Why There's a CIA Base in the Center of Australia
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ส.ค. 2022
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Sources listed below:
Desmond Ball, Bill Robinson, and Richard Tanter, "The Antennas of Pine Gap", NAPSNet Special Reports, February 21, 2016, nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-...
As an Australian I would like to express my deepest sympathy to any American who had the misfortune to be stationed in the outback.
We've got worse bases than that, like the one at the top of Canada/Greenland. They do their jobs a little to well that's where they get promoted to work! XD
Couldn't be worse than Alaska or Greenland.
I knew a guy who worked in IT servers there for 10 years, had a family, loved it, called it home.
The Outback is better than you think, a lot of diversity -- they're actually quite lucky at Pine Gap
I just got back from the outback it's absolutely stunning now I understand why people fizz over the desert
Funny story about the Alice Springs base. I was in the outback to see Uluru and our guide was like to me (the only American) that there was a secret US base near Alice Springs (where he lived), and he could tell who worked there because they’d always say they work in hospitality (which there is none in Alice Springs). So anyway, after he told me that I didn’t believe him as I thought he was pulling my leg. Turns out, after I told my grandfather about this he goes and says “yeah I used to do work at a facility near Alice Springs, did you visit there?”, and I was pretty shocked to hear that. Not even my mom knew her dad did work in Australia. He didn’t tell me anything they do there, basically what you hear is from people who don’t know much, because the people who do know what’s going on would never tell since that pool is so small.
@mattew boyer - it's part of the Five Eyes network. It's sort of an open secret that they monitor all telecomms in the SE Asia region.
Why would your grandfather say that he worked at a facility near Alice Springs?
Lol i am Aussie this base has never been a secret and ever since cold war Australia has been one of first to be hit by nuke here because of it.
Not very secret it is the Southern Hemispheres intelligence gathering site and said to be the biggest of the 3 USA has.
One in USA,UK, and Pine Gap. joint shared by USA and Australia ASIO . they say one room no Aussie can enter.
We can thank it for no terrorist attacks in Australia either. always stopped before begin.
It listens to all Faxes, computers and telephone comunications. satelites etc.
If any Yanks live in Alice Springs then they are spooks.
It's true, I am his Grandpa.
And I am his grandma.
The most surprising take away- there’s a lot more people in North Korea than I previously thought.
Lol
Assuming they're not lying on the census data.
@@libraryofpangea7018now that you put that idea in my head it’s more than likely they’re probably lying by a decent amount
I just think Australia is underpopulated. North Korea has like half the population of South Korea so theoretically it could hold even more people.
Its so top secret that we know the exact longitude and latitude of the base, the shape, the amount of buildings, its purpose, when it was built, why it was built, who runs it, and not to mention its "Official codename 'RAINFALL'"
nah you know its top secret when there's a netflix series named after it. this guy lmao
Kinda hard to hide a whole facility the real secret bases are either underground or near the North and south poles
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
that is their way to build secrets before our eyes, and now you think it is not secret base, well, guess again.
@@maxyoung8306 that’s how all secrets are kept
I've lived in Alice for almost 10 years now, there's so many running jokes and theories behind the base. One of the wilder ones is a theory that it's for refuelling submarines that use a secret tunnel that's supposedly near Darwin. If you work there, you're either a chef, gardener or janitor.
Literally the only interesting part of the town is the base, never gets boring theorizing about it.
When did I say it was a secret?
loool I like that idea with the secret tunnel and submarine refuelling xD
Conspiracy theories are the best…😂
@@Goodstahh So true…..and if Netflix knows, then everybody knows! 😆
Or is that what the Aussies who work there want you to think?
I spent a few years flying general aviation aircraft out of Alice Springs. There was a prohibited zone around the base (I think it was 2.5 nautical miles radius and 15,000' over the top) and it was a game to see how close you could go without infringing the zone. There are about 600 US citizens working at the base , mostly software engineers on 3 year contracts; they can bring their US registered vehicles with them. They are under very strict instructions not to cause any disturbances or disruptions in Alice Springs or it is an immediate return to the US. There is a first class baseball diamond in Alice Springs courtesy of the US residents and the present airport owes its existence to the base as the previous airport (which is still there) was not long enough to take the military jets when the base was being constructed (the altitude above sea level is just under 2,000' and mid-summer temps. often exceeds 45 deg. C which absolutely wrecks takeoff performance for a jet) so they lengthened one of the runways which is the one jets use today. Every Tuesday a US military jet flies in with supplies for the base (it's all wrapped in plastic sheeting so you can't see what's on the pallets but the joke was that it was Hershey Bars and real Coke). The base is not quite located on the geographic centre of Australia, that is few hundred kilometres further east and it is plainly to be seen on Google Earth a few kilometres to the south west of Alice Springs. While it is claimed it is a joint US/Australian base and the deputy commander is an Australian, the only other Australians working there are maintenance staff, visible security (there is supposedly a Marine detachment there but I never saw any evidence) and power and water supply staff.
