talking like you are explaining this to someone rather than selling?
Australia really is best friends with America. Australia being where it is and so important and spanning the entire info-pacific region, both us as a people, and just our country strategically are both so important to the US
USA didn't just send nuclear subs to Australia, they gave Australia the plans, facilities and manpower to build nuclear subs. It's a tight relationship indeed.
@@wayneallen8469 I’ve lived in the USA for 40 years and have never heard that. Neither have I heard “Texas” used with a negative connotation. If they called it Pacific Florida that would be different.
@@HighSpeedNoDrag That's very interesting and I think as an adult that was a tough lesson to learn. Sometimes there isn't a solution but you end up thinking you just aren't smart or skilled enough to generate one.
Third biggest in a “state” think about what you said, even Darwin is small hence why the AUS government offers immigrants the option to live there to earn citizenship.
@@Insignificatos Those are highly trained, elite troops who progress through the ranks on merit. China has a lot of poorly trained troops who progress through ranks by corrupt means.
There's also a couple of other intelligence-gathering bases; the Defense Signals Directorate communications base in a deep valley just east of Geraldton & the Jindalee Over-The-Horizon radar base somewhere near Leonora, both in Western Australia.
The UK base sucks up all communications in the northern hemisphere, whilst pine gap and the 1 at exmouth capture all communications in the southern hemisphere.
The geographical centre of Australia has a landmark which you can visit... it's called 'Lambert Centre of Australia' and it's actually about 5 hours away from Alice Springs. No U.S Military base there... I visited about 2 months ago. Pine Gap is only about 30 minutes from Alice Springs. It is in 'Central Australia', but it is NOT at the geographical centre of the country.
He's only 150 odd km out. Always wanted to go to Lambert centre. Lived out that way for years. You know how it is, live in an area and never go to the points of interest!
"Geostationary" and "Geosynchronous" technically refer to subtly different things, the former is a subset, of the latter; yet at several points in the video the terms are used as if they are synonyms. i.e. @6:50 - 7:10. [GSO] Geosynchronous orbits, or rather "in sync with earth" orbits have a periodicity that matches Earth's rotation. In other words, to an observer on Earth's surface, an object in geosynchronous orbit will returns to exactly the same position in the sky each sidereal day. However, over the course of a day, a geosynchronous object's position in the sky is not necessarily stationary to an observer on Earth. There are lots of geosynchronous orbits, with varied "inclination" (tilt or angle to earth's axis) from the equator to near the polar regions and varied "eccentricity" (shape and orbit position) even acutely elliptical and every wobbling. A [GEO] Geostationary orbit, or rather "not moving with respect to earth" orbit is a special kind of "geosynchronous orbit, in addition to a periodicity that matches Earth's rotation, a geostationary orbit has a specific inclination of 0° directly over the equator and a specific eccentricity fixed and circular. In other words, to an observer on Earth's surface, an object in a geostationary orbit doesn't just return to the same place in the sky once each day, it always appears fixed in the same position in the sky. E.g. See the image at @6:02, You can clearly see the ring of mostly GEO satellites around the equator. While any of the objects in the picture that are far from earth could be GSO satellites, however a keen eye will note a less dense band of objects that wrap a spherical halo of earth at the same distance as the GEO satellites (in this image it's most clear toward the bottom under the equatorial line) many of these objects will be or were GSO satellite, but many other will lie elsewhere too. Not that any of that is super important to the thesis of the video which is quite good rather interesting anyway, 😆LOL "The more you know!" 🤓 Perhaps he did it on purpose so pedants like me would comment and increase engagement‽
As an Australian this kind of feels like an older and wealthier brother strategically setting up a desk space in the middle of your house so he can use your neighbours wifi.
There’s numerous types of satellite reconnaissance. Signals, imagery, etc. They’re usually tasked with specific targets, or areas of responsibilities. Just because they can collect information from those satellite footprints, doesn’t meant it’s collecting from ever sq inch of the area 24/7/365. There’s no reason to have imagery satellites pointlessly staring at the open ocean, for no tactical or strategic reason. That’s kind of a waste of that entire asset, and tens of millions of dollars satellite hardware. Now…if we were in middle of a naval war, where there’s constant surveillance, and MH370 flew in the area, it could’ve gotten lucky and caught by a satellite. But as far as we know, this hasn’t happened. Signals wise…I heard there were allegations that MH370s sat phone system picked up maintenance signals from being turned on and off? I forgot the name of the satellite phone company already. Who knows. We’ll find it the plane someday though. Probably by accident. Some missing WW2 plane that crashed in the arctic, was just found this year or last. Also some ship that was sunk in WW2 was recently finally found as well.
@@Chuck8541 MH370's cockpit sat phone was checking in until it crashed, and by analysing the Doppler shift of the signal, they were able to figure out a rough area where the plane went down. Check it out, there are some good videos about it.
@@thelight3112 Yeah, I do remember that. But things haven’t planned out to find it so far. Though, a few months ago I remember hearing about a new breakthrough in the analysis of those signals. Some British or Aussie guy (I forget which) found a new search area that was never looked at. I think they’re working on financing for a new search expedition at the moment. Fingers crossed they find it this time around.
Australia was the first nation to invent over the horizon radar and huge installations exist along Australia's western coast. "All of them" we're turned off the day MH370 went missing.
@@tdb7992 There is only one (at Laverton) and MH370 was flying outside the systems range for detecting aircraft. The original one in SA that could have detected MH370 was shut down in the 1970s
I remember watching the evening news in the 1980’s as a kid here in Australia and seeing regular protests against the base being here, then when the Cold War ended, its presence was simply forgotten about…
My mate worked at Pine Gap for a while. He said, "you know those guys in white lab coats who get shot when James Bond enters a facility? I'm one of those guys."
Had a very interesting chat with Andrew Farriss from INXS regarding the filming of the video clip for the song 'Falling Down the Mountain' from the 1985 album 'Listen Like Thieves'. It was filmed in the desert and on a salt pan 1 hours flight in a small aircraft chartered from Broken Hill. To this day he still doesn't fully understand what happened, but they landed at a suitable site for the clip they envisaged to be filmed - awesome clip mind you - the boys were all in their 20's. They landed where they could, no airstrip, in the middle of absolutely nowhere - deep outback......................when they were unloading the plane a US military vehicle comes out of nowhere and they get accosted by US military personnel in 'pristine uniform', grilling them about what they were doing there......................
Damn that's a cool story. Wikipedia says that music video was filmed in Coober Pedy, South Australia so about 6 hours from Alice Springs. How did you know Andrew?
@@Demo98765 no,Wikipedia is wrong, it was a one hour flight from Broken Hill. I know Andrew personally. Still a mystery to him - nowhere near Pine Gap, or Woomera etc
Wow! I just heard about Pine Gap and Project Rainfall yesterday, while watching a, australian science fiction movie ('Occupation: Rainfall', sequel to the much more interesting 'Occupation'). Since it was a pretty wild-senario science fiction movie, I didn't think that there would be such places for real ...
Pine Gap is a joint intelligence signal gathering base (hence the signs that say Joint Defence Base). Hosting both US CIA and Australian ASD (and some ASIS). It is PARTLY run by the US, not fully run. So i don't know why you keep talking about this base in AUSTRALIA as if it's all for the US, and Australia does nothing with it
This comment makes no sense? RAAF runs surveillance teams, normally based up in Queensland monitoring Asia. Pine Gap is a 5 eyes Base run by USA, we publicly know it records every satellite phone call. We also know the Australian government has asked ISP to record data logs for National security, but its been blocked many times in the old ADSL/ADSL2 era. now we have NBN, may be happening.
Mate let me tell you how the Western world works since you obviously are unaware: The USA does everything and tells everyone what to do, and they listen. Australia and UK are just pawns for the USA and NATO
It's referred to as the eye's and ear's of the US defence force because that's what it is - They searched every where in the world at the end of WW2 to find a place where you could receive electronic signals 24/7 and that's why it's there - Yet if you go 100 klm in any direction from it you won't get a signal because of all the iron ore
There is another base 400km south of Pine Gap. It's Australia's area 51 as their are many who have seen unidentified within the skies around Pine Gap. For the record the transmission of The Apollo mission to the moon was relayed to Houston from an Australian radio telescope station in Parkes. The base 400km south of Pine Gap is also off-limits and has been there since the early 1970's.
