Rocket-making and launching tests the limits of science and technology at Woomera in South Australia, the longest rocket range in the western world.

This is an excerpt from the film Rocket Range Australia, produced in 1957 by the Commonwealth Film Unit in association with the Department of Supply.

When Rocket Range Australia was made in the late 1950s, the Australian Government’s Weapons Research Establishment in South Australia used what was then cutting-edge technology for rocket research and testing.

The film provides a fascinating insight into the work carried out at the sprawling Salisbury complex of offices, laboratories and workshops and at Woomera, home to both the world’s longest rocket range and a purpose-built township in the middle of the desert.