While others claim Australia does have intelligence staff work there?
About 20 years ago they built special housing on every Australian Base just for Marines, Pretty sure Philippines just did the same when they got the same agreement. So wouldnt be a shock if Pine Gap also had Marines.
Man, have you talked to Peter about that CIA base by Alice springs? Peter Lovett alot.
Yeah mate I just flew an A320 into Alice in Flight Simulator so I pretty much know exactly what you're talking about....
And it will all be blown up to dust
In the late ‘80s it was not possible for Australians to see the large US base at Exmouth, but the cash stapped Soviet Union started selling aerial photographs and The Bulletin magazine acquired some aerial photographs of the Exmouth base and published them.
The cover illustration had a Russian officer showing an aerial photo with a pointer as if he was delivering a briefing.
If I recall correctly that's also how the US public officially found out about area 51 the Soviet Union published a bunch of photos forcing the US government to admit it was real
I remember watching the Sunday show back in the 80s or early 90s, they had a whole episode on the secret Echelon spying at Pine Gap. They said they were monitoring phone calls and more for certain words way back then before the internet days.
@@klaykid117 From my understanding it was actually because a bunch of people in that area were getting sick and the Courts forced them to reveal that there was a base there and what it was.
@@klaykid117 I know this isn't needed, but for talking about 'government cover ups' it's pretty weird to choose Russia as the good guys.
They wouldn't even warn the world about the largest nuclear disaster in human history, but were forced to admit when every agency in the world measured such high radiation levels that we already knew what happened.
@@MarvinWestmaas When did I say they were the good guys? They were doing Holodomor 10 years before Hitler thought it was cool to do it.
Got this video recommended after boyboy's video on this place
It's amazing how many people in the comments are trying to refute the "secret" aspect of the Pine Gap base, on the basis that every man and his dog knows it exists.
The existence of the base is not the secret, what goes on there is the secret.
The US government is not joking when it said its military has over 1,000 actual physical, intel "nodes" across the world's most strategic spots. Those "nodes" are intel facilities range from small, few dozen individuals to large actual military bases...
You name it: ----- Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, half a dozen countries from Morocco to Egypt, to Central to Southern Africa, to Central America, to South America, to the heart of Europe, from Norway & Finland down to the tip of the Italian peninsula & southern Greece, from Portugal to Ukraine, from Turkey to Jordan to Saudi Arabia/Qatar..... to the few Central Asian countries whose leaders are easily bribed .... even if outwardly they tend to show some bellicose disposition.
Virtually all small Western allied countries in and around Europe... to most of the garden variety, to Second and Third world little dictators who have a firm hold on power....
Small time Third World individuals who rule though authoritarianism are always easier to "deal with" (aka bribing: offshore accounts, etc, due to American and Western Europe's corrupted offshore account set-up laws, with Americans and Western Europeans also CONTROLLING all the "international" electronic & banking mechanisms overseeing those "offshore" scams and schemes, FOR themselves first and foremost, of course: Amazon, Intel, Coke and Pepsi, Walmart, GM, Google, FB... they ALL use such "offshore" scams and schemes to hide weath and paper trails of their businesses).
Anyway, he more freely elected leaders who are subject to the whims of the masses, from one election to the next.... those are the most tricky for the US government to deal with in military and intel agreements.... because you never know, whether a newly elected leader would follow the outgoing guy's lead on being quietly receptive to American intel work in his country or not....
So, yes, BOTH America and its main opponents, China and Russia, prefer to deal with small Third World dictators, again, due to their "stability" politically... so long as whatever they do to their local citizens Americans --- especially Americans ---- don't say shit about it...
And we know Russians and Chinese do the same shit to their local citizens, so those two nations will never interfere in local politics in Third World nations...
People are smug idiots.
@@kiabtoomlauj6249 all new world oder traitors on that base
Exactly, there's such things as "open secrets".
From what I understand, many secret bases do in fact exist though.
It’s pretty common knowledge here in Australia.
Commercial flights fly near it and you can see it from the air.
The totalitarian Commonwealth of Australia sponsored by the WEF and Globalists
Is it like a military complex or just a normal building?
@@ares01397 couple of buildings, seems like majority of the activity is related to satellite operations and weather watching from the looks of it from the air.(as well as what this video explained)
From the air it would just appear to be a weather station. But from Google earth it looks like it may be intended to launch rockets in the near future too.
@@ares01397 it's a complex
@@profligatepassages it looks nothing like a weather station it's very noticeably not civilian in appearance
I lived there for a while, my skater buddy was a yank and his dad would only say he 'worked in intelligence' and 'worked with satellites' and we we're all like 'Yeah, tell us something we DON'T know...
