Giles Weather Station (also referred to as
Giles Meteorological Station or
Giles) is located in Western Australia near the South Australian border, about 750 kilometres West-South-West of
Alice Springs and 330 kilometres West of Uluru. It is the only staffed weather station within an area of about 2,500,000 square kilometres and is situated mid-continent and near the core of the subtropical jetstream. This means it plays an important role as a weather and climate observatory for the country, particularly eastern and southeastern Australia, and particularly for rainfall predictions. The station is located on the
Great Central Road and the nearest township is the Warakurna aboriginal settlement, 1 kilometre South.
Giles is within the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku and is in the foothills of the Rawlinson Ranges.
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A staff of four operate the remote station on six-monthly
tours. A 1,600-metre (5,200 ft)
airstrip services the station and the Warakurna community.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, surveyor and roadbuilder Len Beadell cut several tracks west of
Alice Springs through to
Warburton, including the Connie Sue Highway and the
Gunbarrel Highway (which links
Carnegie Station and
Giles). In doing so he graded the current
airstrip and proposed the
Giles site. Len’s
grader, which is estimated to have travelled over 30,000 kilometres in the course of making the roads, was retired in 1963 and is preserved and on display at
Giles.
The Weapons Research Establishment established the site for meteorological purposes in 1956, to support nuclear weapons testing at Emu Field and
Maralinga. Later, it provided support for rocket testing programs at
Woomera, with
Giles being downrange from the launch site. Wreckage from the first Blue Streak missile, launched from
Woomera on 5 June 1964, is also on display at the station.
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In 1972 control of the station was transferred from the Department of Defence to the Bureau of Meteorology.
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