Eldo Hotel Woomera: In the Outback region of South Australia

There was a time, a generation ago, when the searing heat of the South Australian outback played a part in the cold war. "This road to nowhere does in fact lead somewhere - it leads to Woomera and along this highway Australia is today making the greatest scientific strides in its history. At Woomera, a town named after a primitive Aboriginal launching device, the British Military tested the most sophisticated weapons of mass destruction. Prototypes for intercontinental ballistic missiles were fired into the gibber desert. The British and Australian Governments created a town in the middle of the outback, which became the testing ground for the Long Range Weapons Research Department at Salisbury. By the early 1950s there were over 3000 people living in a town they weren't allowed to tell anyone about - let alone take a snapshot of. The sensitive work was designed to create missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons from Britain to Moscow. "This was the firing line of Project Menace, the flat path of a weapon that could carry a five tonne atomic warhead from one continent to another."

In 1958 the largest rocket to date "Black Knight" was to be built and launched, but it was to be dwarfed by "Blue Streak" which was 21 metres tall more than twice the size of "Black Knight". It never happened. On April 13th 1960 the British cancelled the project and ended its rocket testing - 13 years after it was lit up - the desert around Woomera looked like going dark. When the British stopped testing missiles at Woomera in the late 60s, a group of European nations moved in to begin testing satellite technology. They called themselves the European Launcher Development Organisation or ELDO. They built this complex for their workers , 260 odd rooms plus facilities and when Woomera was decommissioned, the ELDO mess became the ELDO Hotel. It remains one of the largest hotels in outback South Australia." The ELDO rooms have been renovated since the 1960s and are now air-conditioned rooms with en-suites. The buildings are named after the second stage of testing that saved the town - Satellite Technology. It reached its height on November 29th 1967 when a 21 metre tall white rocket blasted into the outback sky. With it went the WRESAT Satellite, Australian designed and built, and it made us the fourth nation in the world after the Soviets, Americans and French to launch a satellite.

What bits of WRESAT that fell to earth were found in the Simpson Desert 23 years later and now they are a key display in the Woomera Heritage Centre. This Museum chronicles the glory days of the town when Woomera was making news across the world. Many things that no one would dare speak of 30 years ago are now on display, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand it all. Outside the heritage centre is what looks like a playground designed for kids who grew up watching "Lost In Space". In fact its another museum made up of things like a "Jindivik" - a pilotless aircraft used as targets - 13 Jindiviks were destroyed while testing what were called "seaslugs" - surface to air anti-aircraft missiles built in 1947 that originally used kerosene and nitric acid as fuel.

In the year of 1970 the American satellite tracking station of Nurrunga commenced operation. This was a top secret base that was strictly off limits yet because of its operation the town of Woomera housed the thousands of US Servicemen working at the base. The Americans regenerated the town and added a lot of modern facilities which the current residents are able to enjoy today.

The Nurrunga Base closed in March 2002, and the American servicemen and their families left, yet just when it seamed that the town had a bleak future a British company, BAE Systems stepped in. BAE have taken a 10 year lease of Woomera and the rocket range and in a new partnership with the Australian Defence Department will operate the range for the testing of military and civilian rockets. Such as the next generation of Concord airplanes being tested by the NEXST team from Japan, and the first successful SCRAM jet tested by the University of Queeensland in July 2002. On another level in 2002 Woomera became infamous with news stories regarding the detention centre for illegal immigrants. Thus the unique town of Woomera continues to build on a fascinating history . The Heritage Centre is open 7 days per week and entry to the museum will cost $3 per person. The Outback Café is also open 7 days a week and you can relax and have a cappuccino and lunch for a very reasonable price in air conditioned comfort.

Accommodation at the Eldo Hotel starts at $66 per room, and $77 for an ensuite room. The rooms that have shared bathroom facilities are the same rooms that the rocket technicians once live in, so it’s a step back in time and reliving history. Woomera is a good five hour drive from Adelaide. For more information you can phone the Hotel on 61 (0)8 8673 7867 or email us at woomeraeurest@bigpond.com