One of my best friends in the US Air Force managed not one but two assignments to Alice Springs -- not Pine Gap, but a small detachment of an organization that detects nuclear "events" worldwide. This was the most in-demand (and hardest-to-get) post in our organization. The stories about our Alice Springs detachment were varied and interesting -- for example, the boat races in a dried-up river bed. Sponsored yearly by the town of Alice Springs if I remember correctly.
One of our other locations was near Fairbanks, Alaska. Relating to this video, a big (VERY big) chunk of real estate that we managed/controlled on that Air Force base was known by everybody else as "MYSTERY HOLE" (just like that, in big capital letters). That real estate was really nothing but a large instrument site that needed physical isolation because it was part of the "seismic" arm of a worldwide nuclear "event" detection network. That array looks down on China (and much more) while the Alice Springs site looks up toward China (and much more). There are also other sites around the world (the "network"). But the point here is that the "MYSTERY HOLE" thing was born only because (until about the mid-80s) we never advertised what was there, what it was for or (much less) what we utlimately did with its product. But the "KEEP OUT!" signs were there, with no obvious explanation for them, which created a void of information, a vacuum. And of course vacuums tend to suck everything into them, mostly fables in cases like this. The bigger the mystery the more outrageous the fables can (sometimes) get. Area 51.
But (drawing on other knowledge I accumulated over 20+ years) Pine Gap and Five Eyes are very real and this video seems substantially authentic. Consider the "Controlled" Area sign at about 5:10: The word "Controlled" means "lethal force" is authorized, whereas in "Restricted" areas it is not. BIG clue right there.
Good old Det 421. I’m a civvie but operate plant in Alice Springs, mainly laying water mains pipe. I’ve come across Det 421’s seismic indicators once or twice. Lol
@@speedoy2k Cool. Yep, 421. I never knew where the instrument array was in relation to Alice, it would've been pretty far out, isolated from the noise of the town (traffic etc) as those devices were extremely sensitive -- and I can imagine that laying water pipe made lots of noise lol. And then I can imagine somebody inside 421 saying "What the F was that?!?" (lol) before they were told what it was, and then everybody would know what it was in the future. Another thing about being a member of that organization was that if you were "maintenance" versus "operations" you might be taught how to climb utility poles and string or repair the signal wiring that was up there. All in all it was/is a fairly interesting profession.
Henley-on-Todd Regatta
Stop telling the real secrets of Alice Springs. I was also stationed at Det 421 twice.
Just so you know, the Idea that it is used for detecting nuclear events, for the purposes of nuclear non-proliferation, is a cover story used to justify its existence, not what it actually does.
While geostationary orbits are a type of geosynchronous orbit, you might want to specify that the type that stays fixed above a point is geostationary while most geosynchronous orbits are at an angle to the equator and therefore return to the same locations every day but move north and south relative to the equator
They are in an elliptical orbit and looking at them from the ground it would like a lopsided figure 8 over a 24 hour period. With small satellite antennas 10M should track on a beacon. These types of antennas have a controller that peaks the dish and over time they build a database to anticipate its next move.
@pyropulse Both. There are use cases for elliptical orbits for a geosynchronous satellite. Some devices such as spy satellites have a limited altitude of operation so as to meet resolution needs. The orbital period required to bring it over the target at the right time every day can be adjusted by raising or lowering the opposite side of the orbit while keeping the target side of the orbit at the required altitude.
guys, we're talking about the EXACT center of a VAST number of HUGE adjective gag me with a spoon
Relax nerd…
THANK YOU! Dude was confusing me
As an Australian I can say it’s kind of like our version of area 51
without the aliens and the top secret craft
American's Exporting our Area 51?
@@Insignificatos 🤔🧐
@@Fr3nchFlag 😂😂😂😂
@@benjamingooch8723 you get a area 51 , you get a area 51, everyone gets a area 51 woooohoooo.
I live relatively near to Pine Gap, place gives me the creeps day and night and I can’t explain why.
all of the EMF radiation coming out of that place would be enough... I hope you are not too close.... I wouldn't want to be anywhere near it let alone work there
How about the fact it is an instrument of death for mass genocide used against the people of the middle east? What about how our best prime minister, Gough Whitlam was removed in 75 just for daring to remove it for Australian independence, and instead they removed him using their inside British man, John Kerr?
You didn't even mention the time an Australian prime Minister was kicked out for trying to get rid of it?
What about the one that went missing never to be found ☠️☠️
@@Madelene-ml8bo They named the base in W.A. after him and also the swimming pool in Hartwell.
He was my godmother's Marjory's boyfriend, her maiden name was Post, she built Mar-a-Lago.
