Hello and welcome back..... Found this a fascinating read, as scanner users, we love to listen to weird and wonderful conversations from military bases, now Google has found some of the best. Thank you to News.com.au for the article.
Top Secret sites: one of the
world's biggest spy bases is located in the middle of Australia at Pine
Gap, NT. Picture: Google Earth
AUSTRALIA's most secret sites are hidden well away from prying eyes,
usually far from major population areas. But no one escapes the
all-seeing eye of Google.
Top Secret sites: one of the world's biggest spy bases is located in the middle of central Australia at Pine Gap, NT.
As Australian and British foreign and defence officials meet
in Perth today to discuss stronger military ties, here's our virtual
tour of Australia's most secret military and government sites.
Top Secret sites: the new Australian Security Intelligence Organisation HQ in Canberra. Source: Google Earth
ASIO, ACT (spy agency HQ)
The new
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation HQ in Canberra will house
Australia's national security service, responsible for protecting us
from espionage, sabotage, attacks on the Australian defence system and
terrorism. ASIO officers have similar powers to the UK's Security
Service (M15), and do not carry guns.
Top secret sites: Campbell Barracks in Swanbourne, the base of the Australian Special Air Service. Photo: Google Earth
Campbell Barracks, WA (SAS HQ)
Located
in suburban Perth, the low-key army base in Swanbourne, has been the
base of the Australian Special Air Service (SAS) since the Regiment was
established in 1957. Most training takes place at Bindoon army base,
northeast of Perth, which includes live-fire ranges, training areas and
an SAS mock-up area with 'embassy' building and sniper towers, but is
impossible to find on Google Maps.
Top Secret sites: Christmas Island, offshore detention centre in the Indian Ocean. Source: Google Earth
Christmas Island, Indian Ocean (detention centre)
Home to 1500 Australian citizens, mostly of Chinese ethnicity,
Christmas Island was a thriving phosphate producer before transfer to
Australian sovereignty in 1957. Since the MV Tampa controversy in 2001,
the island has been the primary goal of asylum seekers attempting to
enter Australia. Opened in 2006, the Immigration Detention Centre
contains approximately 800 beds, and cost $400m, double the estimated
budget.
Top Secret sites: Australian Defence Satellite Communications Ground Station at Kojarena, WA. Source: Google Earth
Kojarena, WA (defence satellite station)
The Australian Defence Satellite Communications Ground Station is
located at Kojarena, 30 km east of Geraldton. It is operated by the ADF
Defence Signals Division, and houses five radomes and eight satellite
antennas linked to a worldwide satellite communication signals
interception system that is mainly operated by the US and UK.
Top Secret sites: Maralinga, SA, site of seven secret British nuclear tests in the 1950s. Picture: Google Earth
Maralinga, SA (nuclear test site)
The
ancient home of the Maralinga Tjarutja indigenous people, Maralinga was
the site of seven secret British nuclear tests in the 1950s, with four
fission bomb tests followed by three tests of triggering mechanisms. A
Royal Commission in 1985 identified significant contamination at the
site. Native title was handed back to the traditional owners in January
1987 and efforts were made to clean up the site before resettling the
land in 1995.
Top Secret sites: Nauru offshore detention centre in the Pacific Ocean. Source: Google Earth
Nauru, Pacific Ocean (detention centre)
Originally opened in 2001 to take people rescued by the MV Tampa, the
detention centre on the tiny island of Nauru was built to house 1200
asylum seekers in return for a pledge of $30m in development funds.
Closed by Kevin Rudd in December 2007, the camp was reopened by the
Gillard government in August 2012 to process record numbers of asylum
seekers arriving by boat.
Top Secret sites: North West Cape, US Navy signals base near Exmouth, WA. Source: Google Earth
North West Cape, WA (US naval signals)
Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt is located 6km north of
Exmouth, which was built to provide support to the base and house
dependent families of US Navy personnel. The base provides very low
frequency (VLF) radio transmission to US and Royal Australian Navy ships
and submarines in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and is the most
powerful transmission station in the Southern Hemisphere.