I'm an American who's been here for over a decade and yes Pine Gap is as known as Area 51. People should talk more about all the UK nuclear tests that took place from 1956 - 1963, hardly anyone talks about it and the most I've heard someone speak about it is was when I was travelling to kings canyon from Uluru.
Nearly everybody who identifies as "Australian" have known for most of our lives about Pine Gap. A very small proportion of lefty / green / hippy/ commies / social misfits view it with some suspicion.
@@Cneq Yep, we Australians aren't too impressed with being used as a nuclear test bed either. It was typical of the government of the day. You'd think they would consider the wants and needs of the Australian people, obviously not.
I lived in Alice for many years, Im an American by the way, Pine Gap is NORAD of the Southern Hemisphere... not that secret, but as with any US military base, you cant go there without a reason... its not like its area 51 though
As an Australian I would like to express my deepest sympathy to any American who had the misfortune to be stationed in the outback.
We've got worse bases than that, like the one at the top of Canada/Greenland. They do their jobs a little to well that's where they get promoted to work! XD
Couldn't be worse than Alaska or Greenland.
I knew a guy who worked in IT servers there for 10 years, had a family, loved it, called it home.
The Outback is better than you think, a lot of diversity -- they're actually quite lucky at Pine Gap
I just got back from the outback it's absolutely stunning now I understand why people fizz over the desert
Funny story about the Alice Springs base. I was in the outback to see Uluru and our guide was like to me (the only American) that there was a secret US base near Alice Springs (where he lived), and he could tell who worked there because they’d always say they work in hospitality (which there is none in Alice Springs). So anyway, after he told me that I didn’t believe him as I thought he was pulling my leg. Turns out, after I told my grandfather about this he goes and says “yeah I used to do work at a facility near Alice Springs, did you visit there?”, and I was pretty shocked to hear that. Not even my mom knew her dad did work in Australia. He didn’t tell me anything they do there, basically what you hear is from people who don’t know much, because the people who do know what’s going on would never tell since that pool is so small.
@mattew boyer - it's part of the Five Eyes network. It's sort of an open secret that they monitor all telecomms in the SE Asia region.
Why would your grandfather say that he worked at a facility near Alice Springs?
Lol i am Aussie this base has never been a secret and ever since cold war Australia has been one of first to be hit by nuke here because of it.
Not very secret it is the Southern Hemispheres intelligence gathering site and said to be the biggest of the 3 USA has.
One in USA,UK, and Pine Gap. joint shared by USA and Australia ASIO . they say one room no Aussie can enter.
We can thank it for no terrorist attacks in Australia either. always stopped before begin.
It listens to all Faxes, computers and telephone comunications. satelites etc.
If any Yanks live in Alice Springs then they are spooks.
It's true, I am his Grandpa.
And I am his grandma.
I spent a few years flying general aviation aircraft out of Alice Springs. There was a prohibited zone around the base (I think it was 2.5 nautical miles radius and 15,000' over the top) and it was a game to see how close you could go without infringing the zone. There are about 600 US citizens working at the base , mostly software engineers on 3 year contracts; they can bring their US registered vehicles with them. They are under very strict instructions not to cause any disturbances or disruptions in Alice Springs or it is an immediate return to the US. There is a first class baseball diamond in Alice Springs courtesy of the US residents and the present airport owes its existence to the base as the previous airport (which is still there) was not long enough to take the military jets when the base was being constructed (the altitude above sea level is just under 2,000' and mid-summer temps. often exceeds 45 deg. C which absolutely wrecks takeoff performance for a jet) so they lengthened one of the runways which is the one jets use today. Every Tuesday a US military jet flies in with supplies for the base (it's all wrapped in plastic sheeting so you can't see what's on the pallets but the joke was that it was Hershey Bars and real Coke). The base is not quite located on the geographic centre of Australia, that is few hundred kilometres further east and it is plainly to be seen on Google Earth a few kilometres to the south west of Alice Springs. While it is claimed it is a joint US/Australian base and the deputy commander is an Australian, the only other Australians working there are maintenance staff, visible security (there is supposedly a Marine detachment there but I never saw any evidence) and power and water supply staff.
While others claim Australia does have intelligence staff work there?
About 20 years ago they built special housing on every Australian Base just for Marines, Pretty sure Philippines just did the same when they got the same agreement. So wouldnt be a shock if Pine Gap also had Marines.
Man, have you talked to Peter about that CIA base by Alice springs? Peter Lovett alot.
Yeah mate I just flew an A320 into Alice in Flight Simulator so I pretty much know exactly what you're talking about....
And it will all be blown up to dust
The most surprising take away- there’s a lot more people in North Korea than I previously thought.
Lol
Assuming they're not lying on the census data.
@@libraryofpangea7018now that you put that idea in my head it’s more than likely they’re probably lying by a decent amount
I just think Australia is underpopulated. North Korea has like half the population of South Korea so theoretically it could hold even more people.
While geostationary orbits are a type of geosynchronous orbit, you might want to specify that the type that stays fixed above a point is geostationary while most geosynchronous orbits are at an angle to the equator and therefore return to the same locations every day but move north and south relative to the equator
They are in an elliptical orbit and looking at them from the ground it would like a lopsided figure 8 over a 24 hour period. With small satellite antennas 10M should track on a beacon. These types of antennas have a controller that peaks the dish and over time they build a database to anticipate its next move.
@pyropulse Both. There are use cases for elliptical orbits for a geosynchronous satellite. Some devices such as spy satellites have a limited altitude of operation so as to meet resolution needs. The orbital period required to bring it over the target at the right time every day can be adjusted by raising or lowering the opposite side of the orbit while keeping the target side of the orbit at the required altitude.
guys, we're talking about the EXACT center of a VAST number of HUGE adjective gag me with a spoon
Relax nerd…
THANK YOU! Dude was confusing me
I've lived in Alice for almost 10 years now, there's so many running jokes and theories behind the base. One of the wilder ones is a theory that it's for refuelling submarines that use a secret tunnel that's supposedly near Darwin. If you work there, you're either a chef, gardener or janitor.
Literally the only interesting part of the town is the base, never gets boring theorizing about it.
When did I say it was a secret?
loool I like that idea with the secret tunnel and submarine refuelling xD
Conspiracy theories are the best…😂
@@Goodstahh So true…..and if Netflix knows, then everybody knows! 😆
Or is that what the Aussies who work there want you to think?
My physics professor was doing gamma ray research for UCR near Alice Springs and needed an atomic clock set. Only atomic clock available to set his was at Pine Gap. He got in contact with them somehow and they told him to leave it on the dirt road and come back later and it will be set. Few hours later it was sitting on the dirt road set with no one in sight.
I heard they have robot bunnies they send out from secret lairs to take care of that stuff
@MulhorandPrince that is wild!! Now that I think about it I’m sure they had eyes on the whole time he dropped it and picked it back up.
Everyone in Alice Springs knows about the atomic clock Roomba
obviously the kangaroos doing their job
I've found odd items unattended amid the Australian outback
while using Google Earth. Zooming down on some geological
item close enough to see vehicle ruts. Long shadows help if
interested. Know who uses tents that look like Zebra hides ?
Its so top secret that we know the exact longitude and latitude of the base, the shape, the amount of buildings, its purpose, when it was built, why it was built, who runs it, and not to mention its "Official codename 'RAINFALL'"
nah you know its top secret when there's a netflix series named after it. this guy lmao
Kinda hard to hide a whole facility the real secret bases are either underground or near the North and south poles
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
that is their way to build secrets before our eyes, and now you think it is not secret base, well, guess again.
@@maxyoung8306 that’s how all secrets are kept
It’s pretty common knowledge here in Australia.
Commercial flights fly near it and you can see it from the air.
The totalitarian Commonwealth of Australia sponsored by the WEF and Globalists
Is it like a military complex or just a normal building?
@@ares01397 couple of buildings, seems like majority of the activity is related to satellite operations and weather watching from the looks of it from the air.(as well as what this video explained)
From the air it would just appear to be a weather station. But from Google earth it looks like it may be intended to launch rockets in the near future too.
@@ares01397 it's a complex
@@profligatepassages it looks nothing like a weather station it's very noticeably not civilian in appearance
It's amazing how many people in the comments are trying to refute the "secret" aspect of the Pine Gap base, on the basis that every man and his dog knows it exists.