My physics professor was doing gamma ray research for UCR near Alice Springs and needed an atomic clock set. Only atomic clock available to set his was at Pine Gap. He got in contact with them somehow and they told him to leave it on the dirt road and come back later and it will be set. Few hours later it was sitting on the dirt road set with no one in sight.
I heard they have robot bunnies they send out from secret lairs to take care of that stuff
@MulhorandPrince that is wild!! Now that I think about it I’m sure they had eyes on the whole time he dropped it and picked it back up.
Everyone in Alice Springs knows about the atomic clock Roomba
obviously the kangaroos doing their job
I've found odd items unattended amid the Australian outback
while using Google Earth. Zooming down on some geological
item close enough to see vehicle ruts. Long shadows help if
interested. Know who uses tents that look like Zebra hides ?
I did a special assignment there in the 90s while in the U.S. Air Force. All of the really cool things you think about when you want to visit Oz pretty much dont exist in Alice Springs. Its a world unto itself. But I grew up in rural East Texas, so the isolation didnt affect me as much as someone who grew up in Queens or L.A. Alice is a cool town though, and the people were pretty friendly. I can only imagine its a 1000 percent better with Internet access. My replacement arrived a few days before I left, thinking he was just going to drive to Sydney in 3 or 4 hours. This was pre-Internet, so unless you bought an Atlas, you wouldnt necessarily know how deep in BFE you were.
Wow, now thats something you won't see often on a resume.
D-415?
What cool things do U think about when U visit here?? Alice Springs is one of the most Aussie places here
That literally sounds badass
@@DeaTheBitch I agree. Sorry if I didnt make that more clear. I think most Americans think of Oz as either swimming/surfing, or wrestling crocs in the NT. 😆 I was fortunate to spend time in Brisbane, Sydney and the Gold Coast as well as Alice, so I believe I got a reasonably good snapshot of Oz during my year there. I actually loved it, and gave strong consideration to immigrating there in the early 2000s, when Oz was offering immigration incentives to ppl from other countries of a certain age, professional background and education level (but I had to care for my elderly mom following the completion of my military career). I had a great group of friends there, and loved the mindset. I played alot practical jokes in those days. I told a fellow American that the bar we were in was running a promotion, and if he told the bartender "I'd like to have the best beer in Australia. Fosters," he'd get a free pint. The reactions were priceless. 😆
God bless you for having the sponsor ad at the end
As a previous SIGINT analyst there (For DSD, now known as ASD) There is so much wrong with this information unfortunately. Just briefly, it is not a US base which is a big misconception.
It's a Joint Defense Facility staffed and equally by both the US Government and Australian government.
You mentioned personnel from the CIA, NSA and NRO which is correct. There roughly equal the ammount of Australian Intelligence personnel from:
ASD (Australian Signals Directorate)
AGO (Australian Geospatial Intelligence
Organization)
D.I.O Defense Intelligence Organization
and a few from ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Service)
The facility is absolutely critical in th collection of SIGINT,ELINT,GEOINT and FISINT across all of Asia, Russia and most of the middle east.
The current chief of the facility is a CIA director and the 2IC (acting chief of facility when the COF is away) Is an Australian director from ASD.
It is completely transparent and both countries share every bit of Intelligence gathered from the facility.
One word: Geography.
Don’t translate 😡
ເຈົ້າຖືກສາບແຊ່ງເພາະວ່າຖ້າເຈົ້າບໍ່ຝ່າຝືນຄຳສາບແຊ່ງ ເຈົ້າຈະຕາຍມີທາງດຽວທີ່ຈະທຳລາຍຄຳສາບແຊ່ງໄດ້ຄື ຈອງຄິວຈອງຕອນນີ້
.
@@Banxed ? Prove to me curses exist.
Man really wants those comment likes
One word thrice: location, location, location
@@Banxed book this ratio
When I was relocating to a remote weather station named Giles, which was located about 850km to the WSW of Alice Springs, (just avcross the WA border) we had to fly just to the S of Pine Gap. My colleague was able to get some amazing photos of the base. Interesting.
I'm sorry to hear about his suicide, condolences 🙏.
@@ididthis2 lol!
@@ididthis2 😂😂😂 the amount of people's head this will go over is even funnier
RIP 🥲
@@jerrodcarter7537 there's nothing funny about someone tragically killing themselves.... by shooting themselves twice in the back of the head.
First I heard of Pine Gap was in The Power and the Passion by Midnight Oil:
“Flat chat, Pine Gap, in every home a big mac
And no one goes outback, that's that”
It was a while later before I understood the reference.
