Found Woomera Caravan Park and once sorted we did a drive through the village to the National Aerospace and Missile Park located in the centre of the village with a display of missile and rockets that were developed over the last 60 years as well as a number of aircraft which were used in trials.
In common usage "Woomera" also refers to the wider RAAF Woomera Range Complex, Australian Defence Force Aerospace and the testing range covering an area approximately 122,000 square kilometres.
Construction of Woomera Village began in mid 1947 to cater for the thousands of people moving there as part of the Anglo-Australian Project, this bought people from Britain, France, Italy, USA, Norway and Germany. The project lasted 34 years and was one of the most secret allied establishment in operation during the Cold War with it's population reaching 7,000, today it varies between 150 and 200 people. Between 1947 and 1982 Woomera was a "closed town", since then the general public have been able to visit and stay.
Thursday was Anzac Day, we attended the Dawn Service and the guy running the service announced at the end that the RSL was open for breakfast for a gold coin donation. We decided this would be a good idea, so off we went following the crowd. We had to start with tea, coffee and Anzac biscuits to and were looking for a seat when a woman said "come and join us" and after such a warm welcome we did. We got on pretty well with the group sitting at the table, the usual swapping stories where did you come from where have you been, and had a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, snags, hash browns, toast, mushroom gravy, baked beans or spaghetti or both. We found out the guy who ran the dawn service was Trevor, President of the Woomera RSL, he yelled above the din why don't you all come back for a BBQ lunch at $5.00 a head.
With full bellies we left and headed to the museum at the tourist information centre (got in at senior card rate) it was quite informative and took us about an hour to go through it. Headed back to camp for coffee and morning tea and were soon on our way back to the RSL for lunch.
We walked in and four of the six people we met at breakfast were still there, we realised we didn't know each others names so it was introductions all round. Les and Sharon, Helen and Greg hadn't left. Trish and Chris had and not returned. We come in and once again it was "come sit with us"!
With the help of alcohol we all got on like a house on fire to the point those who didn't know us thought we had been friends for years. The lunch was just as good as the breakfast with snags, rissoles along with four salad choices.
Everyone was having such a good time the two-up game was cancelled. Trevor was looking after us and gave us two of what he called a "Presidents shout" which was a round of drinks for our table. The raffle consisted of 1st number called won $25.00, and the second number called won a bottle of booze, six prizes in all. John won $25.00 in the first draw and Greg winning a bottle of Jack Daniels as well as a Chiver's Regal in the 1st and 3rd draws, we were banned from any further raffles for life.
We were putting crap on each other when a lady came up and asked if she could pick our brains on the do's and don'ts of buying a caravan. We of course said sure, then we discovered she was Trevor's wife Samantha and they were looking at seeing Australia as we were. About two hours later and a couple more drinks we bid a fond farewell and safe travels to all. What a day! We will always remember this Anzac Day.
As we strolled back to the van park a decision was made to have a beer at the Cudgee Bar which is the only bar we have seen at a caravan park. Shane the host of the park we quickly found out was a massive die hard Parramatta Eels tragic, the perfect ending to a very full and perfect day.
In common usage "Woomera" also refers to the wider RAAF Woomera Range Complex, Australian Defence Force Aerospace and the testing range covering an area approximately 122,000 square kilometres.
Construction of Woomera Village began in mid 1947 to cater for the thousands of people moving there as part of the Anglo-Australian Project, this bought people from Britain, France, Italy, USA, Norway and Germany. The project lasted 34 years and was one of the most secret allied establishment in operation during the Cold War with it's population reaching 7,000, today it varies between 150 and 200 people. Between 1947 and 1982 Woomera was a "closed town", since then the general public have been able to visit and stay.
Thursday was Anzac Day, we attended the Dawn Service and the guy running the service announced at the end that the RSL was open for breakfast for a gold coin donation. We decided this would be a good idea, so off we went following the crowd. We had to start with tea, coffee and Anzac biscuits to and were looking for a seat when a woman said "come and join us" and after such a warm welcome we did. We got on pretty well with the group sitting at the table, the usual swapping stories where did you come from where have you been, and had a delicious breakfast of eggs, bacon, snags, hash browns, toast, mushroom gravy, baked beans or spaghetti or both. We found out the guy who ran the dawn service was Trevor, President of the Woomera RSL, he yelled above the din why don't you all come back for a BBQ lunch at $5.00 a head.
With full bellies we left and headed to the museum at the tourist information centre (got in at senior card rate) it was quite informative and took us about an hour to go through it. Headed back to camp for coffee and morning tea and were soon on our way back to the RSL for lunch.
We walked in and four of the six people we met at breakfast were still there, we realised we didn't know each others names so it was introductions all round. Les and Sharon, Helen and Greg hadn't left. Trish and Chris had and not returned. We come in and once again it was "come sit with us"!
With the help of alcohol we all got on like a house on fire to the point those who didn't know us thought we had been friends for years. The lunch was just as good as the breakfast with snags, rissoles along with four salad choices.
Everyone was having such a good time the two-up game was cancelled. Trevor was looking after us and gave us two of what he called a "Presidents shout" which was a round of drinks for our table. The raffle consisted of 1st number called won $25.00, and the second number called won a bottle of booze, six prizes in all. John won $25.00 in the first draw and Greg winning a bottle of Jack Daniels as well as a Chiver's Regal in the 1st and 3rd draws, we were banned from any further raffles for life.
We were putting crap on each other when a lady came up and asked if she could pick our brains on the do's and don'ts of buying a caravan. We of course said sure, then we discovered she was Trevor's wife Samantha and they were looking at seeing Australia as we were. About two hours later and a couple more drinks we bid a fond farewell and safe travels to all. What a day! We will always remember this Anzac Day.
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| Guarding the toilets in the club |
As we strolled back to the van park a decision was made to have a beer at the Cudgee Bar which is the only bar we have seen at a caravan park. Shane the host of the park we quickly found out was a massive die hard Parramatta Eels tragic, the perfect ending to a very full and perfect day.
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| Some things we could not see |
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