Giles Meteorological Station
Vorlage:Infobox Australian Place Giles Weather Station (also referred to as Giles Meteorological Station or Giles) is located in Western Australia near the South Australian border, about Vorlage:Convert West-South-West of Alice Springs and Vorlage:Convert West of Uluru.[1][2] It is the only staffed weather station within an area of about Vorlage:Convert[3] and is situated mid-continent and near the core of the subtropical jetstream. This means it plays an important role as a weather and climate observatory for the country, particularly eastern and southeastern Australia, and particularly for rainfall predictions. The station is located on the Great Central Road and the nearest township is the Warakurna aboriginal settlement (population 180), Vorlage:Convert South. Giles is within the Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku and is in the foothills of the Rawlinson Ranges.
A staff of four operate the remote station on six-monthly tours. A Vorlage:Convert airstrip services the station and the Warakurna community.[4]
Tourists are invited to tour the station and to watch the daily release of weather balloons.
Giles' postcode is 0872.
History
Giles is named after English explorer Ernest Sabar Giles, the first European to travel through the area, in 1872 and 1876.
In the late 1940s and 1950s, surveyor and roadbuilder Len Beadell cut several tracks west of Alice Springs through to Warburton, including the Connie Sue Highway and the Gunbarrel Highway (which links Carnegie Station and Giles). In doing so he graded the current airstrip and proposed the Giles site. Beadell's grader, which is estimated to have travelled over Vorlage:Convert in the course of making the roads, was retired in 1963 and is preserved and on display at Giles.
The Weapons Research Establishment (now known as the Defence Science and Technology Organisation) established the site for meteorological purposes in 1956, to support nuclear weapons testing at Emu Field and Maralinga.[1] Later, it provided support for rocket testing programs at Woomera, with Giles being downrange from the launch site. Wreckage from the first Blue Streak missile, launched from Woomera on 5 June 1964, is also on display at the station.
Docker River, Vorlage:Convert north-east and just across the state border in South Australia was established by the government as an aboriginal settlement for local people in the 1960s. Overcrowding there and at Warburton created a need for a new community which became Warakurna in the mid-1970s.
In 1972 control of the station was transferred from the Department of Defence to the Bureau of Meteorology.[1]
References
External links
- ↑ a b c History of Giles Weather Station. In: Bureau of Meteorology. Abgerufen am 23. August 2009.
- ↑ Giles Weather Station - WA. In: www.exploroz.com. Abgerufen am 23. August 2009.
- ↑ Storm Boys. In: ABC Landline. Abgerufen am 23. August 2009.
- ↑ Warakurna. In: Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku. Abgerufen am 23. August 2009.