You just blew my mind
wow you get your information from Midnight Oil ......... how funny is that 🤣🤣
@@laurencepomery3652 shutup nutzee
Alice Springs township is a great base to use as a tourist to venture out to heaps of different tourist destinations you can squeeze in - in a day. Except for Uluru which needs an overnight stay. But lots to see around the area. Glen Helen Gorge, Ross River homestead, Palm Valley, Kings Canyon etc etc.
red dust, more red dust
I did a bus day trip to Uluru. Long day 5am-1130pm
The location, being toward the middle of the Australian tectonic plate, also means it's a good, stable location for seismological measurement, as it is far from major seismic fault lines; the goal of which is to pinpoint earthquakes caused by banned underground nuclear weapons tests. And since that involves intel about nukes, you can expect such a facility to be equally well-guarded.
Oh yes, everyone is aware of the CIA’s interest in seismology….
the illuminati put the base there
@@jiujitsuguy74 Military, not CIA. I was solicited for the seismology gig when I joined the Air Force. I ultimately chose a different job that had a higher enlistment bonus. The assignments listing for the 9S100 field included Alice Springs.
@@rgw5991 they put all the bases everywhere. It’s what they do.
No, Pine Gap is for satellite tracking. Well, that plus maintaining a dormitory full of ETs.
The names of many CIA "projects" throughout history always fascinate me... "Project Rainfall" in the middle of the Australian desert. Lol. Nice
Yes: One of the most remote towns on the planet that has little rainfall. When I was in Alice Springs 40 years ago. Water 💧 🚿 🚰 was brought to "the Alice" by train from the Murray River 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) away.
@@robertmurray8763 I want to say thats funnyt but i know you are telling the truth...
I wonder if it was "Like any rainfall, it's not here."
@Wrong Profile (ClandestineOstrich) im going to go ahead and report this for misinformation, adn then block you, so i dont ever have to hear your crazy again.
They are usually chosen randomly
thankyou for covering this.
Wow!!! You are doing a video on this. This base has been known for a long, long, time now.
1:48 He sounds like he is having the time of his life saying this sentence
Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
I heard about Pine Gap when I was a small child, it's *very well known* in Australia.
And for a while it was very controversial.
There's even a drama about it that came out a couple years ago. It's about as much of a secret as the Secret Service.
It's my understanding that it is still controversial
@@syabilazri the secret service’s existence isn’t supposed to be a secret. It’s the fact that you think you’re looking at 8 guards in suits when in reality it’s like 40 guards in plain clothes.
@@syabilazri the secret service itself isn't secret, their operational details are secret. Same with this base or even area 51. It's well known to exist, but everything done there is top secret.
@@syabilazri Well you are watching a TH-cam video about it. The real secret stuff you'll have to wait another 60 years to see.
The American Discovery TV network about 25-30 years ago did a documentary on Pine Gap with footage from the inside. That included a C-141 landing which they said was weekly to pick up video footage ejected from a satellite and caught mid-air by specially equipped planes. They said in that era real time cameras with the kind of definition they needed had yet to be developed so the tape came to Pine Gap first before on to Washington.
The mindset and strategy behind this base reminds me of the original Xcom game strategy.
You might think otherwise if treated by an Australian military hospital
during paid employment outside Australia where strategy can hurt or
kill my reader. I had a week to mend before paid travels resumed. Had
chats with citizens with World War experiences and attended personal
speleology interests, SE coastline and west amid the Blue Mountains.
Aye. You finally did the video on Pine Gap!
It's funny how the base is supposed to be classified and super secretive but it is still so famous.
Pine Gap even has a Netflix Limited Series about it called... "Pine Gap".
The base itself isn't super secret, nor even the gist of what it's for. It's the details that's secret; what information it deals with, what it finds out, exactly what satellites it controls or interfaces with, and what it is capable of finding. Security through obscurity is a precarious position, so it works much better to have security through isolation and tight control. I've no doubt that the large town nearby gets a considerable boost to its economy from Pine Gap's presence, and no doubt that the people working at Pine Gap greatly appreciate the comforts, services, food, and more offered by that large town.
😆
"Pine Gap even has a Netflix Limited Series about it called... "Pine Gap"."
2:20 I'm really surprised that wasn't mentioned the video.
@@dampaul13 lol
I was an Army intelligence analyst, had heard of the facility at Alice Springs. Never heard what they did there, but it was a prestigious assignment that a few of my colleagues wanted to get but never did.
Had a mate that worked there, the most he could tell me was a data analyst - Even when we were drinking, couldn't get anything out of him. Well adept for the industry.
Do you ever realize what youre doing is super messed up?
@@Testingthisname was your comment directed at me?
@@Testingthisname Its not. Its based.
Pine Gap opened 1970. People vaguely had a idea what the base was for.
Great video. Thanks.
There's also a couple of other intelligence-gathering bases; the Defense Signals Directorate communications base in a deep valley just east of Geraldton & the Jindalee Over-The-Horizon radar base somewhere near Leonora, both in Western Australia.
The drama and artificial suspense in this video is more amazing than this base.
