woomera 1997

A South Australian Government promotional video on the suitability of Woomera as a 'top gun' training base

[@adymatt334]

What were they thinking? What happened to the local indigenous people?

[@keithammleter3824]

The place is basically a desert that can't naturally support more than a handful of people on a long term basis. Indigenous folk didn't live there, however they did transit the area for cultural reasons before Woomera was established.

[@adymatt334]

@@keithammleter3824 I know indigenous people that lives there. There is and always has been lakes and dams etc. you couldn’t be more wrong.

[@keithammleter3824]

@@adymatt334 : I base what I said on official accounts and Len Beadell's books. As with Maralinga, the government conducted a search for indigenous folk, as they could have been a security risk. Only a handful were found. However it must be admitted that they said they found only a few at Maralinga, but it turned out there were more there than they thought, and some poor souls who were transiting got blinded when the test nuclear bombs went off. Note that as stated in this film, Woomera is a secure area (the Woomera Prohibited Area) closed to the public - you only get to go there, apart from specific precincts open to tourists and visitors, if you are employed there. In any case, the presence or absence of aboriginals and people claiming aboriginality in any given area today means nothing. It is well documented that Tasmanian aboriginals died out due to diseases brought by the whites and other causes (the last genuine Tasmanian aborigine, Truganini, died in 1876), however today Tasmania has quite a few as they have moved there from the mainland. Its the same as today there is a significant Chinese and Vietnamese population in all Australian cities and large towns. The lakes are salt. Any dams, bores, etc would have been constructed by whites. Construction of dams was never something aboriginals would do. Their culture in desert areas is nomadic - hunt what's there and easily caught, and move on.

[@jasoar1563]

they were rounded up, bound gaged and shot.

[@keithammleter3824]

@@jasoar1563 This is Australia, not Stalinist USSR.