The existence of the base is not the secret, what goes on there is the secret.
The US government is not joking when it said its military has over 1,000 actual physical, intel "nodes" across the world's most strategic spots. Those "nodes" are intel facilities range from small, few dozen individuals to large actual military bases...
You name it: ----- Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, half a dozen countries from Morocco to Egypt, to Central to Southern Africa, to Central America, to South America, to the heart of Europe, from Norway & Finland down to the tip of the Italian peninsula & southern Greece, from Portugal to Ukraine, from Turkey to Jordan to Saudi Arabia/Qatar..... to the few Central Asian countries whose leaders are easily bribed .... even if outwardly they tend to show some bellicose disposition.
Virtually all small Western allied countries in and around Europe... to most of the garden variety, to Second and Third world little dictators who have a firm hold on power....
Small time Third World individuals who rule though authoritarianism are always easier to "deal with" (aka bribing: offshore accounts, etc, due to American and Western Europe's corrupted offshore account set-up laws, with Americans and Western Europeans also CONTROLLING all the "international" electronic & banking mechanisms overseeing those "offshore" scams and schemes, FOR themselves first and foremost, of course: Amazon, Intel, Coke and Pepsi, Walmart, GM, Google, FB... they ALL use such "offshore" scams and schemes to hide weath and paper trails of their businesses).
Anyway, he more freely elected leaders who are subject to the whims of the masses, from one election to the next.... those are the most tricky for the US government to deal with in military and intel agreements.... because you never know, whether a newly elected leader would follow the outgoing guy's lead on being quietly receptive to American intel work in his country or not....
So, yes, BOTH America and its main opponents, China and Russia, prefer to deal with small Third World dictators, again, due to their "stability" politically... so long as whatever they do to their local citizens Americans --- especially Americans ---- don't say shit about it...
And we know Russians and Chinese do the same shit to their local citizens, so those two nations will never interfere in local politics in Third World nations...
People are smug idiots.
@@kiabtoomlauj6249 all new world oder traitors on that base
Exactly, there's such things as "open secrets".
From what I understand, many secret bases do in fact exist though.
In the late ‘80s it was not possible for Australians to see the large US base at Exmouth, but the cash stapped Soviet Union started selling aerial photographs and The Bulletin magazine acquired some aerial photographs of the Exmouth base and published them.
The cover illustration had a Russian officer showing an aerial photo with a pointer as if he was delivering a briefing.
If I recall correctly that's also how the US public officially found out about area 51 the Soviet Union published a bunch of photos forcing the US government to admit it was real
I remember watching the Sunday show back in the 80s or early 90s, they had a whole episode on the secret Echelon spying at Pine Gap. They said they were monitoring phone calls and more for certain words way back then before the internet days.
@@klaykid117 From my understanding it was actually because a bunch of people in that area were getting sick and the Courts forced them to reveal that there was a base there and what it was.
@@klaykid117 I know this isn't needed, but for talking about 'government cover ups' it's pretty weird to choose Russia as the good guys.
They wouldn't even warn the world about the largest nuclear disaster in human history, but were forced to admit when every agency in the world measured such high radiation levels that we already knew what happened.
@@MarvinWestmaas When did I say they were the good guys? They were doing Holodomor 10 years before Hitler thought it was cool to do it.
I lived there for a while, my skater buddy was a yank and his dad would only say he 'worked in intelligence' and 'worked with satellites' and we we're all like 'Yeah, tell us something we DON'T know...
When I was relocating to a remote weather station named Giles, which was located about 850km to the WSW of Alice Springs, (just avcross the WA border) we had to fly just to the S of Pine Gap. My colleague was able to get some amazing photos of the base. Interesting.
I'm sorry to hear about his suicide, condolences 🙏.
@@ididthis2 lol!
@@ididthis2 😂😂😂 the amount of people's head this will go over is even funnier
RIP 🥲
@@jerrodcarter7537 there's nothing funny about someone tragically killing themselves.... by shooting themselves twice in the back of the head.
I did a special assignment there in the 90s while in the U.S. Air Force. All of the really cool things you think about when you want to visit Oz pretty much dont exist in Alice Springs. Its a world unto itself. But I grew up in rural East Texas, so the isolation didnt affect me as much as someone who grew up in Queens or L.A. Alice is a cool town though, and the people were pretty friendly. I can only imagine its a 1000 percent better with Internet access. My replacement arrived a few days before I left, thinking he was just going to drive to Sydney in 3 or 4 hours. This was pre-Internet, so unless you bought an Atlas, you wouldnt necessarily know how deep in BFE you were.
Wow, now thats something you won't see often on a resume.
D-415?
What cool things do U think about when U visit here?? Alice Springs is one of the most Aussie places here
That literally sounds badass
@@DeaTheBitch I agree. Sorry if I didnt make that more clear. I think most Americans think of Oz as either swimming/surfing, or wrestling crocs in the NT. 😆 I was fortunate to spend time in Brisbane, Sydney and the Gold Coast as well as Alice, so I believe I got a reasonably good snapshot of Oz during my year there. I actually loved it, and gave strong consideration to immigrating there in the early 2000s, when Oz was offering immigration incentives to ppl from other countries of a certain age, professional background and education level (but I had to care for my elderly mom following the completion of my military career). I had a great group of friends there, and loved the mindset. I played alot practical jokes in those days. I told a fellow American that the bar we were in was running a promotion, and if he told the bartender "I'd like to have the best beer in Australia. Fosters," he'd get a free pint. The reactions were priceless. 😆
The location, being toward the middle of the Australian tectonic plate, also means it's a good, stable location for seismological measurement, as it is far from major seismic fault lines; the goal of which is to pinpoint earthquakes caused by banned underground nuclear weapons tests. And since that involves intel about nukes, you can expect such a facility to be equally well-guarded.
Oh yes, everyone is aware of the CIA’s interest in seismology….
the illuminati put the base there
@@jiujitsuguy74 Military, not CIA. I was solicited for the seismology gig when I joined the Air Force. I ultimately chose a different job that had a higher enlistment bonus. The assignments listing for the 9S100 field included Alice Springs.
@@rgw5991 they put all the bases everywhere. It’s what they do.
No, Pine Gap is for satellite tracking. Well, that plus maintaining a dormitory full of ETs.
First I heard of Pine Gap was in The Power and the Passion by Midnight Oil:
“Flat chat, Pine Gap, in every home a big mac
And no one goes outback, that's that”
It was a while later before I understood the reference.
You just blew my mind
wow you get your information from Midnight Oil ......... how funny is that 🤣🤣
@@laurencepomery3652 shutup nutzee
As an Australian I can say it’s kind of like our version of area 51
without the aliens and the top secret craft
American's Exporting our Area 51?
@@Insignificatos 🤔🧐
@@Fr3nchFlag 😂😂😂😂
@@benjamingooch8723 you get a area 51 , you get a area 51, everyone gets a area 51 woooohoooo.
One word: Geography.
Don’t translate 😡
ເຈົ້າຖືກສາບແຊ່ງເພາະວ່າຖ້າເຈົ້າບໍ່ຝ່າຝືນຄຳສາບແຊ່ງ ເຈົ້າຈະຕາຍມີທາງດຽວທີ່ຈະທຳລາຍຄຳສາບແຊ່ງໄດ້ຄື ຈອງຄິວຈອງຕອນນີ້
.
@@Banxed ? Prove to me curses exist.
Man really wants those comment likes
One word thrice: location, location, location
@@Banxed book this ratio
One of my best friends in the US Air Force managed not one but two assignments to Alice Springs -- not Pine Gap, but a small detachment of an organization that detects nuclear "events" worldwide. This was the most in-demand (and hardest-to-get) post in our organization. The stories about our Alice Springs detachment were varied and interesting -- for example, the boat races in a dried-up river bed. Sponsored yearly by the town of Alice Springs if I remember correctly.