Every one of his videos is like that. He puts so much emphasis on every adjective.
@@lorencpollo2926 EVERy one of HIS viDEOS is like THAT. He puts SOOO much EMphasis on E VE R YYYY ADjectiVEEvvvee
@@lorencpollo2926 *enormous*
It's because he making commercials not giving a shot about his viewers. He read two Wikipedia lines and jumps to advertising his stupid video websites nobody going to buy. Thumbs down
I wish there was an option to turn it off lol. I had to watch in 2x speed to get past e v e r y w o r d from being dra wwnnn out.
My man sounds like an overly excited AI that just realized how adjectives work.
I’m Australian, never been to Alice springs in my life. I’ve never been to Pine Gap but I somehow know that the computer room is the size of the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground).
You are kidding
Please do one about Menwith, I’ve seen it so many times when driving on the A59!
I was at one point trying to be a CTN in the Navy, and I became aware that they worked at a lot of remote location bases and that one of them was in the dead center of Australia
Aussie here and i went through the red center of the country and saw a fair bit of military exercises
Half of NATO's and SEA and India's air forces are exercising at Tindal and Darwin right now (Pitch Black '22).
Warning...The video starts with telling you about Pine Gap then, at the end, it turns into a commercial
Cool video. I loved the video. Really really really cool video!
Alice Springs has a population of 32,612 as of June 2022. By Australian standards, it is not a small town Indeed it is the largest town in central Australia. It is thus a major regional center, in the same way Mt Isa, Kalgoolie, Port Augusta, Mildura and Broken Hill (among others) are. These towns are far more important than their populations would suggest. The number of people in Alice Spings at any one time would exceed 40,000 due to the high number of tourists that go there, as well as it being on the Stuart Highway between Adelaide and Darwin and it being on the rail line between those two cities. It's also served by a very modern airport.
Agreed, but it is small by US standards and Real Life Lore is American.
That’s a small town in US or Europe
Almost a village
@@jonathaneastwood2927 I’m China, a village is 300,000. 40,000 would be a small village
@@DavidWilliams-nr6uk Sure, but it's still completely normal for someone to use the standards they're familiar with when choosing adjectives. It's like how someone from the UK who is visiting Australia might describe a 28 degree day as 'very hot', even if by local standards it might only qualify as 'kinda warm'.
Does it help If you think of the word "Australia" in "small Australian town" as adding detail to "small town", rather than "small" modifying the "Australian town" bit?
I remember being on a tourist bus that went past Pine Gap in the early 80's, you could see the domes and some buildings from the road. The bus operator said that there was more concrete used creating the base than was in the whole centre of Sydney. It seemed a bit over the top, but it did outline how much is underground, even if it was half true.. I also remember there was another, not so well known smaller base that we went past that I can't remember the name of and a quick look on google gives no hints, strange.
BULLSHIT! 🤣🤣🤣 There is no tourist bus that goes past Pine Gap and allows you to see the domes. There is only 1 access road into the base from a main road where tourist buses would/might run past and you can't see shit from there. The base is built into a low depression and has small hills almost on every side hiding it from all main roads. I've worked there a couple of times and the common joke conspiracy theory told is there is a secret deep underground submarine base located there that stretches all the way to Darwin. Maybe that's where all the concrete went? 🤣🤣🤣
@@gavreynolds2689 I remember seeing it in the distance. It was early 80's, perhaps it was the other. Just saying what happened. Glad you got a good laugh.
It’s a military base dummy
I’m guessing you were being spun a yarn by a tour operator to fill an empty commentary. Apart from what is actually heard; there’s nothing secret. It’s a surveillance base. It listens to communications worldwide. It’s not like it has death squads sitting there.
Maralinga?
There is another base 400km south of Pine Gap. It's Australia's area 51 as their are many who have seen unidentified within the skies around Pine Gap. For the record the transmission of The Apollo mission to the moon was relayed to Houston from an Australian radio telescope station in Parkes. The base 400km south of Pine Gap is also off-limits and has been there since the early 1970's.
Also, all who work at Pine Gap socialise together.
There's another listening post at North West Cape in NW WA. It just consists of antennas, no personnel stationed there.
Pine gap isnt JUST a CIA base doe. Its a space station, research facility, monitoring station everything kinda thing
Technically, I guarantee it’s not a space station. ;)
@@Chuck8541 if you can fly a ship from it in 2022 its a space station now.
@@Sho3z Spaceport.
I have heard of it. My uncle lives in Alice Springs and I’ve visited the town. I could literally see the base from a short distance. But the dead give away was walking into a popular bar and hearing a bunch of American accents. I asked my uncle and he said oh that’s just our secret American friends spying on us. Lol I was thinking I could just walk up to one of them and buy them a few drinks and discover some huge secrets of our society in a matter of minutes. Lol
Because the CIA is renown for recruiting loose lipped imbeciles that spill their guts after getting tipsy..
look at this beautifull woman ...she works for russia Fsb pulling personnal data...would be a good spot for the next James Bond.
