Adelaide That Was 1950s: WRE Salisbury & Guided Weapons Testing in Woomera
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- The RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC) is a major Australian military and civil aerospace facility and operation located in South Australia, approximately 450 km north-west of Adelaide. The WRC is operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), a division of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The complex has a land area of 122,188 km2 or roughly the size of North Korea or Pennsylvania. The airspace above the area is restricted and controlled by the RAAF for safety and security. The WRC is a highly specialised ADF test and evaluation capability operated by the RAAF for the purposes of testing defence materiel. The complex has been variously known as the Anglo-Australian Long Range Weapons Establishment and then the Woomera Rocket Range; the RAAF Woomera Test Range and in 2013, the facility was reorganised and renamed to the RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC). The ground area of the WRC is defined by the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) and includes the Nurrungar Test Area (NTA); with a land area of 122,188 km2, the WPA is described by the RAAF as the largest land-based test range in the western world. The Woomera Prohibited Area Coordination Office (WPACO) coordinates daily operation of the complex which comprises a mix of South Australian crown land and is covered by pastoral leases and mining tenements granted by the Government of South Australia. The Woomera Prohibited Area Advisory Board monitors the operations of the WPA and the WPACO. The airspace above the WPA is called the Woomera Restricted Airspace (WRX) and is controlled by the RAAF for safety and security reasons during the conduct of some activities on the complex together with the support of Air Services Australia. The complex also contains the RAAF Base Woomera, or the RAAF Woomera Airfield, the dual-runway military airfield located 3 NM north of the settlement of the Woomera Village. The airfield has been in military operation since an RAF Dakota landed at Woomera on 19 June 1947.
Woomera, unofficially known as Woomera village, is located on the traditional lands of the Kokatha people in the Far North region. The dunes and trees are considered sacred to the Kokatha people, being linked to their Tjukurpa (Dreaming) stories, in particular that of the Seven Sisters creation story. In 2021, an anti-aircraft missile was found at Lake Hart West, a registered Aboriginal heritage site and this was not removed for around a year. Within the prohibited area, there is also a "red zone" which is used for the most intensive weapons testing and for which access permits are not generally issued, and this area is supposed to be cleaned by the Department of Defence and the trees protected when testing is under way. However, a 2022 inspection by SBS News reporters and Kokatha representatives found that there were shell fragments of carbon fibre on the dunes around the site. There are also a number of significant and rare archaeological sites which are remnants of previous Kokatha habitation within the weapons testing range. There are at least 14 separate stone foundations at Lake Hart North (not used by the department), which the archaeologists surmised were either "habitation structures" or "low-walled hunting hides". At another location, Wild Dog Creek, there are a number of rock engravings in the Panaramitee Style (generally dated to 10,000 years ago), created by chipping away the rock with sharp tools. Other Aboriginal Australian rock art exists throughout the area, including at Lake Hart, portraying, among other things, footprints which match the Genyornis, a giant bird that went extinct thousands of years ago. The report states that the location was likely "inhabited and used for many thousands of years", informally dated to up to 50,000 years ago, and the sites could provide hitherto unknown cultural information about the Australian desert area. Following its construction over 1947-53, Woomera Village essentially operated under a specialised Commonwealth/Defence township management model rather than a local government (council) model. At the height of its operations (1947-99), over 7,000 people lived in Woomera Village. To service the needs of the town during this period, the Woomera Board, staffed by members of the Defence community, essentially acted in the role normally provided by a local government council. However, the creation of a Defence Estate management organisation in the 1990s shifted the focus of the Board's activities away from estate and infrastructure management toward principally that of a base welfare organisation supporting the small permanent community and the large number of transit Defence personnel who deploy to Woomera each year. Woomera Village, when originally established, was administered by the Long Range Weapons Establishment (LRWE) under the terms of the 'Anglo-Australian Joint Project'. LRWE was based at Salisbury to the north of Adelaide city, the site now occupied by Defence Science & Technology Group (DSTG).
Thank you for watching. For more Elizabeth (and Adelaide) That Was, please Like this video, leave a comment and Subscribe. Cheers, Will 🙏🍷
Catching up with more of your videos! I am an Elizabeth original and was present at the opening in 1955 but only two and a half at the time! Lived in Eliz South at first then one of the first families in the Vale in the early sixties. You may recall my post about Moya Pyper a couple of years ago. She is a close friend of my sister Jane. I only retired last year at 69 from the Department of Defence. Was with British Aerospace in the early eighties. I always remember when WRE were testing rocket motors in the 60s and 70s. You would hear this massive roar of the motors easily in the South, East and Grove. I myself worked on Rapier missile systems at BAe. and attended firings at Port Wakefield proof range (which I was later Business Systems Manager of for 7 years!). Your videos are a great reminder of my past as I remember many of the Elizabeth milestones you have shown. My father is in a picture from one of the videos (APEX Club member) and we were always attending events with the Yorkshiremen's Society of Elizabeth as our family came from Yorkshire. My mother (at 96) is the only surviving foundation member of the Elizabeth Women's Bowling Club and is a Centrals Life member after many years on the Women's Auxiliary, a few as president. Dad was a Centrals Vice President for a few years. We were not 10 pound poms. Dad was an architect for the Commonwealth and our travel and accommodation was funded by them. As a favour to a local kindergarten group, Dad designed their kindergarten building on Goodman Road (gone now I think). So many memories some good, some less so.....
