W E R'S 0^
S2 9 MAR 1967
4-1 AR
OFENINJ OF HONEYSUCKLE CR SA'CAE TRACKIN ST TT. RA
A. C. T.
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINIISTER, MR. HAROLD HOLT 17th March, 1967.
Senator Henty, Mrs. Henty Dr. Seamans and Mrs. Seamans,
Mr. Buckley, any other distinguished guests here today and
ladies and gentlemen and all associated with this great project:
It is a personal pleasure for me for a variety of reasons
to be here at this time if for no other reason than oecause, like
you I am enjoying this bracing Canberra air and this beautiful
Australian seting. At least, Dr. Seamans you will be able
to report th-t Australia does live up to its' travel brochures
as to its sunshine and the jeauty of its quite urique fauna and
geography as you see it around us.
It is not a very frequent occasion, of course for a
Prime Minister to oe addressing himself to a matter of this kind.
I have done so very rarely. Prime Ministers, if they are to
succeed, are not so much concerned with outer space as keeping
their feet firmly on the ground. Sometimes their onponents accuse
them of oeing up in the air, even their most fervent admirers
are not unkno,. n to say they are out of this world. So I come
before you as one who addresses you with all the valour of
ignorance on this rather esoteric are, of human activity which
is exemplified for us in this rather awesome piece of equipment
under which some of us at least are sheltering this morning.
But it is a notale occasion in a chain of events which have
had consideraole si nificance for Australia and which we hope are
enabling Australia To play a useful and helpful part, not only
in the space ' rogr-mme of the United States itself but in what
has become one o? the happier ventures of mankind in which
politics tend to be submerged and the aspirations of mankind
the achievements of science, can be largely shared throughout
the world. This particular tracking station, so auspiciously
situated and so happily named I think Honeysuckle Tracking
St-ition is a delightful name for an institution such as this.
Attractive in rel-tion to almost any activity. If you were to
come here Dr. Seamans, and say you were tracking square at
Honeysuckle Creek there might be a different interpretation
placed on your activities by Australians who would be familiar
with that vernacular.
iut here we have a new tracking station which is to
play its own useful part in a great human -adventure. This
venture into space is something which an older generation such
as my ow-, n can scarcely comprehend. It's the stuff of science
fiction, of space fiction of earlier times made reality in our
own day and generation. And as , w reflect on these things it
is fitting that w. e should give due tribute and regard to those
pioneers in science down through the centuries, w o have made
possible by their earlier adventures in the human mind and body,
b the achievements of these pioneers of genius. They by their
efforts have givn us the kind of instruments and the scientific
method of experiment which makes this sort of achievement possible.
I mentioned at the outset that it is a happy circumstance
that t lose great powers who have interested themselves in this
Particular area of human achievement, have aproached their
tasks with the objective of oettering mankin s knowledge of its
environment, and of contributing to peaceful purposes and to
an improvement of man's standards of living. This vital
aspiration is shared uy two great po'wers the United States
of America and the Soviet Union, and with amazing technical / 2
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achievements to be put at the disposal of man's efforts to. shape
his world for meeting his material needs and opening new doors
to his understanding himself and the universe in which he lives,
we owe much to these two great countries.
The United States Aeronautics and Space Act became law
on the 29th of July 1958, less than ten years ao. It was then
stated, officially, as United States policy in That legislation,
that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes
for the benefit of mankind. In a modest way Australia had commenced
to co-operate actively in the International Jeophysical Year in
1957, by operating a tracking system known as Minitrack at Woomera,
and now we have from that oeginning added Carnavon in iestern
Australia Coby Creek in Queensland Voomera in South Australia,
Tidbinbilla, Orroral Valley and now Honeysuckle Creek ( all of these
last three in the The United States has financed the
cost of construction, and by the end of the year the Space Authority
will have spent more than 0100 million in Australia. You are used
to juggling figures in billions, Dr. Seamans, but for Australia this
is a considerable sum to ue spent inside the borders of our
continent for these scientific purposes. The cost of operating
the six Australian stations, apparently, is aoout 8-million dollars
a year. There is an appropriateness, I think that Australia should
be in the picture in this particular field, because Captain Cook's
own voyage of exploration which led to the settlement of Australia,
was made on oehalf of the Royal Society to ouserve a transit of
Venus across the sun almost two hundred years ago. So we feel
that we are appropriately placed to be playing a part now in
another great exploration, that of space.
We have been associated with the United States programme
since its early days as the illustration I gave earlier would
su gest. For nearly ten years now we have joined in facilitating
American space activities. . e have helped to select sites and
construct stations in Australia and their manning includes scientists
and technologists from the Department of Supply and Australian
industry atogether some seven hundred persons from these sources.
