OPINION: Fix the quarantine crisis now – use RAAF Base Woomera

At considerable expense to Australian taxpayers, five hours drive north of Adelaide is a high standard quarantine facility currently able to safely accommodate 500 people at a time – with up to 7,000 possible.  Better known as Woomera, this is basically a government owned town that has good quality housing, medical facilities, an airport and all of the other infrastructure necessary to handle incoming visitors.  After the mandatory two-week period people could be flown to other parts of Australia – or even put on a bus to a larger centre. One of the many accommodation blocks at Woomera. (PHOTO: Aaron Curran) Woomera is largely a ghost town at the moment and has been kept in good condition as it receives a steady trickle of people because of the associated test range, which is one of the largest in the world.  A normal number of residents is around 150, made up mainly of Defence personnel, scientists and industry people.  The standard of accommodation is perfect for quarantine – individual rooms have air conditioning and their own bathroom and kitchenette. Accommodation blocks are widely spaced.  Life there is quite comfortable – as the author knows, having spent a week there as part of a flight test group involving an instrumented F/A-18 and the support crew of more than 50 people that went with that effort. Woomera village has a relatively recent history with construction starting in 1947, prompted by Australia’s support for British military tests during the Cold War. One of the most important of these was the Blue Streak project to develop an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) capable of nuking Moscow and other important parts of the USSR.  The use by Germany of the V-2 toward the end of the Second World War – the world’s first genuine exo-atmospheric missile – had demonstrated the potential of the technology to wreak destruction over vast distances. Coupled with the development of nuclear weapons – the U.S. exploded their first device in July 16 1945 and the Soviets four years later – the prospect of being able to wipe out another country thousands of kilometres away at the press of a button was both terrifying and appealing for military planners and politicians alike.  The first even more powerful hydrogen bomb was demonstrated in 1951 with the US once again taking the lead. Not to be outdone, Britain exploded its first nuclear bomb in 1952 – on Australian soil in the form of the Monte Bello Islands. Back to Woomera: it is hardly surprising that the town was built well and with features such as a swimming pool, school, outdoor playgrounds and so on because it needed to house a lot of Defence scientists and their families in a degree of comfort as they participated in the nuclear arms race – which in the 1950s was a very high priority for western governments.  Britain went on to test another eight nuclear weapons at Maralinga, which is also part of the Woomera Prohibited Area.  For a stylised semi-fictional account of this activity, the ABC’s mini-series Operation Buffalo is worth watching: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/operation-buffalo Launch of rocket to test hypersonic speed at more than five times the speed of sound, Woomera, May 2016. (PHOTO: Dept of Defence) Dotted around Woomera are several enormous concrete rocket launching pads to support Blue Streak, which morphed into Black Knight – with eight of these 24 metre monsters being launched.  I should write used to be there because they have been progressively blown up by Special Forces personnel on training missions. For reasons of cost, Blue Streak was abruptly cancelled in 1960 – but the technology was transferred into the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) that had the objective of putting satellites into orbit rather than delivering nuclear warheads.  Britain was responsible for the first stage with a modified Blue Streak; France and Germany the second and third stages – and Australia was an associate member via our contribution of the launch site and all the related infrastructure.  Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium were also involved. After a further ten launches of a rocket code named Europa it was concluded in 1966 that Australia was not a suitable location for placing satellites in geosynchronous orbit – that is 38,000km above Earth – and the entire activity was shifted to Kourou in French Guiana.  That marked the end of the halcyon days for Woomera – though smaller rocket launches, including test firings of hypersonic missiles – have continued spasmodically ever since. Even today in Woomera Village is the ELDO hotel, which supplies a decent meal at big city prices. Woomera might have been down, but certainly was not out because just as the major rocket launch part of the equation was ending, the nearby Nurrungar spy base – formally known as the USAF/ADF Joint Defence Communications Facility – was ramping up.  Just 18km from the town, the base had a full time staff of 1,000 and when families were included the population of Woomera stayed at around 4,500. The operations of Nurrungar ended in 1999 and the facility was transferred to full Australian control.  It remains active, but for what exact purpose no one can say. Also in sight of the village is the Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre, which was shut down in 2003.  Ownership was transferred to the Department of Defence and it is now considered to be part of the test facility – though its condition and function is unclear. The bottom line to this is that Woomera ticks all of the boxes: good quality infrastructure is in place, it has an airport, it is remote – and it is owned by the Commonwealth.  Just to put an end to the ceaseless bickering between the States and the Federal Government about quarantining people would be a merciful relief.  More people will need to be brought in – particularly medical staff – but there is plenty of room for them. Why build new facilities at vast expense when one already exists? 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