ALA,, 1
PRIME MINISTERJ
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVEPY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
OPENING OF THE AUSTRALIA TELESCOPE
CULGOORA 2 SEPTEMBER 1988
Neville Wran,
Dr Bob Frater,
Barry Jones,
Distinguished international and Australian guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Australia has always, from before its inception as a
European settlement, been ansociated with the attempts of
mankind to explore and to understand the universe.
Aboriginal lore included many stories about the formation
nnd behaviour of the celestial bodies.
Captain Cook's voyages of exploration which led to the
European discovery of the eastern coast of Australia: had as
one of their aims the attempt to observe in the South
Pacific the transit of Venus.
And it is particularly fitting to recall, in our
Bicentennial year, that on board the First Fleet was one
Lieutenant William Dawes who had, within the first months of
the settlement of Port Jackson, commenced construction of an
astronomical observatory on the point which today bears his
name. in more recent years, with the birth of radio astronomy as a
field of inquiry, Australian scientists have always been at
the forefront of this research.
Today we are inaugurating a new era in Australian scientific
research the major Bicentennial science project which
will ensure Australia remains at the forefront of radio
astronomy. The CSIRO's Division of Radiophysics was set up during the
Second World War to develop radar equipment for use in the
Pacific. Following the war the scientists set out to
investigate what were then mysterious radio emissions
originating from somewhere ' out there" in the universe.
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In those post-war years before quasars and pulsars were even
thought of, it was not surprisingly believed the Sun was the
source of these radio emissions a conclusion which
incidentally allowed researchers to work civilised office
hoursi It was what you could perhaps call the first sunrise
industry.
AS scientists gradually learned more about cosmic radio
sources, Australians were among the pioneers. This was
recognised by the decision to hold the General Assembly of
the International Union of Radio Science in Australia in
1952. Australians were also leading the way in the
development and application of new equipment to make the
increasingly sophisticated astronomical observations that
were required.
When the Parkes Telescope was being planned in the 1950s it
was intended as, and indeed it became, a world class
research tool. It is unfortunate however that during the
planning, the decision was taken not to build it in
Australia. Instead, the 64 metre antenna and most of the
equipment were supplied by West German firms, and most of
the mechanical support systems were supplied by British
firms. The Parkes Telescope went on to be involved in major
discoveries and is certainly a proud symbol of the high
quality of Australian astronomical research.
But my point is that the benefits of Parkes to Australia
were largely limited to the research scientists who used it.
It was imported technology and imported engineering and
this in a field of research where Australia had established
itself as a world leader.
But where Australians had to rely on Europeans to build
Parkes, this time, with the Australia Telescope, we've
relied on ourselves.
The Australia Telescope is the state of the art in
astronomical technology. It is one of the best telescopes
in the world. It is one which will keep Australia at the
forefront of radio astronomy research. And it is conceived,
designed and manufactured in Australia.
Right from the start of the Australia Telescope project, as
you have heard from Dr Frater, it was decided that
Australian firms should be largely responsible for building
the Telescope.
In fact eighty per cent of the content of the Australia
Telescope is Australian. This has helped Australian
industry develop the design and production skills we * will
need if we are to be competitive in our own local market, as
well as on the world market, in one of the most important
and potentially one of the most productive of high
technology industries, the space and telecommunications
industry.
With this $ 50 million Telescope, Australians have proven
their skills and their capacities in key areas of space and
telecommunications research and development.
I note with considerable pride the fact that since their
work on the Telescope many of the Australian companies
involved have developed capabilities enabling them to pursue
export markets for sophisticated manufactures. The
Australia Telescope project has stimulated a substantial
increase in collaboration between CSIRO and industry on
significant new technological development for export.
We are all the beneficiaries when new manufacturing and
export capabilities are developed, because each signals a
step towards the diversification of our economy and a step
away from our vulnerable reliance on a limited range of
primary commodities.
As Prime Minister, I want to express my pride in this
Telescope as a world class achievement and my gratitude to
all those who have been responsible for building it.
It's hard for a layman to even conceive how such complex
instruments can come into being, let alone understand their
workings. But let me tell you some of the things that have
impressed me.
Each of the six 22 metre diameter antennae which make up
this network is relatively small; but thanks to fibre optic
connections they together form a Compact Array which will
simulate a very much larger telescope 6 kilometres in
diameter. When these antennae at Culgoora are supported by a similar
antenna still being built at Siding Spring, and the grand
old radio telescope at Parkes, the whole network will have
the power of a single telescope 300 kilometres in diameter.
Ultimately it will be able to work in concert with other
telescopes in Australia, overseas and who knows in orbit
around the planet, to form vast sensors capable of receiving
radio information from the absolute outer reaches of the
universe helping us toward an understanding of our cosmic
environment. I am told that the Compact Array has the capacity to read a
telephone directory from a distance of 200 metres and when
the Culgoora antennae are linked in with Siding Spring and
Parkes, that telephone book will be legible from
kilometres away!
although using the Telescope for such a purpose would
seem to be a rather wasteful modern day equivalent of
using a sledge hammer to crack a walnut.
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On the subject of orbitting telescopes, I recall that when I
was in Moscow late last year I signed with General Secretary
Gorbachev a number of agreements for future cooperation,
including one on Scientific collaboration. Within the
framework of that agreement, the Soviet Union has agreed to
CSIRO providing part of the Soviet RADIOASTRON satellite, an
orbiting radioastronomy satellite project with which a
number of other Western countries are involved.
These Culgoora antennae had to be mobile, so they have
thirty five observation stations along a rail track. And to
work properly, they had to be placed precisely and they
are in fact placed on their stations with an accuracy of
five millimetres.
The 4,000 correlator micro-chips which combine the signals
from the various dishes have to be capable of intensely
accurate, speedy and frequent calculations. These chips can
in fact perform one thousand million multiplica tion tasks
per second which, as Barry Jones told Parliament this week,
is even faster than the Treasurer can compute. And that's
fast. The capability developed here has led on to the development
and production of chips with major benefits for Australian
companies in medical and defence industries.
Ladies and gentlemen,
For all these reasons the Australia Telescope is a most
appropriate achievement with which to celebrate our
Bicentenary. It is a project whose benefits will be felt for many years
into Australia's third century.
I pay tribute to those many individuals those in CSIRO led
by Dr Frater, those in academia and those in private
industry whose hard work and vision has created this
massive project, on time and within budget. I acknowledge
with pride that a project such as this is one that only
Governments can initiate and bring to completion, and I pay
tribute to the previous Government for its decision in 1982,
which we confirmed on coming to office in 1983, to go ahead
with the Australia Telescope. In saying that I do not, in
any way remove or minimise the burden of responsibility the
Australian private sector must bear to engage in R and D
work of its own.
The discoveries that will flow from this Telescope are,
literally, unimaginable. Researchers from all around the
world will be able to probe the centre of the galaxy, the
birth of stars in the Milky Way, the nature of supernovae
and the Magellanic Clouds all of which are vital questions
in astronomy and all of which can only be studied with
precision from the Southern Hemisphere. .1' 72 5) T
It is with the confident expectation that this Telescope
will speedily move to, and will long remain at, the
forefront of world astronomical research, that I have
pleasure in declaring the Australia Telescope open.
[ unveil plaquel
( Dr Keith Boardman will invite you to press button to
activate antenna)
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