Red Centre Highlights

Travelling between Adelaide and the opal mining town of Coober Pedy, we make a lunch stop at the Woomera Missile Park.

The Woomera Missile Park is an outdoor museum, showcasing the town’s Cold War history as a premier rocket range.  Maintained by the Department of Defence, it displays dozens of historic missiles, rockets, drones, and aircraft from the 1947-1972 heyday, located near the still-active RAAF Woomera Range Complex.

The outdoor museum features rockets such as the Black Arrow, missiles and drones as well as a Meteor Mark 7 jet.

Time permitting, you may get the opportunity to visit the Woomera Heritage Centre and Rocket Range Museum, which showcases the town’s history as a Cold War-era rocket testing site.   It features displays on rocket trials, the Joint Defence Facility at Nurrungar.

What a wonderful opportunity for students to not only visit Coober Pedy (considered the opal capital of the world) but also get the chance to sleep underground.

On arrival at your accommodation in Coober Pedy, the Umoona Opal Mine and Museum, you will be met by one of their experienced staff and taken on a guided town tour including an underground church and other sites of interest in their town.   Afterwards, you return to the accommodation for a short mine tour, an opal cutting and polishing demonstration and are shown their award winning documentary, The Story of Opal.

Kings Canyon, located in the Northern Territory within the Watarrka National Park, is a massive 270-meter-deep chasm featuring 100-meter-high sheer sandstone walls, ancient palm-filled crevices and a ‘Garden of Eden’ waterhole.

On visiting Kings Canyon, you can choose from a number of walks, all differing from reasonably easy to the more difficult ‘Rim Walk’.   the Rim Walk is the most famous and spectacular of the walks.  The first part of the walk is an ascent of 1000 steps, with several places to stop and rest, however if you take it slow and easy, you’ll find that the rest of the walk is pretty easy going, once you’ve reached the top!

Lilla is an aboriginal outstation community located in the Watarrka National Park. In the native tongue of the Luritja country, Lilla means ‘sweet water’. If you visit Lilla you will get a chance to drink the best tasting water that has been filtered through the Mereenie sandstone from underground springs.

On arrival you will be taken on a 4 cultural activity session which includes a cultural welcoming ceremony performed by the traditional land-owners (the Luritja people), learn how to use traditional hunting weapons (like the boomerang), learn to paint in the traditional Luritja way and much more.

The highlight for most schools, when visiting Lilla, is the opportunity to spend time with the children of Lilla – it’s all a highlight for them as well!