Wow. What a great share mate. I would love to have been there then, when you could hear the rocket testing. And how quiet it would have been at night, with all the night sky lit up with stars. Quite amazing. I was born in 1970 - grew up in Smithfield Plains. Back then there was no Andrew's Farm, just miles of creek and paddocks with a few farms here and there. It was a great big playground for us kids - cubby and tree houses, lizard hunting. I hope your Mother is in good health. 96 is a great innings. She must have some stories to tell
Great Video Will Pretty sure that at 3.50 that is my fathers Green VW with sunvisor checking into the WRE Gate. He worked in the area for years until retirement on or about 1981.Not too many put that particular Visor onto the VW.Many memories of that area and era. thanks Will.
Wow. Very cool Roy! Love it
Does anyone know when this was filmed?
My father was an aeronautical engineer {with GE)who worked on the weapons and my mother analysed the films. They could be in this film, but I'm not sure anyone pictured were my parents. I would be surprised to see my father. He was pretty high up on the food chain, he ended up working on the space shuttle and was the Australasian rep for NASA. So proud of him. But my mother? She may be on this film. Would love to see her again.
Thank you so much for this. It means a lot to me, and a lot of other people I can see appreciate it. I was not born when they were there. I have wonderful memories of the NASA days. But this seems more precious. This is where my British parents fell in love with Australia.
Hello Edwina. This was filmed around 1957. Glad you enjoyed it. Sounds like your parents lived a great life :-)
@@elizabeththatwas thank you so much! They were there in 57! So wonderful! Thank you again. I will be watching a few more times. They were wonderful parents. ❤️
Hi mate amazing footage I remember driving past the WRC in the 80s and 90s.Also my band at the time sometimes would get gigs at the air base. You used to be able to drive through the road that took you past WRC and the air base as a short cut to Salisbury. One day while driving through I saw something on the side of the road near the fence. It looked like the small head off a missile 🚀but it was hollow with nothing inside thank goodness. You don't tent to think about things that can blow you up💥 when your young. Anyway I took it home and had it for years and then one day someone told me it was part of a test missile and they used to leave them around all over the place. Thanks again for the memories your doing excellent work.👍
Wow - yes I remember that short cut as a kid too. Didn't realise it was the WRC we were driving past at the time though. Too young. You're very welcome mate 🙏
Some of this footage may have been shot by my father, who was with the photography unit at Woomera for a few years in the late 50's - early 60's, before transferring to WRE and sonar research.
Very cool :-)
Thankyou Will. I love watching these. I can remember being a little girl, sitting in the lounge room watching the moon landing in b/W. and watching alot of docos of Woomera. Wasn't there also a shooting range out there? A rifle range? Maybe I'm thinking of somewhere else. 👋💚
My pleasure. Not sure about the shooting range, but very likely. It was it's own self-contained community. Much about it is still secret today. I bet there are some pretty crazy stories to be told
Yes. The Army had a range, for sure.
Woomera in 1957 would have had some interesting missile-testing and rocket-testing activities going on, to be sure.
Thanks for putting this up. A real nostalgia trip: MCMLVII: 1957: Those were the days!
My pleasure. Thank you for watching :-)
Back in the day when money was no object and the accountants hadn’t gained control.
I worked at WRE as a scientist.
Very cool Michael. That must have been quite a unique time and experience mate. Thank you for sharing :-)
No, thank YOU for the clip!
I met and befriended a handful of the people in the film.@@elizabeththatwas
That was very interesting
Glad you liked it Stuart. Cheers for watching mate 🙏🍷
I always love you videos mate keep them coming
It would be good to get some of Len beadell footage of his exploits in the bush with his team of eight men and a dog and earthmoving equipment building over 5000 km of roads in outback s.a and w.a he Len surveyed Woomera and was sent by the British imperial forces to find a place to drop the atomic bomb.he was n.s.w born and bred and married and lived with family in salisbury.the Len beadel library is named after him in Salisbury. Saw black and white reel footage as a kid in Salisbury at the Scout Hall. I'm 52 now. Geese must of been 40 years ago and Len was at movie night. Cool reel footage and his book is a must read "Outback highways the gunbarrel highway story and many more" by Len beadell👍
Cool. Thank you Jamie. I will see if I can unearth any footage of him. UA-cam is a marvelous place. Never know what you might find 😀
@@elizabeththatwas hard to find reel footage converted to UA-cam only tourist doing vids driving his roads.might have to go to library and dig out old reel footage I reckon. Worth it!
It ain't rural anymore lots of houses now out here
'Out here?' Do you live in the area Lachlan?
After the 70’s introduced entitlement to the western world, working one’s way became a forgotten responsibility. Therein lies the planting of today’s (2023) economic collapse. The larder is empty. Hard times have fallen, hard work for all is upon us. Don’t cry children: time to grow up.