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Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt

21°48′59″S114°09′56″E/ 21.816405°S 114.16563°E/-21.816405; 114.16563

Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt
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Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holtis a joint Australian and United States naval communication station located on the north-west coast of Australia, 6 kilometres (4 mi) north of the town ofExmouth, Western Australia.The station is operated and maintained by theAustralian Department of Defenceon behalf of Australia and the United States and providesvery low frequency(VLF) radio transmission toUnited States Navy,Royal Australian Navyand allied ships and submarines in the westernPacific Oceanand easternIndian Ocean.[1]The frequency is 19.8 kHz. With a transmission power of 1 megawatt, it is claimed to be the most powerful transmission station in theSouthern Hemisphere.[2]

The town ofExmouthwas built at the same time as the communications station to provide support to the base and to house dependent families of United States Navy personnel.

VLF transmitter masts

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Diagram of towers
VLF transmitter masts as seen from nearby Bundegi Beach

The station features thirteen tallradio towers.The tallest tower is calledTower Zeroand is 387.4 metres (1,271 ft) tall, and was for many years the tallest human-made structure in theSouthern Hemisphere.[3]Six odd numbered outer towers T1–T11, located on an outer ring, each 358 metres (1,175 ft) tall, are placed in a hexagon around Tower Zero. The other six even numbered inner towers T2–T12, which are each 303.6 metres (996 ft) tall, are placed in a smaller hexagon around Tower Zero.[4][2]

Structure Height Location
(m) (ft)
Tower 0 387.4 1,271 21°48′58″S114°9′55″E/ 21.81611°S 114.16528°E/-21.81611; 114.16528
Tower 1 358 1,175 21°48′35″S114°9′57″E/ 21.80972°S 114.16583°E/-21.80972; 114.16583
Tower 2 303.5 996 21°48′48″S114°10′18″E/ 21.81333°S 114.17167°E/-21.81333; 114.17167
Tower 3 358 1,175 21°49′12″S114°10′16″E/ 21.82000°S 114.17111°E/-21.82000; 114.17111
Tower 4 303.5 996 21°49′23″S114°9′54″E/ 21.82306°S 114.16500°E/-21.82306; 114.16500
Tower 5 358 1,175 21°49′10″S114°9′32″E/ 21.81944°S 114.15889°E/-21.81944; 114.15889
Tower 6 303.5 996 21°48′45″S114°9′33″E/ 21.81250°S 114.15917°E/-21.81250; 114.15917
Tower 7 358 1,175 21°48′25″S114°10′19″E/ 21.80694°S 114.17194°E/-21.80694; 114.17194
Tower 8 303.5 996 21°49′1″S114°10′38″E/ 21.81694°S 114.17722°E/-21.81694; 114.17722
Tower 9 358 1,175 21°49′35″S114°10′14″E/ 21.82639°S 114.17056°E/-21.82639; 114.17056
Tower 10 303.5 996 21°49′33″S114°9′31″E/ 21.82583°S 114.15861°E/-21.82583; 114.15861
Tower 11 358 1,175 21°48′56″S114°9′11″E/ 21.81556°S 114.15306°E/-21.81556; 114.15306
Tower 12 303.5 996 21°48′22″S114°9′35″E/ 21.80611°S 114.15972°E/-21.80611; 114.15972

On 3 March 2009, theDefence Materiel Organisationadvertised on the AusTender website a tender to construct two new roads at the station. The tender stated the 357 guy wires which support the 13 towers had exceeded their life expectancy and the roads will support the installation of the VLF guy wires. It states:[5]

Naval Communication Station Harold E Holt (NCSHEH) is sited on the northernmost tip of the peninsula known as North West Cape. The Very Low Frequency (VLF) antennas are large spider webs of wire supported in a top hat arrangement. The centre tower 'Tower Zero', rises to a height of 387.4 metres. The other towers are spread out in two concentric rings around Tower Zero; the towers of the inner ring are 303.5 metres high while those of the outer ring are 358. Buried in the ground beneath the antenna array is 386 kilometres of bare copper ground mat.

