100 Places You Will Never Visit (29 page)

The reason for this heightened level of protection was that Nurrungar lay at the center of a space-based surveillance program, and was key to providing early warning of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile attacks on the US. As such, it was considered a high-priority target for the Soviet Union, a fact that did not play well with an Australian public unwilling to invite the Cold War into its backyard. Some protesters claimed that Nurrungar was also used to pinpoint targets during the 1973 US bombing of Cambodia.

By the time Nurrungar closed in 1999, the futures of the WPA and the town of Woomera were uncertain. The resident population was down to a few hundred, where once it had been several thousand. For a while, it looked like the construction of a migrant detention center would come to its rescue, but that too proved something of a poisoned chalice. In a four-year lifespan, the center attracted many column-inches of negative publicity for holding up to 1,500 illegal immigrants in a prison camp-style setting. Inmates rioted on several occasions and some even sewed their lips together in protest at the conditions.

But in recent years, the WPA has rebounded and has never been busier in its role as the largest on-land missile testing site in the world. Buoyed by hundreds of millions of dollars of state investment since the turn of the century, its client list now includes governments and space agencies from around the world, providing bookings well into the 2020s. Although the Test Range remains at the core of the WPA, other parts of the territory are being opened up to potentially lucrative mining (there are thought to be significant quantities of gold, iron ore, opals and uranium).

Anyone finding themselves in the WPA ought to keep their eyes open though. As Roger Henwood, manager of the Woomera Range, noted in 2006: “You find a whole lot of things sticking out of the ground that supposedly never got launched.”

UP, UP AND AWAY In 2005, Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency used Woomera to test a prototype supersonic jet that might one day take the place vacated by the decommissioned Concorde. During this launch, flames burst spectacularly from a rocket booster.

99 Pine Gap Joint Defence Facility

LOCATION Central Desert, Australia

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Alice Springs, Northern Territory

SECRECY OVERVIEW Operations classified: joint US-Australian satellite station.

Originally established to keep a watchful eye on goings-on in the Soviet Union and nations throughout South East Asia, Pine Gap is a satellite station under the joint jurisdiction of the US and Australian governments. Since coming into operation, it has attracted the distrust of peace campaigners and conspiracy theorists alike, united in concern at the secretive nature of the work carried out there.

The initial development of the Pine Gap facility was mapped out in a treaty agreed between Canberra and Washington in 1966. The facility was constructed in an area traditionally peopled by the indigenous Arrernte people and began functioning around 1970, ostensibly as a weather station. The land on which it was built was owned by a cattle rancher who had been reluctant to sell until the federal government eventually enforced a compulsory purchase. By the end of the 1970s, Pine Gap had grown rapidly, to become one of the biggest satellite ground stations on the planet.

The base hosts several multi-faceted “radomes,” vast banks of computers and a large infrastructure network, but the exact nature of the work undertaken in this remote desert location has never been made explicit. In the mid-1970s Australia’s Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, is said to have made mutterings about closing Pine Gap amid general disquiet about its activities.

However, Whitlam’s tenure was a much troubled one, culminating in the opposition blocking his budget and effectively paralyzing his government. In 1975, the Australian Governor-General John Kerr sparked a constitutional crisis by dismissing Whitlam. Some have subsequently speculated that the actions of Kerr (an unelected official appointed directly by the British Queen) reflected the CIA’s desire to remove a troublesome prime minister from office.

Though its operations remain highly classified, one of Whitlam’s successors as Australian premier, Bob Hawke, made a rare government statement about Pine Gap in 1988. At that time he confirmed that intelligence gathered at Pine Gap “contributes importantly to the verification of arms control and disarmament agreements.” The facility is widely assumed to have taken over some of the duties in relation to monitoring ballistic missile launches previously conducted by the Nurrungar operation at Woomera. Pine Gap is also said to have played an important support role during the US-led Afghan and Iran conflicts in the opening decade of the 21st century.

DO NOT ENTER Lest anyone be in doubt, signs like this on the way to Pine Gap make quite clear that casual visits are not well received. The approach to Pine Gap is via Hatt Road, which is an offshoot of the Stuart Highway.

