"WOOMERA" ... A Place In The Outback ...

...No, it's not a Big Lipstick...it's a replica Rocket on display at a town in the Outback of South Australia where I once lived for a year when I was 13, and I later went on to the City to College.and this was my time of Reeealy Growing Up!!!.

...The meaning of 'Woomera' : It's a wooden Australian Aboriginal spear-throwing device for hunting - therefore, that is how the name came about for this unusual place where I lived..and I guess only Aussies would have heard of it now...

...I must say I did love going to school there for the year of 1957, but it meant ofcourse I had to board with people I didn't know, and had to grow up very quickly, leave my family, friends and pets behind including my fox..

...You see upon the suggestions of the Respiratory specialists of the day -I was sent right into the Outback where the climate was dry due to the seriousness of the asthma I suffered so badly..I became so well, so quickly and even excelled at sport, sprinting mainly..and the only thing I have left from my year there is this School Badge (Green & Gold) and a Bookmark, and a School report..somewhere..400 children attended the school in those days and only approx. 400 people were in the whole town a few years ago apparently..according to a brochure I have..

...It is now a Tourist Town, but in those days of Secrets it certainly wasn't a tourist town, and it was established in 1947 as a Joint Project with the UK for testing experimental rockets and missiles of all types.. Later the range was the test and development centre for the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO)which designed and built the Europa series of Rockets between 1964 and 1970..

...By 2002, two Satellites were placed into orbit from Woomera, one of these was designed and built in Australia, and Australia was the fourth country in the world to launch it's own satellite after Russia, USA and France..I haven't kept up with its history these days, but it is very different now than it was then..

...Many times we children went on an excursion in a bus way out amongst the saltbush and waited for ages -just to see one of the rockets being launched - a Red Stone, aBlack Night, a Blue Streak, and a Skylark -I remember mostly..I wonder how many kids these days could say they saw a rocket being launched - during school hours..?

...I remember we had to travel a fair way out there and back.. and when we arrived at the place we 'could be' - the rocket appeared to me only about 2 inches high on the horizon..what was all the fuss about I used to think!! But off it went and disappeared and that was that, back into the old bus and off we'd go back to school again!! ... (that was, after a few of the boys were threatened to be let out on the way back if they didn't behave!!) ...

...It was a place of High Security in those days, one had to get a "Pass" (if you were older than 17) to pass through the gates, and so that was all new to me in those days..I thought I was pretty lucky not to have to go through all that at the gates..

...I did enjoy my time there, I could tell you many stories, of the time and of later on when the rockets were launched and went over one of the station properties when I was 16...and working for a while between jobs..
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..Sometimes the pieces landed on the Station property (One million acres of) and had to be retrieved by those from Woomera.. We had our own Air Raid Shelters on the station properties, and we had to go into there when the rockets were launched - (advance call(s) from Range Control)..all very serious stuff ofcourse..Many times the rockets were cancelled leaving some frustrated station people..who gave up after a while and continued going about their business...at the risk of being hit by falling debri from the rocket..

...The little map here shows you a bit of where Woomera is north of Pt. Augusta..

...Oh yes, an Education for lots of kids then - who lived in this unusual town with just one shop..I shall never forget my year there...