— Defence Materiel Organisation, PDBF-0002-2009

History

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Diagram of a Trideco type antenna like that installed at Harold E. Holt

Garfield Barwick,Australian Minister for External Affairs, negotiated the lease on the US base atNorth West Capein 1963 with US ambassador William Battle. The station was commissioned asUS NavalCommunication Station North West Capeon 16 September 1967 at a ceremony with the US Ambassador to AustraliaEdward A. Clarkand thePrime Minister of AustraliaHarold Holt,at whichpeppercorn rentfor the base for the first year was paid.[6]

On 20 September 1968, the station was officially renamed toUS Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holtin memory of the late Prime Minister of Australia, whodisappeared whilst swimmingand was declared dead, presumed drowned, three months after the station was commissioned.[citation needed]

With the election of the Labor Government to power in 1972, Defence MinisterLance Barnardstarted negotiations on the condition of operation of the US military bases in Australia. On 9 January 1974 a joint statement by Lance Barnard andJames Schlesinger,the US Secretary of Defense, assigned the Deputy Commander of the base to aRoyal Australian Navyofficer and gave Australian personnel roles in base technical and maintenance functions. The cipher room was closed to Australian scrutiny. The joint statement stressed the importance of consultations in crises. There was no undertaking given by the US to relay fire orders to their submarines bearing nuclear missiles.[7]

In May 1974 several hundred people travelled to North West Cape from around Australia to protest and occupy the base and "symbolically reclaiming it for the Australian people".[6]During the occupation theEureka Flagwas flown over the base with 55 people arrested during the protest. Songs composed in the campaign against North West Cape and other US bases in Australia includeWe don't want no Yankee BasesandOmega Doodlewhich have become part of the Australian folkloric tradition.[8]From 1967 until October 1992 a USNNaval Security GroupDetachment was stationed at the facility.[9]

Station buildings in 1979

InWestern Australiandomestic politics, the presence of foreign military installations in the state has occasionally been questioned over the decades.[10]The "US" was dropped from the station's official title with the advent of joint United States and Royal Australian Navy operation in 1974. In 1991, an agreement was reached between the governments of Australia and the United States that would make the facility an Australian Naval Communication Station by 1999, a transition that began with a Royal Australian Navy officer taking command of the facility in 1992.[11]The majority of US Naval presence ended in 1993 with the withdrawal of all US Naval personnel.[12]

In July 2002, the Royal Australian Navy handed over operation of the station to theDefence Materiel Organisation.[12]The base is currently[when?]operated under contract byRaytheon Australia.[13]On 15 July 2008, Australia and the US signed a bilateral treaty governing the future joint use of the facility for the next 25 years.[14]

Harold E. Holt was identified as a potentialAir Force Space Surveillance System(orSpace Fence) site in 2011.[15]On 6 December 2013 it was announced that theSpace Surveillance Telescope(SST), part of theUnited States Space Surveillance Network,will be relocated to the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station from its initial deployment at theWhite Sands Missile RangeinNew Mexico.The SSTis expected to be fully operational in 2022.[needs update]

A C-Band Space Surveillance Radar is also being installed and once completed[when?]will be operated remotely byRoyal Australian Air Forcepersonnel fromNo. 1 Remote Sensor UnitatRAAF Base Edinburgh.It will provide a Space Situational Awareness capability, allowing the tracking of space assets and debris.[16]

Aircraft interference controversy

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On 7 October 2008,Qantas Flight 72made an emergency landing atLearmonth airportnear the town ofExmouth, Western Australiafollowing aninflight accidentfeaturing a pair of sudden uncommandedpitch-down manoeuvres that resulted in serious injuries to many of the occupants.[17][18][19][20][21]TheAustralian Transport Safety Bureau(ATSB) identified in a preliminary report that a fault occurred within the Number 1Air Data Inertial Reference Unit(ADIRU) and is the "likely origin of the event". The ADIRU – one of three such devices on the aircraft – began to supply incorrect data to the other aircraft systems.[20][22]The ATSB assessment of speculation that possible interference from Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt or passenger personal electronic devices could have been involved was "extremely unlikely".[23]

On 27 December 2008, another aircraft, Qantas Flight 71, also had a malfunction in its ADIRU. The incident again fuelled media speculation regarding the significance of the Harold E. Holt facility, with theAustralian and International Pilots Associationcalling for commercial aircraft to be barred from the area as a precaution until the events are better understood,[24][25]while the manager of the facility has claimed that it is "highly, highly unlikely" that any interference has been caused.[26]

