21°48′59″S114°09′56″E / 21.816405°S 114.16563°E /-21.816405; 114.16563
Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt is 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 Defence on behalf of Australia and the United States and providesvery low frequency (VLF) radio transmission toUnited States Navy,Royal Australian Navy and allied ships and submarines in the westernPacific Ocean and 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 ofExmouth was 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.
The station features thirteen tallradio towers. The tallest tower is calledTower Zero and 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]
On 3 March 2009, theDefence Materiel Organisation advertised 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
Garfield Barwick, Australian Minister for External Affairs, negotiated the lease on the US base atNorth West Cape in 1963 with US ambassador William Battle. The station was commissioned asUS Naval Communication Station North West Cape on 16 September 1967 at a ceremony with the US Ambassador to AustraliaEdward A. Clark and thePrime Minister of AustraliaHarold Holt, at whichpeppercorn rent for the base for the first year was paid.[6]
On 20 September 1968, the station was officially renamed toUS Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt in memory of the late Prime Minister of Australia, whodisappeared whilst swimming and 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 Barnard started 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 Navy officer 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 Flag was 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 Bases andOmega Doodle which have become part of the Australian folkloric tradition.[8] From 1967 until October 1992 a USNNaval Security Group Detachment was stationed at the facility.[9]
InWestern Australian domestic 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, would be relocated to the Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station from its initial deployment at theWhite Sands Missile Range inNew Mexico. The SST entered initial operational capability at North West Cape on 4 October 2022 and was originally operated by the Royal Australian Air Force, 1 Remote Sensor Unit. A C-Band Space Surveillance Radar was installed in 2022.[16]No. 1 Space Surveillance Unit became responsible for operating the radar and telescope in early 2023. It is located atRAAF Base Edinburgh in South Australia, and operates the systems remotely.[17]
On 7 October 2008,Qantas Flight 72 made an emergency landing atLearmonth airport near the town ofExmouth, Western Australia following aninflight accident featuring a pair of sudden uncommandedpitch-down manoeuvres that resulted in serious injuries to many of the occupants.[18][19][20][21][22] 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.[21][23] 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".[24]
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 Association calling for commercial aircraft to be barred from the area as a precaution until the events are better understood,[25][26] while the manager of the facility claimed that it was "highly, highly unlikely" that any interference had been caused.[27]
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