The Secrets Of Woomera

WOOMERA is one of the biggest rocket ranges in the world—perhaps the biggest. It runs from South Australia northwest across the Australian continent for about 1,250 miles to the Indian Ocean. It then goes a further 1,200 miles across the Indian Ocean to Christmas Island. The land section of the range is indicated on this map, the shaded parts being prohibited areas under the operational control of the rocket authorities. Woomera started building in 1947 and fired its first rockets in 1949, with Britain and Australia sharing the cost. Australia has spent something like £l2O million and the cost to Britain has been greater. In the 1950’s the Americans became interested in Woomera for space research and they, too, poured money into equipment there, which Australia also uses for its own experiments, so today Woomera is the most advanced space research centre of its kind on earth. The answers to just how Woomera was planned and built, how it works and what it does, are to be found in Rockets in the Desert, a well illustrated volume by Ivan Southall designed for younger readers, but of interest to all. It is published by Angus and Robertson for 25/-. The map above is one of the illustrations from the book.