One of our other locations was near Fairbanks, Alaska. Relating to this video, a big (VERY big) chunk of real estate that we managed/controlled on that Air Force base was known by everybody else as "MYSTERY HOLE" (just like that, in big capital letters). That real estate was really nothing but a large instrument site that needed physical isolation because it was part of the "seismic" arm of a worldwide nuclear "event" detection network. That array looks down on China (and much more) while the Alice Springs site looks up toward China (and much more). There are also other sites around the world (the "network"). But the point here is that the "MYSTERY HOLE" thing was born only because (until about the mid-80s) we never advertised what was there, what it was for or (much less) what we utlimately did with its product. But the "KEEP OUT!" signs were there, with no obvious explanation for them, which created a void of information, a vacuum. And of course vacuums tend to suck everything into them, mostly fables in cases like this. The bigger the mystery the more outrageous the fables can (sometimes) get. Area 51.
But (drawing on other knowledge I accumulated over 20+ years) Pine Gap and Five Eyes are very real and this video seems substantially authentic. Consider the "Controlled" Area sign at about 5:10: The word "Controlled" means "lethal force" is authorized, whereas in "Restricted" areas it is not. BIG clue right there.
Good old Det 421. I’m a civvie but operate plant in Alice Springs, mainly laying water mains pipe. I’ve come across Det 421’s seismic indicators once or twice. Lol
@@speedoy2k Cool. Yep, 421. I never knew where the instrument array was in relation to Alice, it would've been pretty far out, isolated from the noise of the town (traffic etc) as those devices were extremely sensitive -- and I can imagine that laying water pipe made lots of noise lol. And then I can imagine somebody inside 421 saying "What the F was that?!?" (lol) before they were told what it was, and then everybody would know what it was in the future. Another thing about being a member of that organization was that if you were "maintenance" versus "operations" you might be taught how to climb utility poles and string or repair the signal wiring that was up there. All in all it was/is a fairly interesting profession.
Henley-on-Todd Regatta
Stop telling the real secrets of Alice Springs. I was also stationed at Det 421 twice.
Just so you know, the Idea that it is used for detecting nuclear events, for the purposes of nuclear non-proliferation, is a cover story used to justify its existence, not what it actually does.
Got this video recommended after boyboy's video on this place
I was an Army intelligence analyst, had heard of the facility at Alice Springs. Never heard what they did there, but it was a prestigious assignment that a few of my colleagues wanted to get but never did.
Had a mate that worked there, the most he could tell me was a data analyst - Even when we were drinking, couldn't get anything out of him. Well adept for the industry.
Do you ever realize what youre doing is super messed up?
@@Testingthisname was your comment directed at me?
@@Testingthisname Its not. Its based.
Pine Gap opened 1970. People vaguely had a idea what the base was for.
The names of many CIA "projects" throughout history always fascinate me... "Project Rainfall" in the middle of the Australian desert. Lol. Nice
Yes: One of the most remote towns on the planet that has little rainfall. When I was in Alice Springs 40 years ago. Water 💧 🚿 🚰 was brought to "the Alice" by train from the Murray River 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) away.
@@robertmurray8763 I want to say thats funnyt but i know you are telling the truth...
I wonder if it was "Like any rainfall, it's not here."
@Wrong Profile (ClandestineOstrich) im going to go ahead and report this for misinformation, adn then block you, so i dont ever have to hear your crazy again.
They are usually chosen randomly
I remember being on a tourist bus that went past Pine Gap in the early 80's, you could see the domes and some buildings from the road. The bus operator said that there was more concrete used creating the base than was in the whole centre of Sydney. It seemed a bit over the top, but it did outline how much is underground, even if it was half true.. I also remember there was another, not so well known smaller base that we went past that I can't remember the name of and a quick look on google gives no hints, strange.
BULLSHIT! 🤣🤣🤣 There is no tourist bus that goes past Pine Gap and allows you to see the domes. There is only 1 access road into the base from a main road where tourist buses would/might run past and you can't see shit from there. The base is built into a low depression and has small hills almost on every side hiding it from all main roads. I've worked there a couple of times and the common joke conspiracy theory told is there is a secret deep underground submarine base located there that stretches all the way to Darwin. Maybe that's where all the concrete went? 🤣🤣🤣
@@gavreynolds2689 I remember seeing it in the distance. It was early 80's, perhaps it was the other. Just saying what happened. Glad you got a good laugh.
It’s a military base dummy
I’m guessing you were being spun a yarn by a tour operator to fill an empty commentary. Apart from what is actually heard; there’s nothing secret. It’s a surveillance base. It listens to communications worldwide. It’s not like it has death squads sitting there.
Maralinga?
I live relatively near to Pine Gap, place gives me the creeps day and night and I can’t explain why.
all of the EMF radiation coming out of that place would be enough... I hope you are not too close.... I wouldn't want to be anywhere near it let alone work there
How about the fact it is an instrument of death for mass genocide used against the people of the middle east? What about how our best prime minister, Gough Whitlam was removed in 75 just for daring to remove it for Australian independence, and instead they removed him using their inside British man, John Kerr?
Hola amigo
Youre relatively close to part of the biggest coverup in human history
Aye. You finally did the video on Pine Gap!
It's funny how the base is supposed to be classified and super secretive but it is still so famous.
Pine Gap even has a Netflix Limited Series about it called... "Pine Gap".
The base itself isn't super secret, nor even the gist of what it's for. It's the details that's secret; what information it deals with, what it finds out, exactly what satellites it controls or interfaces with, and what it is capable of finding. Security through obscurity is a precarious position, so it works much better to have security through isolation and tight control. I've no doubt that the large town nearby gets a considerable boost to its economy from Pine Gap's presence, and no doubt that the people working at Pine Gap greatly appreciate the comforts, services, food, and more offered by that large town.
😆
"Pine Gap even has a Netflix Limited Series about it called... "Pine Gap"."
2:20 I'm really surprised that wasn't mentioned the video.
@@dampaul13 lol
Alice Springs has a population of 32,612 as of June 2022. By Australian standards, it is not a small town Indeed it is the largest town in central Australia. It is thus a major regional center, in the same way Mt Isa, Kalgoolie, Port Augusta, Mildura and Broken Hill (among others) are. These towns are far more important than their populations would suggest. The number of people in Alice Spings at any one time would exceed 40,000 due to the high number of tourists that go there, as well as it being on the Stuart Highway between Adelaide and Darwin and it being on the rail line between those two cities. It's also served by a very modern airport.
Agreed, but it is small by US standards and Real Life Lore is American.
That’s a small town in US or Europe
Almost a village
@@jonathaneastwood2927 I’m China, a village is 300,000. 40,000 would be a small village
@@DavidWilliams-nr6uk Sure, but it's still completely normal for someone to use the standards they're familiar with when choosing adjectives. It's like how someone from the UK who is visiting Australia might describe a 28 degree day as 'very hot', even if by local standards it might only qualify as 'kinda warm'.
Does it help If you think of the word "Australia" in "small Australian town" as adding detail to "small town", rather than "small" modifying the "Australian town" bit?
I was at one point trying to be a CTN in the Navy, and I became aware that they worked at a lot of remote location bases and that one of them was in the dead center of Australia
Warning...The video starts with telling you about Pine Gap then, at the end, it turns into a commercial
A cartographer called Bruce Lambert determined the geographic centre of Australia which is in southern Northern territory about 200km south of Alice Springs a lot further south than pine gap. There are the various points of inaccessibility , and furtherest from the coast points, so it really is a moot point. Summed up Pine Gap is stuck out in the middle of the Desert Australia not far from Alice Springs where it's staff fly in and out from. It's now a joint facility with the Australian defence force. Nurrunga was another facility in south Australia which was a launch on warning site near Woomera in South Australia which is now closed (1999). It was also a joint facility with Australian defence. It is strange to think now that the Nuclear Armageddon could have been triggered by reports from a desert in Australia during the cold war, that the Soviets may have launched nuclear missles and was detected by monitoring satellites communicating to these Ground Stations. Pine gap is still utilised as a ground receiving station for Electronic intelligence and monitoring of any missile launches.
NURRUNGA gaint golf balls in middle of nowhere. Stayed in Nuclear bomb shelter in the military restricted area (about the size of the state of Tennessee).
THE WORD IS FURTHEST
@@B727X it means the same thing but is the humorous term spelling, i.e. a non standard spelling.
Alot was not correct. Pine Gap is a joint intelligence base.
Australia has two intelligence agencies working at Pine Gap.
@@robertmurray8763 All this info is dated, and limited as well. People these days think they know everything about classified installations because they “researched” on Wikipedia, and UA-cam.
Simply put, there’s many things that go on at the facility, and others, that the world doesn’t know of. I can also guarantee, there are numerous SAPs, and uSAPs, that coworkers working there don’t even know of.
