250 Mile Marker - SA

In 1951 Len Beadell was commissioned by the Long Range Weapons Establishment (later Weapons Research Establishment) to locate and survey a site for a rocket range, including the launch site and the supporting township, which would be named Woomera. His roads, which were built to provide access to the range, are over 6,000 kilometres long, and opened up some 2.5 million square kilometres of desert in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

His work involved ground surveys to locate centreline posts that would be used for the firing of rockets launched from Woomera. The Centre Line of fire extended north west from Range E, across the Great Victoria, Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts, to a point on the 80 Mile Beach, between Port Hedland and Broome on the Western Australian Coast.

Len reached the 250, 300, 400, 500 and 550 Mile points and marked their locations with a thick mulga post. A brass plate, displaying the latitude, longitude and date was nailed to each post. Sheets of canvas were laid out around the observation posts to ensure their location was visible from the air. The location of the 600, 650, 700 and 800 Mile posts were calculated by computer, but not required to be reached by ground reconnaissance.

The 250 Mile Marker was reached and marked (by Len Beadell) on 17th June 1951

If you have the chance to visit these markers you will gain a sense of appreciation for the difficulties he must have endured to achieve such a feat. In many cases, he would have been the first white man to visit these areas long before modern 4WD vehicles were available and without any refrigeration etc.