In addition, the facility is regularly cited as one of the key intelligence-gathering stations within the purported ECHELON global surveillance network (see page 111). ECHELON (if it does indeed exist as a great deal of evidence suggests) is a highly controversial “eavesdropping” system in which public and private communications—from phone calls and text messages to faxes and emails—are routinely scanned and analyzed. The network’s participating nations are said to include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US, although none of the relevant governments has ever formally acknowledged the project’s existence. Pine Gap is widely suspected of being the hub for Australia’s part of the operation.

Today the facility employs a staff of over 800, with much of the American contingent associated with the US National Security Agency. Pine Gap’s main entrance is adorned with one Australian flag and one American flag, symbolizing the apparently equal relationship that operates on the base.

For many of its opponents, though, Pine Gap epitomizes how Australia has been dragged into the political machinations of the United States. That each nation maintains parts of the complex (including, reportedly, cipher rooms) as respectively off-limits to personnel from the partner nation is another source of consternation. What, they argue, might the US be doing on Australian soil that must be kept secret from Australian officials?

Pine Gap has regularly witnessed peace protests down through the years, including one memorable occasion when a small phalanx of demonstrators cycled onto a runway, disrupting the landing of a large military aircraft. Yet despite these occasional breaches, security is intense. Signs on an approach road read ominously: “No Through Road—Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap—Prohibited Area—Turn Around Now.”

Compared to many other nations, the skies of Australia are notably devoid of restricted airspaces, but a strict nofly zone is enforced around Pine Gap, with access prohibited for any aircraft flying beneath 5,500 meters (18,000 ft). Anyone tempted to infiltrate Pine Gap would be wise to remember that you risk the wrath of not one but two nations’ defense forces—not encouraging odds in anyone’s books.

1 MIND THE GAP Many of Pine Gap’s extensive array of giant satellite dishes are kept under the cover of radomes, which sit incongruously in the desolate expanse of Australia’s Central Desert. Originally purporting to be a weather station, rumors soon abounded as to the facility’s real purpose.

100 Headquarters of Joint Operational Command

LOCATION Australian Capital Territory, Australia

NEAREST POPULATION HUB Canberra

SECRECY OVERVIEW Operations classified: command center for the Australian Defence Force’s global operations.

Founded in 2004, the Headquarters of Joint Operational Command (HQJOC) moved to a new purpose-built home east of the Australian capital, Canberra, in 2008. With HQJOC responsible for overseeing the international operations of Australia’s Army, Navy and Air Force, it is little surprise that the organization’s headquarters is one of the most secure buildings in the country.

HQJOC is a successor organization to Headquarters Australian Theatre (HQAST), which was established in 1996 to serve as a coordinating body for Australia’s combined armed forces when they were on deployment. When HQJOC first came into being, it was based in a temporary facility in Potts Point, a suburb of Sydney.

However, after a major review in 2005, the organization underwent a significant restructure that included a move in 2007 to new temporary facilities in Kowen, close to the towns of Bungendore and Queanbeyan. By December 2008, HQJOC’s newly constructed permanent headquarters at the same location were ready to begin operations.

Constructed by Praeco Pty Ltd. at a cost of some A$360 million, the facility (officially named the General John Baker Complex) covers around 220 hectares (540 acres) and houses some 750 personnel. It is centered around a two-story, almost windowless building surrounded by concentric steel and razor-wire security fences, one at a distance of 100 meters (330 ft) and another at 500 meters (1,650 ft). A central control room boasts a huge screen known as the “knowledge wall.” Measuring almost 19 meters (62 ft) across, it allows commanders to monitor Australia’s military activities around the world.

Access to the site is via a Ministry of Defence-owned, restricted-access road. The high-security inner zone is accessible by foot only, with visitors having to pass through several checkpoints that utilize handprint and biometric controls. Vehicles used within the inner zone are kept permanently within the perimeter fence to guard against the risk of them being tampered with. The outer zone, meanwhile, contains lower-security office buildings.

The site is permanently monitored by private security contractors, using electronic surveillance measures and a system of intruder alarms. Employees within the complex require electronic key cards to move between areas. With the central nerve center open to only those with the highest security clearance, this is a truly modern military command center.

CONTROL CENTER A view of the Joint Control Centre at the General John Baker Complex, including the fabled “knowledge wall” that can simultaneously broadcast live images of Australian operations from across the globe. Baker’s widow was present at the base’s official opening in 2009.