I heard about Pine Gap when I was a small child, it's *very well known* in Australia.
And for a while it was very controversial.
There's even a drama about it that came out a couple years ago. It's about as much of a secret as the Secret Service.
It's my understanding that it is still controversial
@@syabilazri the secret service’s existence isn’t supposed to be a secret. It’s the fact that you think you’re looking at 8 guards in suits when in reality it’s like 40 guards in plain clothes.
@@syabilazri the secret service itself isn't secret, their operational details are secret. Same with this base or even area 51. It's well known to exist, but everything done there is top secret.
@@syabilazri Well you are watching a UA-cam video about it. The real secret stuff you'll have to wait another 60 years to see.
Honestly, this guy does a fantastic job with his videos, but I’m finding it hard to sit through them anymore with him emphasizing every 5th word like this. I wish he’d change that up, because his videos are otherwise really good.
Yeah…I much prefer HAI. If I’m gonna listen to someone basically just reading a Wikipedia synopsis of something interesting but not well-known, I’d rather they have some good jokes and present quickly than do what this channel does.
@@ClementinesmWTF HAI is almost solid jokes and is impossible to listen to. Wendover Productions is better.
How do Joseph and Sam sound the same. It's weird. Like they imitate each other.
Well, I for one love it, but only when it get caught in one of those infinite loops of each emphasis being strong than the last - it gets so comical, I literally lol - so, the chance for that to happen is reason enough to sub.
Darn it. I didn't notice till you said something. And now I'm triggered. Lol
The American Discovery TV network about 25-30 years ago did a documentary on Pine Gap with footage from the inside. That included a C-141 landing which they said was weekly to pick up video footage ejected from a satellite and caught mid-air by specially equipped planes. They said in that era real time cameras with the kind of definition they needed had yet to be developed so the tape came to Pine Gap first before on to Washington.
I have heard of it. My uncle lives in Alice Springs and I’ve visited the town. I could literally see the base from a short distance. But the dead give away was walking into a popular bar and hearing a bunch of American accents. I asked my uncle and he said oh that’s just our secret American friends spying on us. Lol I was thinking I could just walk up to one of them and buy them a few drinks and discover some huge secrets of our society in a matter of minutes. Lol
Because the CIA is renown for recruiting loose lipped imbeciles that spill their guts after getting tipsy..
look at this beautifull woman ...she works for russia Fsb pulling personnal data...would be a good spot for the next James Bond.
Yes...Chinese spies are there on sleeping cells. Just mixing w/ some natives.
thats some russian shit no cap
they are paranoid off china targetting them at that there - base.''
My father used to work there. When we lived there I was instructed to tell anyone who asked "my dad works on computers". My parents were very strict about not mentioning Dad's military affiliation though everyone knew that all the Americans in the area worked at Pine Gap. I remember seeing a gum tree with a camouflage pattern and exclaiming "Dad that looks like uniform". I was promptly spanked
14 eyes alliance countries started in the 1950's
The 5/9/14 Eyes alliance is essentially a global surveillance alliance, which has far-reaching implications for personal privacy. The full extent of how much the intelligence agencies in these countries know about you is vague, but Snowden’s leaks and other media stories make it clear that your online activities, phone conversations, and other sensitive information is all fair game.
2022 Population
----------------------------
United States 338,289,857
Germany 83,369,843
United Kingdom 67,508,936
France 64,626,628
Italy 59,037,474
Spain 47,558,630
Canada 38,454,327
Australia 26,177,413
Netherlands 17,564,014
Belgium 11,655,930
Sweden 10,549,347
Denmark 5,882,261
Norway 5,434,319
New Zealand 5,185,288
why would they spank you for stating the obvious? once again I feel that USA has spooked themselves into stupidity
And people think thats bc the government just wants to lie to us.... no, its for the safety of the people that work there. And yours too.
@@sinpoeanarconna2974 Your post was deleted
100% i believe you
The drama and artificial suspense in this video is more amazing than this base.
Every one of his videos is like that. He puts so much emphasis on every adjective.
@@lorencpollo2926 EVERy one of HIS viDEOS is like THAT. He puts SOOO much EMphasis on E VE R YYYY ADjectiVEEvvvee
@@lorencpollo2926 *enormous*
It's because he making commercials not giving a shot about his viewers. He read two Wikipedia lines and jumps to advertising his stupid video websites nobody going to buy. Thumbs down
I wish there was an option to turn it off lol. I had to watch in 2x speed to get past e v e r y w o r d from being dra wwnnn out.
I’m Australian, never been to Alice springs in my life. I’ve never been to Pine Gap but I somehow know that the computer room is the size of the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground).
You are kidding
My man sounds like an overly excited AI that just realized how adjectives work.
Aussie here and i went through the red center of the country and saw a fair bit of military exercises
Half of NATO's and SEA and India's air forces are exercising at Tindal and Darwin right now (Pitch Black '22).
Real life lore: "why there is a secret CIA base in the center of Australia "
37 000 people: "not so secret anymore ig"
My favourite of that trick is River Monsters. Jeremy always starts a show off as if he's Stanley and Livingstone and when he finally gets there, there's tourist boats bobbing around.
You didn't even mention the time an Australian prime Minister was kicked out for trying to get rid of it?
What about the one that went missing never to be found ☠️☠️
@@Madelene-ml8bo They named the base in W.A. after him and also the swimming pool in Hartwell.
He was my godmother's Marjory's boyfriend, her maiden name was Post, she built Mar-a-Lago.
It's not a top-secret base, it's a base with top-secrets.
There is even an Australian TV series about this place. It is well known . This base is part of the Five Eyes infrastructure and one of the reasons Australia is included.
At around 4:30 in the video the east/west extent of the range of Pine Gap is shown. The line to the east is noticeably closer, which seemed odd. After doing some math I realized that the line was labeled correctly as 153 W, but was plotted as 153 E. That is, it was plotted about 54 degrees of longitude closer than it should have been.
I'm surprised that the obvious visual discrepancy (the two lines should be the same distance from Pine Gap, logically) wasn't noticed at some point.
I had the same thought. Thanks for confirming this.
This is why Murikkkans shouldn’t use the internet and don’t have passports to know how often they get basic things way wrong about the world outside their insular self obsessed bubble.
I found that strange too. Good pickup.
I also noticed it. 153 W is supposed to be a little bit east of Hawaii.
@@Affixton96 Ah well, no big deal. It's only a 6,000 km (at the equator) error - who can be expected to notice that?
Alice Springs township is a great base to use as a tourist to venture out to heaps of different tourist destinations you can squeeze in - in a day. Except for Uluru which needs an overnight stay. But lots to see around the area. Glen Helen Gorge, Ross River homestead, Palm Valley, Kings Canyon etc etc.
red dust, more red dust
I did a bus day trip to Uluru. Long day 5am-1130pm
Pine gap isnt JUST a CIA base doe. Its a space station, research facility, monitoring station everything kinda thing
Technically, I guarantee it’s not a space station. ;)
@@Chuck8541 if you can fly a ship from it in 2022 its a space station now.
@@Sho3z Spaceport.
Its a global sattalite array that is always hovering directy above to collect data on basically everywhere they isnt the americas. Would suprise me if its also the gps 😂
Speaking of the CIA, it would be cool to see a video on operation Gladio in Italy.
God bless you for having the sponsor ad at the end
The mindset and strategy behind this base reminds me of the original Xcom game strategy.
You might think otherwise if treated by an Australian military hospital
during paid employment outside Australia where strategy can hurt or
kill my reader. I had a week to mend before paid travels resumed. Had
chats with citizens with World War experiences and attended personal
speleology interests, SE coastline and west amid the Blue Mountains.
It's CRAZY how the narrator ALWAYS manages to EMPHASIZE something REGARDLESS of WHETHER OR NOT it actually fits in WITH the flow of the STORY. It's INCREDIBLY distracting how that INVARIABLY happens.
Absolutely... quite annoying
Wendover Sam and RLL Joseph both do it. They sound almost identical.
I KNOW what MEAN, and it is very ANNOYING !!
wah. cry more. don't like it, unsubscribe.
@@Knight_647 I watch 1 minute of his videos to give him a view. I'm nice like that. 10 minutes of wacky vocal inflections is a total pain.
