Rocket Town

As a complete change from fantastical salt lake landscapes, we went to Woomera, an isolated Outback town known for its rocket launching history from the 1960s onwards. The town provides for the Australian Defence Force, and its centre has a display of satellite launching rocket wreckage salvaged from the Simpson desert, mobile radar stations, warplanes, surface to air missiles, and more rocketry now obsolete.

Thousands of square kilometres around the town are defence force land, off limits to the general public, and still used for military weaponry testing.


Just outside town is the cemetery where a monument to Len Beadell and his wife stands. Len was an amazing surveyor, bushie, mechanic and humorous character who built a network of bush tracks for the government across 1000s of kms in this remote wilderness. His books relate the extraordinary work involved in atrocious conditions with a marvellous, self-deprecating humour. Good on yer, Len. Rest in Peace.