Top Secret sites: Nurrungar, mothballed ballistic missile control site near Woomera, SA. Source: Google Earth
Nurrungar, SA (ballistic missile control)
Located on the edge of Island Lagoon, approximately 15 km south of
Woomera, Nurrungar was run by the ADF and the US Air Force from 1969 to
1999. It provided early detection of missile launches and nuclear
detonations via US satellites in geostationary orbits. Operations moved
to Pine Gap in 1999. Today the ADF uses the site for army tests.
Top Secret sites: one of the
world's biggest spy bases is located in the middle of Australia at Pine
Gap, NT. Source: Google Earth
Pine Gap, NT (US listening post)
Probably the best known secret installation in Australia, Pine Gap near
Alice Springs is one of the biggest ECHELON signals intelligence
facilities in the world, with an estimated 1000 employees. A former US
National Security employee who worked at Pine Gap has claimed that the
facility is run by the CIA. Pine Gap controls American spy satellites as
they fly over China, North Korea, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Top Secret sites: SIS and special forces training centre, Swan Island, Victoria. Source: Google Earth
Swan Island, VIC (special forces)
The
Department of Defence does not discuss what goes on at Swan Island, and
information on the facility is not found on any government website. It
is believed that Australia's Special Forces carry out counter terrorism
training here on a base shared with the Secret Intelligence Service.
Top Secret sites: RAAF Scherger, advance air force base and detention centre. Far North Queensland. Source: Google Earth
Scherger, QLD (detention centre)
Villawood and Darwin are well known immigration detention centres, but
did you know that up to 600 asylum seekers at any one time are housed at
a facility at RAAF Scherger in Far North Queensland? One of three 'bare
bases' in the tropics run by skeleton crews, Scherger is set up to
house 1400 personnel and 40 aircraft if Australia ever gets into a
shooting war with one of our northern neighbours.
Top Secret sites: govenrment panic room in Symonston, suburban Canberra. Source: Google Earth
Symonston, ACT (government panic room)
Protected by heavy gates, security fences and an array of CCTV cameras
on a nondescript Canberra industrial estate, the main purpose of the
classified facility at Symonston is believed to be to provide an
alternative communications facility for the Australian government. Under
the so-called "Plan Mercator", this is where the Prime Minister,
Governor-General and advisers would be whisked to in the event of a
terrorist attack or threat against Parliament House.
Top Secret sites: fast jets and visiting bombers are housed at RAAF Tindal, near Katherine, NT. Source: Google Earth
Tindal, NT (fast jets, stealth bombers)
Located near Katherine in the NT, RAAF Tindal houses the RAAF's fast
jets outside the cyclone zone at a site easy to defend against external
attack. A key launching point for the Australian-led intervention in
East Timor in 1999, the base is also rumoured to host US stealth spy
planes.
Top Secret sites: Woomera Test Range, SA, the largest weapons testing range in the world. Source: Google Earth
Woomera, SA (weapons tests, drones)
The
Woomera Test Range in South Australia is a large weapons testing range
operated by the RAAF, 500km northwest of Adelaide. A prohibited area
off-limits to the public, the range was set up by Britain and Australia
in 1946 and was the site for seven nuclear tests between 1955 and 1963
as well as tests for a wide range of conventional weapons before the
Australian-Anglo joint project ended in 1980. After a long period when
it was effectively abandoned, the range is currently used for ADF trials
and leased to foreign militaries.
Top Secret sites: British stealth drone bomber Taranis, undergoing testing in the Australian outback in early-2013. Photo: BAE
Woomera is the most likely test site for new British stealth
drone Taranis, which will be conducting outback test flights in early
2013. At its peak the range covered 270,000 square km. Today it covers
127,000 square km, and remains the world's largest weapons test range.
My Military listening just got more interesting. Cheers
Michael Bailey.
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