I had the chance to fly into this base in the mid 90's. But my flight plan got changed at the last minute. With that mission scrubbed, we were rerouted to RAAF Glenbrook. It worked out because the entire flight crew got to spend time in Sydney. What an extraordinary city!
RAAF Air Command is on the escarpment overlooking the air base and the city. Amazing views.
Sydney is now full of extraordinarily expensive toll roads that suck the profits out of any business using those thieving roads.
@@jayjaynella4539 The roads arent theiving, don't use them if you don't want to pay.
@@jayjaynella4539 😥
Given that there is no airfield at Pine Gap, you would of been landing at YBAS which is a shared domestic airport some 15 miles from the facility.
The construction company I used to work for did a lot of the maintenance and building projects for the new area of the base. I've been to the facility 3 times now. It's nothing spectacular, if you didn't know what was going on behind closed doors it would be the most boring place on Earth. There isn't much to look at and it's not like there's a whole lot of military hardware laying around just white buildings and a whole lot of civilian vehicles and trucks
Did you have to sign forms to keep any works or repairs you did etc classified?.
Nothing underground too?
@@devoncsmith2696 nothing was classified, we had to have special inductions and sign in to get onto base but nothing major. We had a security guard that was near by all the time but it wasn't any area 51 that's for sure
@@llamingo696 there's nothing underground that we worked on. There are shelters on base but not that we saw.
Ofcourse they wouldn't introduce you to the aliens
Wow!!! You are doing a video on this. This base has been known for a long, long, time now.
A "secret base"? Yea, secret from the US citizen, nobody else. I worked at one in Morocco, '66/'67. Everybody knew what we did except the people who paid for it.
Underground bunkers were the workplace, surrounded by an antenna field. Marines patrolled the fence line. I took my meals at a private club, passing on the "free food". It was brutal. I left base every chance to visit Rabat for ice cream and movies. I couldn't go far with only 72 hours.
Nowadays a secret service is the enemy of the people.
to be fair there isn't really any such thing as a truely secret base anywhere. More a hush hush base :D
The existence of the base isn't a secret nor is it intended to be, what's secret is what is inside.
A secret base is one that isn't talked about in UA-cam comments
Not that secret anyone. It was revealed in the late 1980s. Its an earth station for satellites. No more, no less
I went on R&R in Australia. I spent 4 days in Alice Sorikgs and when ever I met someone and they asked me what I do I told them I work for the U.S. Government and everyone said oh ok I got you. I had no idea what they were talking about until I found out about this CIA location. I told people I did not work there and they said yea right why would an American come to Alice Springs. Seriously I had no idea the place was there and by the way stay away from Alice Springs in February.
Hillarious
Ah yes, the Australian desert in the middle of summer. Fun times.
You went to central Australia in our southern summer?! OMG 😂
Was first introduced to this place in the Matthew Reilly books. Interesting to hear more about it here.
As a previous SIGINT analyst there (For DSD, now known as ASD) There is so much wrong with this information unfortunately. Just briefly, it is not a US base which is a big misconception.
It's a Joint Defense Facility staffed and equally by both the US Government and Australian government.
You mentioned personnel from the CIA, NSA and NRO which is correct. There roughly equal the ammount of Australian Intelligence personnel from:
ASD (Australian Signals Directorate)
AGO (Australian Geospatial Intelligence
Organization)
D.I.O Defense Intelligence Organization
and a few from ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Service)
The facility is absolutely critical in th collection of SIGINT,ELINT,GEOINT and FISINT across all of Asia, Russia and most of the middle east.
The current chief of the facility is a CIA director and the 2IC (acting chief of facility when the COF is away) Is an Australian director from ASD.
It is completely transparent and both countries share every bit of Intelligence gathered from the facility.
There's a secret CIA base everywhere, my dude. Area 51, Radiator Springs, your mom's house, etc. The list is endless
The existence of Pine Gap (allegedly run in conjunction with the Australian Signals Directorate) has been known for decades, you can drive right up to the the main gate (many media and protesters have done so over the years) and there's quite clear pictures of it on Google Maps. If one is to believe the information released by Edward Snowdon, the significantly smaller facilities at East Chapman, Western Australia and Shoal Bay, Northern Territory perform similar functions to Pine Gap. Currently, both of these are also clearly visible on Google Maps.
@aswer huio because you were shown nothing
Despite denials by the government it is another spy base linked to the 5 "Spies" monitoring all Australian communications. A group with which I am familiar have been watching their movements when they leave the base. Satisfying to spy on spies
Excellent reconnaissance, keep it up soldier!!! 🪖🪖
Yes and so does Tidbinbilla it is also a satellite tracking station
Australias area 51 run by the US
Strange people don't know about Pine Gap. It's been very well-known in Australia. I think it's the second largest CIA base Worldwide.
Americans are shockingly ignorant of Australia unfortunately.
Australian myself, never learnt about Pine Gap and thought the ABC drama was about a fake place as if it was made up... huh
I agree. It does matter from a generational perspective however. Older Australians are more likely to know as previous PMs made its removal an election issue.
No one ever DID actually act on that idea (except perhaps maybe Whitlam before the Constitutional Crisis) but for a time it was a big deal.
14 eyes alliance countries started in the 1950's
The 5/9/14 Eyes alliance is essentially a global surveillance alliance, which has far-reaching implications for personal privacy. The full extent of how much the intelligence agencies in these countries know about you is vague, but Snowden’s leaks and other media stories make it clear that your online activities, phone conversations, and other sensitive information is all fair game.
2022 Population
----------------------------
United States 338,289,857
Germany 83,369,843
United Kingdom 67,508,936
France 64,626,628
Italy 59,037,474
Spain 47,558,630
Canada 38,454,327
Australia 26,177,413
Netherlands 17,564,014
Belgium 11,655,930
Sweden 10,549,347
Denmark 5,882,261
Norway 5,434,319
New Zealand 5,185,288
a lot of us know it there. It not a secret. It not the only base here in Australia. Also they have a cross to a major oil basin to the east of Pine gap. Also a very large airstips in Australia. Many of them
USA Australia destroyed 15 pacific islands for next 500 yrs
@@jameswright2974 what is this all about.
Used to drink at the Alice Springs Army Base with the American “gardeners” of Pine Gap, one of them got into a fight and Police were called. Before morning he was on a plane back to America without question, his car stayed on the street for at least a week or two and pretty sure he had a wife and kid over here with him too!
I guess they didn't need gardeners around there too badly 😂
@@Robert-xn3dc haha, they were expendable.
Heard a story years ago from a bloke who worked for a air conditioning company that had a contract to service the ac's at pine gap. He said when they did his back ground check they knew more about him than himself, they knew every girl friend he'd had and every bank transaction he'd done.
That’s the CIA for ya 😂
So as an Australian, I only found out about this base a few weeks ago. On the Australian subreddit an American posted asking what Alice Springs was like as they were offered to move for work. I can't remember if they mentioned they worked for the military but essentially most of the comments were about Pines Gap. Had no idea it existed until a random post on reddit. Wild.
We all should pay more attention eh.
Very honest admitting yr ignorance I don't think I would
@@Ellis_B you do not do yourself or anybody else a favor by NOT admitting your mistakes. thats a general life protip.
@@hihihihihello ignorance isn't mistakes pro life tip
Aussie here, and have known about it all my life. I guess it just depends on how old you are, as there WAS huge media attention drawn to it in the 70's, when the protests were going on. If you were born in the last few decades, then I can understand it not being known to you. It's far from being kept a "secret" though....... and there have been docos and also a mini series done on it (which included much poetic license , as to what actually goes on there, if you know what I mean...lol).
900kms from the base to nearest coast is actually more like1600kms which is a long drive! Years ago a man I knew who owned a remote central Australian cattle station (Ranch) purchased a decommissioned ray dome from a government auction in Alice Springs, it was originally used at Pine gap and was dismantled and intended to be sold as scrap, constructed of aluminium frames and fibreglass panels. This fella bought the whole structure and reassembled it on his property to be used as a covered parking area for his trucks. Apparently it created a bit of a stir between the Russians and Australia when the structure was spotted on images from Russian spy satellites, they thought another base was constructed in the Outback without their knowledge!
I remember reading about treaty signed in the late 50s between Australia and the USA that if in the event of a full scale nuclear war half of the surviving US population would be relocated to Australia while the other half would be sent to South America. I’m not sure whether that treaty is still in effect today.
