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Today we’ll be continuing the long slog south through outback South Australia, this time 375 kilometres to the small outback town of Woomera.
We know they like opal mining out here, but it seems that's not the only thing worth digging up in this vast empty landscape. We pass a sign to the perhaps slightly quirkily named Peculiar Knob Mine, which we read is the source of some of the highest grade iron ore in the entire country.
I thought Woomera was just a regular town, but it looks like it’s actually an Air Force base, which I guess could be a sort of a town. It’s all very military looking - identical style houses and two storey apartment blocks straight out of the 1950s. We’ve booked ourselves into the Eldo Hotel which sounded like a good colloquial Aussie name …. or it did until we learn that that stands for European Launcher Development Organisation. Hmmm. Yep, of course, the Woomera Prohibited Area; they’ve launched more rockets from here than anywhere on the planet other than NASA bases. And they’re not about to let you forget - there’s a disused rocket on almost every corner … well we hope
they’re disused. The names of the handful of streets here include Boori, Borral, Booren, Booromi, Boorong, Burrimul and Barree Streets, which should be suitably confusing for the invading forces. I hope that was the plan.
The very serious looking drill sergeant type lady at reception gives us the key to our room, but with strict instructions not to go anywhere near it before 1400 hours sharp, on pain of death, well perhaps not quite, but I’m sure a quick court martial wouldn’t be out of the question. We assume our room will be near reception, but no, it seems the “rooms” are in barracks spread out all over town. We‘re in cell block 43, and it doesn't look like it’s been touched since they first started spraying rockets around out here back in the 1950s. But it’s OK, we’re on a base that’s part of the nation’s super hi-tech missile defence system … so why exactly does the wifi seem to have gone AWOL, or rather never bothered to turn up in the first place. Hopefully we don’t come under attack any time soon.
We very much suspect that the hotel’s “rooms” are just any military quarters around
town that happen to be unoccupied at the moment. We’re used to signs on the backs of hotel doors telling us what to do if there’s a fire, but they’ve upped the ante a bit here. It seems we need to be ready to respond to a “Base Audible Alert System (BAAS)” drill, which could happen at any time, without warning. If it’s a “lock-down” drill we need to secure all our doors and windows, pull down the blinds, and stay silent and out of sight … because we’re under attack … probably from the Russians. Hmmmm.
I head out to the Lake Hart salt pan to take some happy snaps of the sunset, then it‘s off to the mess hall to get our rations. Drawings on the mess hall wall suggest that the very same Lake Hart used to be the site of a very serious looking rocket launcher; I doubt that would have done much to enhance the view.
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