Yes...Chinese spies are there on sleeping cells. Just mixing w/ some natives.
thats some russian shit no cap
they are paranoid off china targetting them at that there - base.''
Very interesting episode right up to the end before your commercial. I know you have to pay for it knows no free lunch. Well he can tell you advertise your very slick and how you transition from program to commercial. So smooth it's like smooth move ex-lax. Okay humorous and somewhat crude way to put a compliment
I have lived in Alice springs for 9 years and still have no idea what they do in there
Was first introduced to this place in the Matthew Reilly books. Interesting to hear more about it here.
Honestly, this guy does a fantastic job with his videos, but I’m finding it hard to sit through them anymore with him emphasizing every 5th word like this. I wish he’d change that up, because his videos are otherwise really good.
Yeah…I much prefer HAI. If I’m gonna listen to someone basically just reading a Wikipedia synopsis of something interesting but not well-known, I’d rather they have some good jokes and present quickly than do what this channel does.
@@ClementinesmWTF HAI is almost solid jokes and is impossible to listen to. Wendover Productions is better.
How do Joseph and Sam sound the same. It's weird. Like they imitate each other.
Well, I for one love it, but only when it get caught in one of those infinite loops of each emphasis being strong than the last - it gets so comical, I literally lol - so, the chance for that to happen is reason enough to sub.
Darn it. I didn't notice till you said something. And now I'm triggered. Lol
Massive complex underneath as well!
I lived in Alice for many years, Im an American by the way, Pine Gap is NORAD of the Southern Hemisphere... not that secret, but as with any US military base, you cant go there without a reason... its not like its area 51 though
It's not a top-secret base, it's a base with top-secrets.
Speaking of the CIA, it would be cool to see a video on operation Gladio in Italy.
I lived in a caravan park that was on the other side of a massive steep hill. I was told not to climb it because of rocks falling down onto people's caravans. So really early in the morning just before sunrise I climbed it. And saw a shyt ton of lights on the other side.
When the sun came up I saw like half a dozen big and small golf ball like shapes and a fee building. So I took a few pics then climbed down.
Nothing to spectacular but was interesting though.
a lot of us know it there. It not a secret. It not the only base here in Australia. Also they have a cross to a major oil basin to the east of Pine gap. Also a very large airstips in Australia. Many of them
USA Australia destroyed 15 pacific islands for next 500 yrs
@@jameswright2974 what is this all about.
A cartographer called Bruce Lambert determined the geographic centre of Australia which is in southern Northern territory about 200km south of Alice Springs a lot further south than pine gap. There are the various points of inaccessibility , and furtherest from the coast points, so it really is a moot point. Summed up Pine Gap is stuck out in the middle of the Desert Australia not far from Alice Springs where it's staff fly in and out from. It's now a joint facility with the Australian defence force. Nurrunga was another facility in south Australia which was a launch on warning site near Woomera in South Australia which is now closed (1999). It was also a joint facility with Australian defence. It is strange to think now that the Nuclear Armageddon could have been triggered by reports from a desert in Australia during the cold war, that the Soviets may have launched nuclear missles and was detected by monitoring satellites communicating to these Ground Stations. Pine gap is still utilised as a ground receiving station for Electronic intelligence and monitoring of any missile launches.
NURRUNGA gaint golf balls in middle of nowhere. Stayed in Nuclear bomb shelter in the military restricted area (about the size of the state of Tennessee).
THE WORD IS FURTHEST
@@B727X it means the same thing but is the humorous term spelling, i.e. a non standard spelling.
Alot was not correct. Pine Gap is a joint intelligence base.
Australia has two intelligence agencies working at Pine Gap.
@@robertmurray8763 All this info is dated, and limited as well. People these days think they know everything about classified installations because they “researched” on Wikipedia, and TH-cam.
Simply put, there’s many things that go on at the facility, and others, that the world doesn’t know of. I can also guarantee, there are numerous SAPs, and uSAPs, that coworkers working there don’t even know of.
Real life lore: "why there is a secret CIA base in the center of Australia "
37 000 people: "not so secret anymore ig"
My favourite of that trick is River Monsters. Jeremy always starts a show off as if he's Stanley and Livingstone and when he finally gets there, there's tourist boats bobbing around.
USAF had nuclear weapons test ban treaty monitoring station at Pine Gap until mid-1970's. I served in the program and friend was stationed there in early 1970's. It was converted to satellite system and land based station closed.
What a fucking clean transition into the sponsor of the video
At around 4:30 in the video the east/west extent of the range of Pine Gap is shown. The line to the east is noticeably closer, which seemed odd. After doing some math I realized that the line was labeled correctly as 153 W, but was plotted as 153 E. That is, it was plotted about 54 degrees of longitude closer than it should have been.