Acknowledgments

The following abbreviations are used throughout the picture credits: bg = background, t =

top, b = bottom, l = left, r = right, c = center. Numbers denote order in chapter.

Introduction 1: © Kimimasa Mayama
Reuters
Corbis; 2: © DigitalGlobe/Handout

Reuters
Corbis; 3: GEOEYE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY; 4: Satellite image by GeoEye;

5: Corbis © Nathan Benn/CORBIS; 6: Dhaluza;

Chapter 1 bg: Pikaia; c: Pikaia; b: US Department of Defense

Chapter 2 bg: Pikaia; t: John Lund/Getty Images; b: Paul Souders/Getty Images

Chapter 4 1: Bloomberg via Getty Images; 2bg: MODIS Land Group, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; 2t:Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories Image Library. Photo courtesy of Edward W. Carter 2b: Aarkwilde

Chapter 7 1: US Department of Defense; 2bg: US Department of Agriculture Aerial Photography Field Office; 2tr: Nevada Division of Environmental Protection; 2bl: © Ed Darack/Science Faction/Corbis

Chapter 8 1: B747/Shutterstock; 2: © George Steinmetz/Corbis

Chapter 9 bg: © Antonio Serna/Xinhua Press/Corbis; l: Sgt. 1st Class Gordon Hyde, US Department of Defense

Chapter 10 1: W-EN; 2: Satellite image by GeoEye

Chapter 11 1: Getty Images; 2: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chapter 12 1: Pikaia; 2: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chapter 13 1: US Department of Energy; 2: waniuszka/Shutterstock

Chapter 14 1: US Department of Defense; 2bg: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC; 2tl: FishCop; 2tr, 2bl, 2br: US Department of Defense

Chapter 15 1: US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY; 2: Pikaia

Chapter 17 bg: NASA; t: Stuart Seeger; bl, br: NASA

Chapter 18 1: Kevyn Jacobs; 2bg: US Department of Agriculture Aerial Photography Field Office; 2tr: US Department of Defense; 2cl: Cliff; 2bl: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chapter 20 1: Brett Weinstein; 2bl, bc: Janice Haney Carr/US Center for Disease Control; 2br: US Center for Disease Control; 3: Jim Gathany/US Center for Disease Control

Chapter 21 bg: US Department of Agriculture Aerial Photography Field Office; tl, br: © James Leynse/Corbis; bl: US Department of Defense

Chapter 22 bg: OFFICIAL FEMA PHOTO/Karen Nutini; tl: United States Coast Guard; br: Mate 2nd Class Daniel J. McLain, US Department of Defense

Chapter 23 1: Pikaia; 2: US Department of Defense;

Chapter 24 1: © RogerRessmeyer/CORBIS; 2: © Dennis Brack/Pool/epa/Corbis

Chapter 25 bg: Coolcaesar; tl: AVX Aircraft Company; tc: DARPA; tr: DARPA

Chapter 26 1: Pikaia; 2: © CORBIS

Chapter 27 1: Pikaia; 2: © Martin H. Simon/Corbis

Chapter 28 bg: US Department of Agriculture Aerial Photography Field Office; tr: AFP/Getty Images; bl: Mredden

Chapter 29: ©Karie Hamilton/Sygma/Corbis

Chapter 30 bg: US Department of Agriculture Aerial Photography Field Office; tl: John Bartelstone/New York Federal Reserve; bl: © Chip East
Reuters
Corbis

Chapter 32 bg: US Department of Agriculture Aerial Photography Field Office; br: Yale University Archives

Chapter 33 1: Pikaia; 2: White House/Pete Souza

Chapter 34 1: D’Arcy O’Connor/oakislandtreasure.co.uk; 2t, b: D’Arcy O’Connor/oakislandtreasure.co.uk; 3: Pikaia

Chapter 35 1: © Reuters/CORBIS; 2bg: Pikaia; 2tr: NASA; 2bl: ASSOCIATED PRESS;

Chapter 36: Mark Moffett/Minden Pictures/FLPA

Chapter 37 1: © Arctic-Images/Corbis; 2bg: PLANETOBSERVER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY; 2c: RAGNAR LARUSSON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY; 2b: OMIKRON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Chapter 39: © Jesse Alexander / Alamy

Chapter 40 t: Nilfanion; b: © Skyscan/Corbis;