Portal:Military history of Australia/Units/August 24

Warning sign on the road to Pine Gap

The Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap (commonly called Pine Gap) is a joint Australian and United States satellite tracking station near Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Pine Gap was established in the late 1960s and has grown from the original two antennas to about a dozen and a half in 1999. The number of staff has also increased, from around 400 in the early 1970s, to 600 in the early 1990s and then to an expected 1000 early this century. The biggest expansion occurred after the end of the Cold War. Pine Gap has at times been controversial and has attracted a number of protests.