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Australia and the United States celebrate 50 years for Naval Communication Station Harold E Holt".www.minister.defence.gov.au.16 September 2017.Retrieved24 January2022.
  2. ^abRandall, Colin (19 December 2020)."Exmouth Gulf – Submariners' Haven".navyhistory.au.Retrieved24 January2024.
  3. ^Graff, Garrett M. (2017).Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself - While the Rest of Us Die.Simon & Schuster.
  4. ^"North West Cape Communications Base".www.australiaforeveryone.com.au.Australia For Everyone.Retrieved24 January2024.
  5. ^Closed ATM View - PDBF-0002-2009AusTenders. Accessed 18 November 2009
  6. ^abBuilders' Labourers' Song Book,pp190-194, Published by Widescape International and the BLF, 1975.ISBN0-86932-010-6.A recording was released of the speech by US ambassador Ed Clark titled "Ed Clark Pulls It Off", Liberation Records, Melbourne, Australia (April 1974)
  7. ^Secrets of Stateby George Munster, Published by Walsh & Munster (an imprint of Angus and Robertson) 1982ISBN0-207-14634-9
  8. ^Warren Fahey,The Balls of Bob Menzies: Australian Political Songs 1900-1980,pp288-289, pp299-300, Angus and Robertson Publishers, 1989,ISBN0-207-16204-2
  9. ^"NAVSECGRU Stations past and present".www.navycthistory.com.Retrieved24 March2018.
  10. ^Barker, E. A.(1985)Brian Burke supports the role of US communications base at NW Cape,West Australian,25 Nov. 1985, p.3,
  11. ^"Sign outside Naval Communication Harold E Holt".Still As Life.20 November 2019.Retrieved21 November2019.
  12. ^ab"Naval Communication Station Harold E Holt ( Area A ) (Place ID 103552)".Australian Heritage Database.Australian Government.Retrieved26 August2007.
  13. ^"Mission Support Overview".Raytheon Australia.Archived fromthe originalon 25 April 2016.Retrieved14 July2016.
  14. ^Signing of Harold E. Holt TreatyArchived2 June 2011 at theWayback Machine,Australian Department of Defence
  15. ^Payne, Rob."WA in the running for Space Fence".Astronomy WA. Archived fromthe originalon 23 March 2012.Retrieved9 September2011.
  16. ^"US Space Radar at Exmouth".DMO Bulletin(2). Defence Materiel Organisation. 2014.Retrieved26 October2014.
  17. ^"2008/40 - Qantas Airbus Incident Media Conference"(Press release).Australian Transport Safety Bureau.8 October 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 17 June 2019.Retrieved8 October2008.
  18. ^"2008/40a — ATSB Airbus investigation update"(Press release).Australian Transport Safety Bureau.9 October 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 17 June 2019.Retrieved14 October2008.
  19. ^"2008/40b — Qantas Airbus Accident Media Conference"(Press release).Australian Transport Safety Bureau.10 October 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 17 June 2019.Retrieved14 October2008.
  20. ^ab"2008/43 - Qantas Airbus A330 accident Media Conference"(Press release).Australian Transport Safety Bureau.14 October 2008. Archived fromthe originalon 17 June 2019.Retrieved14 October2008.
  21. ^Siddique, Haroon (7 October 2008)."Qantas flight makes emergency landing as dozens of passengers injured".The Guardian.Retrieved7 October2008.
  22. ^ "Computer glitch may be behind Qantas incident: ATSB".Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 8 October 2008.Retrieved8 October2008.
  23. ^"In-flight upset 154 km west of Learmonth, WA 7 October 2008 VH-QPA Airbus A330-303"(PDF).
  24. ^Catanzaro, Joseph (2 January 2009)."Navigation failure again hits Qantas in north-west".The Age.Retrieved2 January2009.[dead link‍]
  25. ^"Call for no-go zone after another Qantas forced landing".The Age.2 January 2009. Archived fromthe originalon 6 January 2009.Retrieved2 January2009.
  26. ^Hopkin, Michael (7 January 2009)."Exmouth interference 'unlikely'".The Sydney Morning Herald.Retrieved7 January2009.

Further reading

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  • "Google" satellite map:the map opens centred on the "Area A" very low frequency (VLF) towers site, which is at the northernmost edge of the Northwest Cape, approximately 4 miles north of the Main base; the "Area B" high frequency receiver (HFR) site was approximately 30 miles south of the Main Base
  • "Google" street view:The view from the side of the road with Tower 9 in the foreground.
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