Lake Hart Rocket launch site - directions??

Hope Willem gets up and speaks before you pack up and move. He seems to know where all those out of the way places are around that neck of the woods.

Hi Geocacher,

Gone through some of my maps and found the Lake Hart Rocket Launch area (launch area 6) on the north shore of Lake Hart (dry).

Using WGS 84 my electronic charts show this position to be:

S31.07693 E136.43811

The track turns off to the south west about 33km approx. from Woomera towards Koolymilka.

I hope this helps mate.

Have fun,
Brett

Hi Dave. I checked those co-ords against Discover Aus and they line up ok. The site is just near Koolymilka (dismantled town) at the boundary of the Lake. There are a number of tracks in the area so may pay to keep a close eye out. Happy travels....and take a track file if you go out there. Cheers
PS It's probably the most windy time of year to be up there at present!!

Geocacher.. the Lauch site is still in the Woomera Prohibited area and is still lrestricted access. If you go to the Woomera Civic Center/Bowling alley/ Comminity center and ask the girls at the counter about it, they can arrange a 'tour' but it is usually only run for busses and with prior notice. There is also a fee as usually BAE Systems who run the palkce rent a bus and the fees are not profit but cost covering.. Otherwise ask at the Eldo.. they may have more information..
i have the privelidge of getting to work out there every now and then, but be warned.. if it's windy in Woomera.. hang on to your doors when you open them at lake hart..it wil be much worse out there.. (Oh and BTW.. don't try usung the track down to the lake if it has rained recently.. you will almost defenitly find yourself in a bit of trouble and a long way from help. especialy given that the track only goes for about 600m at the bottom and then your left with the salt pan which occasional clowns have tried to drive onto with obvious results)

If you use Natmap Raster - Gairdner SH53-15 (or SH5315) with the co-ords of S31.07693 E136.43811 in conjunction with Torrens SH53-16 (or SH5316) you will be able to find your way there very easily.

It even shows you the nice sealed road that takes you to the launcher site.

Well it was sealed in the early 70's when I was last there, so was Koolymilka and Woomera proper.

Things have changed exponentionally since then, especially as in those days very few people got to see anything 'out there'.

I have been told that the area has been cleaned,razed,salvaged clean as a whistle, however I reckon it would have taken superman himself to salvage the two massive fire/blast tunnels that were built under the Launcher sites facing out into Lake Hart.

yep there are two of them about 500metres (from memory) apart, though only one was ever used.

There is a fabulous story attached to the second one, however its not for this forum.

Hi all,

As usual ExplorOz comes to the party with good info.

I spoke to a number of people at Woomera all of whom said that "something is going on out there at the moment" and BAE (British Aerospace) and some joint venture between Japan and Australia who are working on a reusable
space craft have both got a lot on at Woomera at the moment. All I spoke to said that we wouldn't get within cooee of that particular site at present.

The Jap thing has just completed successfull testing of a rocket launched 11.5m scale model glider version of their craft and are very happy jappys. :o))

Anyway the long and the short of it is at present you still need Dept of Defence approval to go out there at the moment and that was enough to put the handbrake into handbrake mode. Not that it seemed highly likely but I'd probably be out of a job if I ended up with a criminal record too, so that would make it an expensive trip.

They offered to gain that approval for me if I was interested but it needed to be arranged well in advance and depending on activity in the area at the time may not be granted. To keep costs reasonable it would work best if it was done in bringing a small - med size group up.

I'm thinking of July-Aug next year.

If we can get a small group together - say 8-20 (4 is minimum no & maximum cost) we can have a tour of Lake Hart launch site, Nurrungur and there was something else I think. The cost goes from about $250 each if there's only 4 people to about $60-70 each for 20. We can have more - it just means a bigger bus. Pretty sure it included accommodation too.

I'd be interested in organising it as a member trip if anyone else wants to go. If there's enough interest I'll make further enquiries when I get back.

Any takers??

Dave
[in Victor Harbour on broadband :o)) at $2 per 10 mins :o(( ]