It is and people are moving allready..
@@robbie84 Same
No such treaty ever existed outside a novel.
Please don't come to Australia. I've been watching America swirling the bowl
USA, the only country to have actually thrown these bombs at humans 🙄🙄🙄
There is nothing "top secret" about this base. Its existence is well known in Australia and quite controversial. It was even mentioned in the lyrics of a (now classic) Australian song in 1983... The Power and the Passion by Midnight Oil.
They mean TP SECRET Data.
But the nitty gritty details about what happens there are top secret. Even notice how the guy says "there are threee KNOWN satellites..." it controls. Imagine what we don't know.
WRONG... when people refer to it as "Top Secret" ... they are NOT referring to is simple existence..... FOR FUCK SAKE everyone knows its there.... Whatthey are referring to is WHAT THEY DO THERE.... THAT remains sposecret
Everything about it is secret. You know where it is and nothing else.
Perhaps what you're thinking of is "clandestine operations" that are deliberately hidden from view and conducted in the most secretive and invisible ways possible?
Nobody ever questioned it's existence, don't be so simple and narrow minded Mr. Cleary, think larger. Knowing or suspecting of an established area by certain individuals/coalitions/governments etc. etc. is not what "Top Secret" means. Top secret simply means "highly confidential" or something otherwise exceedingly similar. Matters, transactions, personal, logistics, operations, tactics, strategies..... etc, etc, are what are "top secret". Yes, you obviously know there are structures and some operations being conducted by Government Officials yet you/we are truly clueless to what actually occurs as we can only speculate to the aforementioned .
I’ve been a long time subscriber and always very impressed by your videos. Unfortunately I’m avoiding your videos lately due to unnecessary emphasis you put on almost all facts. Just gets my BP going high. Could you try talking like you are explaining this to someone rather than selling?
Yep... agreed. Annoying seller intonation.
Well that's how you spot on of an iiiiiiiincredibly proud United States coolie
thankyou for covering this.
Australia really is best friends with America. Australia being where it is and so important and spanning the entire info-pacific region, both us as a people, and just our country strategically are both so important to the US
Yeah if you want to kiss American imperialist ass, no one is going to tell you otherwise, right?
Agree, but this comment is prime bait for Chinese bot posters. Beware.
being enemies with the US is dangerous, but being friends with the US can be deadly.
USA didn't just send nuclear subs to Australia, they gave Australia the plans, facilities and manpower to build nuclear subs. It's a tight relationship indeed.
@@wayneallen8469 I’ve lived in the USA for 40 years and have never heard that. Neither have I heard “Texas” used with a negative connotation. If they called it Pacific Florida that would be different.
I think the "Unknown Pine Gap" might have been only unknown by you. Love your stuff.
- An Australian.
An australian made in China?
@@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 your fool made where?
@@Smokeyr67 In China too.
@@joaoalbertodosanjosgomes1536 you’re made in China? Good for you.
@@Smokeyr67 China of planet Mars. I live somewhere on the 🌎, not in China. Far from China. Chinese people is everywhere.
I love when a very specific list of requirements is met by the perfect solution.
We are raised to believe there is a solution to every problem. Not always, fact.
When you drop atomic bombs is probably best being in a place where nothing else lives?
@@wayneparkinson4558 but then how will you know the effect on living things?
@@HighSpeedNoDrag That's very interesting and I think as an adult that was a tough lesson to learn. Sometimes there isn't a solution but you end up thinking you just aren't smart or skilled enough to generate one.
@@AJPMUSIC_OFFICIAL The human solders are the Guiney pigs they test them and there sun tan?
What people don't understand is majority of the base is underground
"Small Australian town of Alice Springs"
Alice Springs is the third largest city in the Northern Territory.
By Australian standards it is still a small town.
And the entire NT has 250,000 people.
It is a small town though, it being the third largest settlement doesn't make 25k people a city
Third biggest in a “state” think about what you said, even Darwin is small hence why the AUS government offers immigrants the option to live there to earn citizenship.
The Australian Military is a firm believer of "Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."
So is America with all its bases.
we have a standing army of 50K - China has Millions.
@@Insignificatos 50K back in 2020, we now have 60K, but Scumo recons he has a plan to increase it to 80K by 2040
@@Insignificatos Those are highly trained, elite troops who progress through the ranks on merit. China has a lot of poorly trained troops who progress through ranks by corrupt means.
@@UsuallyTrolling quantity isnt everything, which is why china has quanitty, quality, and literally everything but a US alliance over australia
“Australia is a fascinating continent”
Tell me RLL, are people more interested in the whole continent or the emus?
My vote is for the wombats
Kangaroos actually
Tasmanian devil
@@ChuckThree yummy
Don’t translate 😡
ເຈົ້າຖືກສາບແຊ່ງເພາະວ່າຖ້າເຈົ້າບໍ່ຝ່າຝືນຄຳສາບແຊ່ງ ເຈົ້າຈະຕາຍມີທາງດຽວທີ່ຈະທຳລາຍຄຳສາບແຊ່ງໄດ້ຄື ຈອງຄິວຈອງຕອນນີ້
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There's also a couple of other intelligence-gathering bases; the Defense Signals Directorate communications base in a deep valley just east of Geraldton & the Jindalee Over-The-Horizon radar base somewhere near Leonora, both in Western Australia.
You know for a super secret base, he sure does give precise coordinates to it!!!
everyone already knew about it anyway so...
Interesting to see that US base at Menwith Hill UK is also a communications facility and note their relative positions on our planet’s surface.
The UK base sucks up all communications in the northern hemisphere, whilst pine gap and the 1 at exmouth capture all communications in the southern hemisphere.
@Brian Beatty ex infantry signaller here 👊🏽
The geographical centre of Australia has a landmark which you can visit... it's called 'Lambert Centre of Australia' and it's actually about 5 hours away from Alice Springs. No U.S Military base there... I visited about 2 months ago. Pine Gap is only about 30 minutes from Alice Springs. It is in 'Central Australia', but it is NOT at the geographical centre of the country.
He's only 150 odd km out.
Always wanted to go to Lambert centre. Lived out that way for years. You know how it is, live in an area and never go to the points of interest!
"No U.S Military base there"
...
that you can see
@@dan7564 for real.
It's hardly top secret when there's been an internationally syndicated TV show about a fictional version of this base
Which needed to stop abruptly.
"Geostationary" and "Geosynchronous" technically refer to subtly different things, the former is a subset, of the latter; yet at several points in the video the terms are used as if they are synonyms. i.e. @6:50 - 7:10.
[GSO] Geosynchronous orbits, or rather "in sync with earth" orbits have a periodicity that matches Earth's rotation. In other words, to an observer on Earth's surface, an object in geosynchronous orbit will returns to exactly the same position in the sky each sidereal day. However, over the course of a day, a geosynchronous object's position in the sky is not necessarily stationary to an observer on Earth.
There are lots of geosynchronous orbits, with varied "inclination" (tilt or angle to earth's axis) from the equator to near the polar regions and varied "eccentricity" (shape and orbit position) even acutely elliptical and every wobbling.
A [GEO] Geostationary orbit, or rather "not moving with respect to earth" orbit is a special kind of "geosynchronous orbit, in addition to a periodicity that matches Earth's rotation, a geostationary orbit has a specific inclination of 0° directly over the equator and a specific eccentricity fixed and circular. In other words, to an observer on Earth's surface, an object in a geostationary orbit doesn't just return to the same place in the sky once each day, it always appears fixed in the same position in the sky.
E.g. See the image at @6:02, You can clearly see the ring of mostly GEO satellites around the equator. While any of the objects in the picture that are far from earth could be GSO satellites, however a keen eye will note a less dense band of objects that wrap a spherical halo of earth at the same distance as the GEO satellites (in this image it's most clear toward the bottom under the equatorial line) many of these objects will be or were GSO satellite, but many other will lie elsewhere too.
Not that any of that is super important to the thesis of the video which is quite good rather interesting anyway, 😆LOL "The more you know!" 🤓
Perhaps he did it on purpose so pedants like me would comment and increase engagement‽
Well said. I am inclined to think most folks reading your fine text probably do not know what a sidereal day is.Very basic.
Thanks for the explanation! How are the GEO satellites powered to keep their position above the earth?
