After rain threatening all day Friday, with very little falling in Port Augusta, we awoke on Saturday morning to raindrops on the caravan.  I don't think the fall was all that significant, but I'm sure whatever was in the gauge, would be very welcome.  Eyre Peninsula did have falls of 20 ml on Friday.  There were still intermittent showers when we left at 9.00am, but the rain did not go very far north.  The 'Australian Arid Botanic Gardens' are on the Stuart Highway, on the edge of Port Augusta.  Another time we will have to visit the gardens.  The weather on Friday was not for walking around arid gardens, especially seeing Peter had a head cold.  The countryside certainly became very arid, very quickly! It was our plan to go as far as Woomera today and we arrived in the somewhat desolate town around lunchtime.  Rather than book into the Caravan Park we decided to go to the Museum and Information Centre first.  Proved to be a good decision!  There are two Museum's, but one is only open Monday to Friday.   That Museum is operated by volunteers.  Looking through the window, I'm not sure that we would have seen or learnt anymore about Woomera if it had been open!  The Information Centre had a major upgrade in 2005 and the name now includes 'Heritage'.  It is in the 'Oasis Centre' that was built by the Americans in the early 1990's.  There is also a six lane ten pin bowling alley, that visitors can use for a small charge.  The 'Heritage Centre' provided a very good overview of the history of the 'Woomera Rocket Range' as the locals call it.  'Woomera' is an Aboriginal word which means 'spear-launcher'.   There are lots of rockets and missiles to walk around and photograph.  It was interesting to see a map of the area that was used for the research.  The designated launch area goes right across to Broome.  Len Beadell spent over 40 years surveying roads across the deserts for the Woomera project.  He received many awards before his death in 1995.  There is a great deal of info on the gentleman at the 'Heritage Centre'.   The Australian and British Governments established the town in 1946 for missile research.  It became a cosmopolitan centre very quickly.  The Range was first established in support of the 'Anglo-Australian Joint Project'. This 'cold-war' project focussed on the development of long-range weapons systems, principally to counter the growing intercontinental missile threat from the former Soviet Union. The 'cold-war' heyday of the Range was 1947 to about 1972. In 1980 the Anglo-Australia Project was closed and the range itself saw little use until about 1991 when the RAAF's Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU) took over.  Since that time, the RAAF has gradually assumed full control of the entire facility.  Now it is used for evaluation of civilian and military missile and aerospace systems.  Other countries can also apply to undertake research at the site.  In 2004/05 the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, conducted successful advanced Super-Sonic research at Woomera.The Range still covers one-seventh of the State of South Australia.   An area of 124,000 square kilometres.  It helps to put this area into perspective, when one learns it is one and a half times the size of Scotland.  Although there are now several major mines established within the 'Woomera Prohibited Area', the 'Woomera Support Base' is the only permanently established 'township' facility in the WPA. It is the world's largest land-based instrumented, defence systems test and evaluation range facilty.  The first Australian satellite was also launched from Woomera in 1967.  Over the years the population of the town has fluctuated and it is said that in 2003 the population became stable at 400.  The homes are not privately owned, they are leased to various agencies.  There were a large number of homes, that looked like they had not been lived in for sometime.  There is quite a large area school though, and many sporting facilities.  In 1999 a detention centre was built on the edge of the town for 'the boat people'.  It was not a happy place.  It was overcrowded and there were many riots.   In 2002 it was closed.The info says:  The range is the key to the future. It will continue to be a crucial site for leading edge projects in astronomy, space exploration and weapon testing.  In addition, its great potential for education and tourism is only now beginning to be tapped.  The exhibition is just a starting point for those wishing to discover more about a global project, run from a village on the edge of the desert.There was little information about British Nuclear tests at Maralinga.  The internet says seven tests were performed with yields between the range of 1 and 27 kilometres.  Two of them were major tests.  The site was used for hundreds of minor trials.  The Maralinga tests were subject to extreme secrecy.  In 2000, $108 million was spent on another recommended cleanup.  Some of the 'Heritage Site' information said that the Department did their best to remove the aborigines from the area when testing was to be undertaken, but not always were they successful.  My research has also found that $13.5 million compensation was paid by the Australian Government to the Maralinga Tjarutja people in 1994.Peter's Aunt and Uncle (Evelyn's sister and her husband) were both in the airforce and were posted to Woomera in the early 1950's.  Both died with cancer, so it does make you wonder.  Mind you they also smoked heavily.  I was really interested to find out more about the Woomera site as I had read a few newspaper articles at the Ceduna Museum.  By the time we had finished reading and snapping photos of all the rockets etc, that have been placed over quite a large area, it was still only 2.00pm.   So we decided to continue up the highway.  We picked out a free camp spot that had reasonable reviews on Wiki Camps and arrived there about 4.30pm.  We became the 9th camper in the area.  No internet coverage but there was an emergency phone.  We are in the 'Australian Outback' now and all the signs tell you so!  So no air-conditioner to warm up the caravan, no TV and no internet!  I downloaded some photos from the camera and thought about starting the blog on the iPad.  Then decided, bed was the warmest place.  So I was in bed before 8pm reading a book!  This free camping is certainly different!

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