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The simple name;Woomera, generally refers to an iconic Australian 'town' located in South Australia's Far North region, approximately north of Adelaide, the capital of the State of South Australia. In reality, 'Woomera' also refers to the wider 'Woomera Range Complex' (WRC), a huge Defence systems testing range covering an area of approximately (roughly an area the size of England). Today, Woomera 'township' is in fact part of a new Australian Defence Force base (RAAF Base Woomera) which, along with the 'Woomera Test Range' (WTR), forms the larger entity known as the 'Woomera Range Complex' (WRC). The WRC is the latest name for this historic aerospace testing range and was promulgated by Chief of Air Force (CAF) in June 2014. RAAF Base Woomera came into existence on 12 January 2015, and No.20 (Woomera) Squadron, was officialy reformed as the WRC base combat support squadron at a ceremony at Woomera on 1st April 2015. Woomera Range Headquarters is the primary organisation which operates the facility on behalf of Chief of Air Force. Woomera 'Village' (as it has always been known as) is a Defence owned and operated facility. RAAF Base Woomera, when it was established in January 2015, also included the RAAF Woomera Aerodrome, which is approximately 6km north of Woomera Village. The aerodrome lies within the 'Red Zone' of the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) and public access to this part of the base is not permitted. Woomera Village, however, is within a 'Green Zone' area of the WPA and thus public access to the facilities and services of Woomera, including the serveral museums located in this historic site is permitted year round. Visitors may also stay in the Defence operated 'Eldo Hotel', and there is a privately-operated public caravan park at the entrance to Woomera Village. Woomera Village initially operated as a 'closed town' between 1947 and 1982, when the facility supported the operations of the Woomera Rocket Range during the Anglo-Australia Project. Since 1982, the general public has been able to visit and stay at Woomera. However, only Austalian Government personnel (mostly Defence)and contractors to the Commonwealth are able to live at Woomera on a permanent basis. The current permanent population of the town is 136 (2015).〔(ABS via local stats )〕 The Woomera Range was first established in 1947 as a Department of Defence rocket testing range.〔(Explore Australia Woomera )〕 Since its construction over 1947-53, Woomera Village has essentially operated under a specialised Commonwealth/Defence 'township' management model rather than a local government (council) model. At the height of its operations, over 7000 people lived in Woomera Village. To service the needs of the town during its heyday (1947-1999), the 'Woomera Board', staffed by members of the Defence community at Woomera 'elected' to the Board by town residents, essentially acted in the role normally provided by a local government council. However, the creation of a Defence Estate mangement organisation in the 1990s shifted the focus of the Board's activities away for estate and infratstructure management toward principally that of a base welfare organisation supporting the small permanent community and the large number of transit Defence personnel who deploy to Woomera each year. While the WRC operates under the higher management of Woomera Range Headquarters (WRHQ), located at RAAF Base Edinburgh, the operation of the Base itself is co-managed by the RAAF's Combat Support Group (CSG) and Defence Estate & Infrastructure Group (DEIG). CSG focus on the operational aspects of the base's role, while DEIG focuses on ensuring the base's (and the Range's) facilities and general infrastructure remains fit for the purpose it is needed to support the Range's activities. "Woomera Village" as it has been unofficially known since its establishment in 1947 has always been and continues to be the domestic support facility for the Woomera Test Range (formerly called "the Woomera Rocket Range"). The WPA covers an area of approximately 122,000 sqkms (as of November 2014) forms the essential ground area of the whole Range Complex. The Nurrungar Test Area (NTA) is 18km south of Woomera, and although not within the WPA, it is under the operational control of Woomera Range Headquarters in Adeldaide. 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 ballistic 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 the old instrumented range from Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO). Since that time, the RAAF has gradually assumed full control of the entire facility. The Range, today, is much smaller than it was in 1947, but still covers one-seventh of the State of South Australia. Although there are now several major mines established within the WPA, the Woomera support base is the only permanently established 'township' facility in the WPA. The WPA, which covers an area of just over 122,000 sqkm - or an area roughly one and half times the size of Scotland or similar in area to the US State of New York, is the world's largest land-based instrumented defence systems test and evaluation range facility.〔Area of WPA was recalculated by Defence in June 2013, pending new legislation, and reduced in size by 2000 sq km in November 2014 when Section 400 at Maralinga was officially excised from the WPA and handed back to the traditional owners. Note: The updated area is promulgated on the WPACO website〕 ==Overview== Officially, the village area is referred to as 'Base Sector South' of RAAF Base Woomera, and like the RAAF Base at Point Cook in Victoria, this part of the complex is open to public access. This is principally so that tourists can access the significant historical displays and museums which cover the range's air and space activities since its establishment in 1947. At the Woomera Heritage Centre, there are also displays covering the Indigenous and Pioneer heritage of the region. In particular, there is a dedicated section on Len Beadell who became something of an outback legend as an army surveyor (1947 - 1948) and road builder (1953 - 1963). There is also a memorial cairn for Len Beadell and his wife Anne in the nearby Woomera Cemetery. The base itself has around 136 permanent residents (2015), but its primary role is to provide the domestic and other support services needed for the operation of the Range(which may be up to an additional 500-700 personnel per day). Public visitors (estimated at in excess of 70,000 per annum: source: SA Tourism Regional Report 2008) generally find Woomera village to be a very quiet place. Principally this is due to the fact that the base is essentially the dinner, bed, and breakfast facility for range users, who then spend their day somewhere 'out on the Range'. For many years, that part of the Woomera Range Complex which is now the RAAF Woomera Test Range, was known as the Woomera Rocket Range. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Woomera Rocket Range was the second busiest rocket range in the world next to Cape Canaveral. Today the range embraces a much wider range of Defence systems technology and tactics testing and evaluation activities. In terms of space activities only a small number of sub-orbital sounding rocket tests are conducted. In June 2010, however, Woomera hosted the return of the Hayabusa Deep Space Probe. This was the first planned space re-entry to Australian soil and created another milestone for the Range (See (Woomera Test Range ) for more information). Woomera Village, when originally established, was administered by the Long Range Weapons Establishment (LRWE) under the terms of the 'Anglo-Australian Joint Project'. LRWE was based at Salisbury to the north of Adelaide city, the site now occupied by Defence Science & Technology Group (DSTG - formally 'DSTO'). When the Anglo-Australian Joint Project began to wind down in the early 1970s, the village population began to rapidly drop from its peak of about 7000 residents in the mid-1960s. However, with the establishment of the USAF/ADF Joint Defence Communications Facility in 1969 at the nearby Nurrungar site (approximately 18km south of Woomera), along with its 1100 permanent staff, the village population stabilized at around 4500 people (including around 800 children). In the late 1990s, as the Nurrungar program was winding down, the ADF reassessed the role of Woomera in its future force structure. What became apparent to the ADF at that time was that the Woomera Test Range was the only land-based test range left in the Western world capable of testing the next (or what is now termed '5th') generation of weapons systems within a fully instrumented, land-based, specialized (and evaluation ) range. This assessment was to result, positively, in redefining the future role and strategic importance of the Woomera Range Complex within Australia's long-term Defence requirements. Prior to this review, the RAAF's Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU), and in conjunction with the DSTO, had been continuing to utilize the former 'Range E' (instrumented) facility since 1991. In the mid-1990s, ARDU took over total management of the Range from the then DSTO but with the creation of Defence Estate, the administration of the Woomera Prohibited Area it self was handed back to Estate to manage, with RAAF only maintaining control over the defined Woomera Instrumented Test and Evaluation Range (formerly Range E and as the instrumented portion of the WPA was then known). Over the following ten years 1997-2007), the RAAF re-defined the purpose and operation of the range and, by 2007, Chief of Air Force had again assumed full command of the entire Woomera Test Range Complex (i.e. both the Range and the Base). Today the test range element of the Woomera Range Complex is used to evaluate an advanced range of defence systems including missiles, ordnance, aircraft, space technologies, and other Defence operated systems. The location of the Woomera Village can be described as being in the outback desert area of South Australia. It is approximately north-west of Adelaide〔 and is in the State region known as the Far North.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/6905/Far_North_SA_Government_region.pdf )〕 There are 27 pastoral stations within the Woomera Prohibited Area, which essentially forms the ground space of the Woomera Test Range, and there are currently four major mines (2013) - Challenger, Prominent Hill, Peculiar Knob, and Cairn Hill. There is also a long-established precious gems (mainly opal) field near the Coober Pedy end of the Stuart Highway which cuts through the middle of the Range. Access for on-going and non-Defence use of the WPA (e.g. minerals exploration, mining, and some tourism activities) is managed by the newly established (2010) Woomera Prohibited Area Coordination Office (WPACO). The WPA Coordination Office is based in Canberra and works closely with the RAAF operational managers of the Range to co-manage Defence's use of the WPA and the commercial recovery of what are described as 'vast natural resources' which lie under some parts of the WPA. Easements through the WPA allows public transit on the Trans-Australian Railway, the Central Australian Railway, the Stuart Highway, and the Coober Pedy-William Creek Road. However, from time to time, and for safety reasons, Defence is able to close access for short periods along these easements during the conduct of tests carried out by the WTR. Permits are required to use the Anne Beadell Highway. There are a considerable number of warning signs across the range and on public access roads throughout the WPA warning travelers not to leave those routes without the permission of the Department of Defence. Since the beginning of 2012, the RAAF has also established, in conjunction with the South Australian Police, regular patrols of all roads and sites across the WPA to ensure public safety, particularly during periods when Range activities necessitate the closure of public access roadways and other easements (such at the main trunk railway line to Darwin). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Woomera, South Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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