1:48 He sounds like he is having the time of his life saying this sentence
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
I'd never heard of this before, and now that I have, I somehow feel like I know less about it.
Laf. Got a good chuckle from that one.
Drinking game: How often can he say "in the center of Australia"
As an Australian this kind of feels like an older and wealthier brother strategically setting up a desk space in the middle of your house so he can use your neighbours wifi.
😂😂😂 our internet is soooo bad. Better set up in South Korea 😂😂
7:43 You begin to wonder, with such an excellent satellite coverage, the MH370 is still remarkably difficult to find and went unmonitored.
There’s numerous types of satellite reconnaissance. Signals, imagery, etc.
They’re usually tasked with specific targets, or areas of responsibilities. Just because they can collect information from those satellite footprints, doesn’t meant it’s collecting from ever sq inch of the area 24/7/365.
There’s no reason to have imagery satellites pointlessly staring at the open ocean, for no tactical or strategic reason. That’s kind of a waste of that entire asset, and tens of millions of dollars satellite hardware.
Now…if we were in middle of a naval war, where there’s constant surveillance, and MH370 flew in the area, it could’ve gotten lucky and caught by a satellite. But as far as we know, this hasn’t happened.
Signals wise…I heard there were allegations that MH370s sat phone system picked up maintenance signals from being turned on and off? I forgot the name of the satellite phone company already. Who knows. We’ll find it the plane someday though. Probably by accident.
Some missing WW2 plane that crashed in the arctic, was just found this year or last. Also some ship that was sunk in WW2 was recently finally found as well.
@@Chuck8541 MH370's cockpit sat phone was checking in until it crashed, and by analysing the Doppler shift of the signal, they were able to figure out a rough area where the plane went down. Check it out, there are some good videos about it.
@@thelight3112 Yeah, I do remember that. But things haven’t planned out to find it so far.
Though, a few months ago I remember hearing about a new breakthrough in the analysis of those signals. Some British or Aussie guy (I forget which) found a new search area that was never looked at. I think they’re working on financing for a new search expedition at the moment. Fingers crossed they find it this time around.
Australia was the first nation to invent over the horizon radar and huge installations exist along Australia's western coast. "All of them" we're turned off the day MH370 went missing.
@@tdb7992 There is only one (at Laverton) and MH370 was flying outside the systems range for detecting aircraft. The original one in SA that could have detected MH370 was shut down in the 1970s
What a fucking clean transition into the sponsor of the video
I remember watching the evening news in the 1980’s as a kid here in Australia and seeing regular protests against the base being here, then when the Cold War ended, its presence was simply forgotten about…
We were reasonably successful in those protests.
They were "No nukes" protests.
That is why this video is not reporting it as a nuclear launch site.
Yeah, the hippies moved onto other things.
Funny tho. People move on to other faddish things, yet the mission there continues to this day, unabated.
@@Chuck8541 No.. it doesn't.
The mission was to make it a nuclear launch site.
The alternative missions still persist.
@@yt.personal.identification
>”nuclear weapons bad”
>”spying on your own people, good”
@@yt.personal.identification australians arent allowed below level 3 so it very well may have nukes.
My mate worked at Pine Gap for a while. He said, "you know those guys in white lab coats who get shot when James Bond enters a facility? I'm one of those guys."
😂😂😂
It sits in the geographic centre of
Australia and has 360°coverage to
intercept ALL digital information sent
and recieved by everyone in all states.
The video explained the coverage is all of Eurasia and Africa. Excluding Ireland and the tip of West Africa.
@@overworlder sure it is……
@@mvfc7637 - and you know what you're talking about because . . .
@@overworlderit’s an open secret that these facilities are intercept all civilian communications traffic so as to help better spy on their own people.
@@mvfc7637 - Yawn. I hope they’re intercepting you.
Had a very interesting chat with Andrew Farriss from INXS regarding the filming of the video clip for the song 'Falling Down the Mountain' from the 1985 album 'Listen Like Thieves'. It was filmed in the desert and on a salt pan 1 hours flight in a small aircraft chartered from Broken Hill. To this day he still doesn't fully understand what happened, but they landed at a suitable site for the clip they envisaged to be filmed - awesome clip mind you - the boys were all in their 20's. They landed where they could, no airstrip, in the middle of absolutely nowhere - deep outback......................when they were unloading the plane a US military vehicle comes out of nowhere and they get accosted by US military personnel in 'pristine uniform', grilling them about what they were doing there......................
Damn that's a cool story. Wikipedia says that music video was filmed in Coober Pedy, South Australia so about 6 hours from Alice Springs.
How did you know Andrew?
@@Demo98765 no,Wikipedia is wrong, it was a one hour flight from Broken Hill. I know Andrew personally.
Still a mystery to him - nowhere near Pine Gap, or Woomera etc
I would have told them to eff off & what are you seppos (septic tanks, yanks) doing here?
Wow! I just heard about Pine Gap and Project Rainfall yesterday, while watching a, australian science fiction movie ('Occupation: Rainfall', sequel to the much more interesting 'Occupation'). Since it was a pretty wild-senario science fiction movie, I didn't think that there would be such places for real ...
Pine Gap is well known in Australia, just like everyone knows about area 51 in the US...
Area 51???
Pine Gap is a joint intelligence signal gathering base (hence the signs that say Joint Defence Base). Hosting both US CIA and Australian ASD (and some ASIS).
It is PARTLY run by the US, not fully run. So i don't know why you keep talking about this base in AUSTRALIA as if it's all for the US, and Australia does nothing with it
This comment makes no sense? RAAF runs surveillance teams, normally based up in Queensland monitoring Asia. Pine Gap is a 5 eyes Base run by USA, we publicly know it records every satellite phone call. We also know the Australian government has asked ISP to record data logs for National security, but its been blocked many times in the old ADSL/ADSL2 era. now we have NBN, may be happening.
Australians do fuck all inside the actual building
Mate let me tell you how the Western world works since you obviously are unaware: The USA does everything and tells everyone what to do, and they listen. Australia and UK are just pawns for the USA and NATO
It's referred to as the eye's and ear's of the US defence force because that's what it is - They searched every where in the world at the end of WW2 to find a place where you could receive electronic signals 24/7 and that's why it's there - Yet if you go 100 klm in any direction from it you won't get a signal because of all the iron ore
In Australia we are well aware that it is a yankee base, and would be happy if they f*cked off and took it with them
There is another base 400km south of Pine Gap. It's Australia's area 51 as their are many who have seen unidentified within the skies around Pine Gap. For the record the transmission of The Apollo mission to the moon was relayed to Houston from an Australian radio telescope station in Parkes. The base 400km south of Pine Gap is also off-limits and has been there since the early 1970's.
Nearly everybody who identifies as "Australian" have known for most of our lives about Pine Gap. A large proportion of us view it with some suspicion.
I'm an American who's been here for over a decade and yes Pine Gap is as known as Area 51. People should talk more about all the UK nuclear tests that took place from 1956 - 1963, hardly anyone talks about it and the most I've heard someone speak about it is was when I was travelling to kings canyon from Uluru.
Nearly everybody who identifies as "Australian" have known for most of our lives about Pine Gap. A very small proportion of lefty / green / hippy/ commies / social misfits view it with some suspicion.
@@johndonaldson3619 I live here, I don't care how suspicious you are. What's more is there is nothing these days that could identify as a commie.
@@Cneq Yep, we Australians aren't too impressed with being used as a nuclear test bed either. It was typical of the government of the day. You'd think they would consider the wants and needs of the Australian people, obviously not.
@@stevelawrie9115 put you tin foil hat on and go hide in the bedroom ....or you might get too scared!!!
Not gonna lie I learned about it thru the Netflix show. Pretty good show!
Bummed no season2
My dad worked there for a few years. We lived in Alice Springs, the locals all knew about the secret base.
it is not a secret, everyone in Australia has known about this for decades
I lived in Alice for many years, Im an American by the way, Pine Gap is NORAD of the Southern Hemisphere... not that secret, but as with any US military base, you cant go there without a reason... its not like its area 51 though
"Exists a surprising and relatively unknown secret..."
Everyone here knows about Pine Gap lmao!
Unknown outside of Australia. In Australia, unless you are really young, or a recent immigrant, or just never consumer news, you know about Pine Gap.