Blog 356 Part 1 – Woomera Rocket Range, Part of Australia’s Forgotten History – Blog Written 13 June 2026

Blog 356 Part 1 – Australia's Lost History: Woomera Rocket Centre – Blog Written 13 June 2026

Most people and most of my fellow Australians know nothing about the pivotal role Australia played in the development of the Space Program after WW 2.  

Most Australians have never heard of Len Beadell either.  

Len is one of the many heroes who helped defeat the Imperial Japanese Army in Papua New Guinea.  When WW 2 ended, Len was asked by the Australian government to use his skills as a surveyor to map and build roads across the vast, unknown inland of Australia.

Len was also asked by the government to identify a site where space rockets could be tested and launched by the British government.  The site he identified was Woomera.  Woomera became one of the major places in the world where space research and rocket launches were carried out.

Most Australians do not know that their own country helped pioneered satellite communications. 

I took this photo in March 2006 at Woomera Village, South Australia.  It records that Australia was the fourth country in the world to launch a space satellite.  The only countries that launched satellites before Australia were the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (a country that no longer exists), France and the United States of America.  Although Australia constructed Woomera at the request of the British government, Australia launched a satellite before Britain ever did.

****

I took this photo of Woomera Village on Sunday 12 March 2006.  I went for a walk around the village and took this photo within the village area itself.  Woomera is surrounded by the Woomera Prohibited Area.  This photo was not taken from within the Prohibited Area.

****

This photo of Len Beadell is copied from the website Len Beadell Publications https://www.lenbeadell.com.au.   I strongly encourage you to visit the Len Beadell Publications website.

****

In my last Blog, I gave my personal definition of a hero. I said:

“A hero is someone who is the complete opposite of a Rogue.

A hero is someone who keeps going no matter how impossible it is to keep going.

A hero is someone who never – unless death stops him - breaks his word.”

****

Like my friend Juan Acosta Paredes, Len Beadell was one of those magical people who you instantly recognise as a hero.  When we meet people like Juan, we know instinctively that the world is a much better place than we sometimes imagine it to be.

I wish I had the opportunity to meet Len Beadell.

****

This abandoned rocket launching pad was still in pretty good shape in March 2006.  The rocket was placed on top of the structure and launched from there. John Hankin Photo 2006.  This photo was taken from within the Woomera Prohibited Area and it was taken with permission from the relevant authorities.

This shows the bottom part of the rocket launch gantry.  The flames from the bottom of the rocket at the moment of launch were directed downwards.  Anyone stupid enough to stand in this area when a rocket launched, would have become instant barbecue meat.  The bush growing in the middle of the ramp showed very clearly that it had been many years since the last launch from this gantry when I took this photo in March 2006.

This photo was taken from within the Woomera Prohibited Area and it was taken with permission from the relevant authorities.

I took this photo while looking up from the bottom of the rocket gantry shown in the last photo.  The rocket straddled the circular hole in the thick concrete and the flames from the rocket exhaust were directed downwards.  This photo cannot give any real idea of the scale of the launch gantry.  It was huge.

This photo was taken from within the Woomera Prohibited Area and it was taken with permission from the relevant authorities.

****

The website https://www.defence.gov.au/bases-locations/sa/woomera/about uses the usual bland bunch of words to describe Wommera’s history, but the excitement of Woomera’s history can be detected despite the government double speak nonsense.  This is from that website.

Following the advances in military technology of World War II, Australia and the United Kingdom formed the Anglo-Australia Joint Project in 1946. The centrepiece of the project was the establishment of a long-range weapons testing facility at Woomera. The area was declared a Prohibited Area in 1947 and the first military trial took place in December 1947. From 1957, Woomera became a global focal point for space activity, including being chosen as the launch point for the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO). At the height of its space activity, Woomera had the second highest number of rocket launches in the world after NASA’s facilities at Cape Canaveral in Florida. At its largest point, the Woomera Prohibited Area encompassed 270,000 square kilometres, more than twice its current size. The WPA today encompasses an area of 122,000 square kilometres in South Australia, about 450 kilometres north-west of Adelaide. At approximately the size of England, it remains the largest land-based test range in the Western world. While the end of the Cold War marked a dip in Defence use of the WPA, its importance for test and evaluation has steadily increased since the late 1990s.

I still remember the excitement that rippled through my school classroom in the 1960s when the teacher announced that another Blue Streak Rocket had been launched from Woomera.  I had no idea what the name might mean, but I sure as Hell felt so proud that my country was a very active player in the opening up of Space.

To be continued …