The Australian government purchased and made available to the
Space Authority nine hundred acres of freehold land for this
present station. A practicable contribution to the space programme
itself. This station is directly concerned with Project Apollo
which will launch into space three manned capsules as a part of
an experiment which will culminate in a voyage of some three
days duration to the moon, 250,000 miles away. The Australian
group of stations represent the largest complex of Space Authority
stations outside the United States. I think I am correct in saying,
Dr. Seamans, that in the Apollo Pro ect there will be three
tracking stations which will oe following the course of the moon
vehicle oeyond the 10,000 mile limit. One in the United States,
one in Spain and this one here in Australia. And I think we can
feel gratified and take some pride, indeed satisfaction, that in
what proves to be one of the great historic events of man's
exploration of his universe we shall be one of the three countries
right in the picture, literally, so far as the concluding phases
of the flight are concerned.
Some people wonder whether all this vast expenditure that
goes into the space programmes can oe justified. The answers are
not difficult to find. Already we hive peen deriving Yreat oenefits
from the programme of space adventure. If you take meleorology
alone, and there is not a human oeing on earth who isn't daily
concerned with the state of the weather. It is our most familiar
personal greeting when we see each other in the course of the day.
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-eather can now be viewed on a global scale several times a day.
This can be done regularly in regions of the earth which have
previously defied around-the-clock meteorolofical o* servation.
The poles, the oceans, the sparse areas of the Southern Hemisphere
have now ueen brought into the range of . eather forecasting.
and this also has an aspect which could commend itself to all
of us in enabling us to avoid the worst effects of the havoc of
hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons.
For exa: iple, in 1961 quite early in the programme people
were evapuated from the path of Hurricane Carla as a result of
warnin? data received from the Tvros Satellite. In navigation
satellites can play a helpful role. In international communication
we have already received the first telecast between Britain and
Australia. , e are but at the beginnings of this improvement in
communication, and before we are all very much older the world can
be in television contact as a normal and everyday event.
There has been a notaole contribution to the knowled e of
eography the study of geology. Our understanding is assisted
by the information we receive from the special satellites designed
and equipped for these purposes.
Man's superior ability to explore and record details will
provide valuable information as to measurements, direct photoraphs,
soil and rock samples, a vast array, in short of scientific data.
The initial landing on the moon proposed by 1970, may lead to
longer journeys and wider exploration and culminate in the
establishment of a permanent moon oase. A project which a few, yearj
ago ; ould have been thought quite fanciful even if it were to appear
in the realm of fiction.
There have been other oenefits, already directly attributable
to the space exploration efforts. 4reat advarces in materials such
as ceramics, metals and plastics. Metal alloys specially developed
have led to improvements. For example, they have been found ideal
for the manufacture of artificial parts for the human oody, such
necessary assistance to hip and elbow joints. Special knowledge
of foods developed for astronauts may help the world in its search
for the solution of food problems.
For Australia we have a growin:-numuer of men and women
technically trained to handle complicated concepts and the
complicated equipment associated with space technology. Australia
has found already many benefits to its own technological
development. It may interest you to know that last month Qantas,
with the co-operation of the tracking station at Cooby Creek
experimented in air-to-ground voice communication ob satellite
with encouraging results.
foankind needs the incentive of space exploration in order
to develop to full potential some of these great possibilities.
This vast spurt of human imagination and technological progress
is opening ne'; doors to experience and achievement. It carries
with it at first its own hazards. Fortunately disasters have been
few but we should all rememoer here today the sacrifice made by
Jrissom, White and Chaffey as they were playing their part in this
scientific evolution.
ye welcomed here, and some of us in this gathering will
no doubt recall with -reat pleasure the visit of a-. lter Schiirar
and Frank 3orman and their wives. We nay tribute to the courae,
skill and determination of these brave pioneers of tomorrow, who
make it possible for us to realise the aspirations of this great
verture. Finally, ladies mnd gentlemen, may I refer to this as / 4
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another welcome illustration of the friendly and mutually helpful
teamwork which over the years, and more particularly over recent
years, has been demonstrated oetween the United States of America,
our great ally, and our own country of Australia. This stands as
a symbol for that firendship and for that teamwork and an alliance
which, we hope, will endure for as long as our two countries remain
national entities.
So, as I open formally this tracking station and have with
you a vision of what it can contribute to this protramme in the
future, may I adopt the words of Tennyson as a fitling conclusion:
" Forward, forward,
Let us range
Let the great world spin forever
Down the ringing grooves of change."
I declare this station formally open.