I'm surprised that the obvious visual discrepancy (the two lines should be the same distance from Pine Gap, logically) wasn't noticed at some point.
I had the same thought. Thanks for confirming this.
This is why Murikkkans shouldn’t use the internet and don’t have passports to know how often they get basic things way wrong about the world outside their insular self obsessed bubble.
I found that strange too. Good pickup.
I also noticed it. 153 W is supposed to be a little bit east of Hawaii.
@@Affixton96 Ah well, no big deal. It's only a 6,000 km (at the equator) error - who can be expected to notice that?
My father used to work there. When we lived there I was instructed to tell anyone who asked "my dad works on computers". My parents were very strict about not mentioning Dad's military affiliation though everyone knew that all the Americans in the area worked at Pine Gap. I remember seeing a gum tree with a camouflage pattern and exclaiming "Dad that looks like uniform". I was promptly spanked
14 eyes alliance countries started in the 1950's
The 5/9/14 Eyes alliance is essentially a global surveillance alliance, which has far-reaching implications for personal privacy. The full extent of how much the intelligence agencies in these countries know about you is vague, but Snowden’s leaks and other media stories make it clear that your online activities, phone conversations, and other sensitive information is all fair game.
2022 Population
----------------------------
United States 338,289,857
Germany 83,369,843
United Kingdom 67,508,936
France 64,626,628
Italy 59,037,474
Spain 47,558,630
Canada 38,454,327
Australia 26,177,413
Netherlands 17,564,014
Belgium 11,655,930
Sweden 10,549,347
Denmark 5,882,261
Norway 5,434,319
New Zealand 5,185,288
why would they spank you for stating the obvious? once again I feel that USA has spooked themselves into stupidity
And people think thats bc the government just wants to lie to us.... no, its for the safety of the people that work there. And yours too.
@@sinpoeanarconna2974 Your post was deleted
100% i believe you
Absolutely TOP SECRET. Nobody will ever know, and I won't tell. Gugulethu, South Africa 🇿🇦
Had a very interesting chat with Andrew Farriss from INXS regarding the filming of the video clip for the song 'Falling Down the Mountain' from the 1985 album 'Listen Like Thieves'. It was filmed in the desert and on a salt pan 1 hours flight in a small aircraft chartered from Broken Hill. To this day he still doesn't fully understand what happened, but they landed at a suitable site for the clip they envisaged to be filmed - awesome clip mind you - the boys were all in their 20's. They landed where they could, no airstrip, in the middle of absolutely nowhere - deep outback......................when they were unloading the plane a US military vehicle comes out of nowhere and they get accosted by US military personnel in 'pristine uniform', grilling them about what they were doing there......................
Damn that's a cool story. Wikipedia says that music video was filmed in Coober Pedy, South Australia so about 6 hours from Alice Springs.
How did you know Andrew?
@@Demo98765 no,Wikipedia is wrong, it was a one hour flight from Broken Hill. I know Andrew personally.
Still a mystery to him - nowhere near Pine Gap, or Woomera etc
I would have told them to eff off & what are you seppos (septic tanks, yanks) doing here?
I went on R&R in Australia. I spent 4 days in Alice Sorikgs and when ever I met someone and they asked me what I do I told them I work for the U.S. Government and everyone said oh ok I got you. I had no idea what they were talking about until I found out about this CIA location. I told people I did not work there and they said yea right why would an American come to Alice Springs. Seriously I had no idea the place was there and by the way stay away from Alice Springs in February.
Hillarious
Ah yes, the Australian desert in the middle of summer. Fun times.
You went to central Australia in our southern summer?! OMG 😂
There is even an Australian TV series about this place. It is well known . This base is part of the Five Eyes infrastructure and one of the reasons Australia is included.
Perhaps Ismael Perez and some of his free talks online may be of interest. He often refers to tunnels and some locations and who knows, some of the horrors may be yet about to come to the surface (for the majority of people) to understand and reflect upon.
Sounds like a very secure place to work. Must be very interesting.
Wow! I just heard about Pine Gap and Project Rainfall yesterday, while watching a, australian science fiction movie ('Occupation: Rainfall', sequel to the much more interesting 'Occupation'). Since it was a pretty wild-senario science fiction movie, I didn't think that there would be such places for real ...
I’ve been a long time subscriber and always very impressed by your videos. Unfortunately I’m avoiding your videos lately due to unnecessary emphasis you put on almost all facts. Just gets my BP going high. Could you try talking like you are explaining this to someone rather than selling?
Yep... agreed. Annoying seller intonation.
Well that's how you spot on of an iiiiiiiincredibly proud United States coolie
All aerial images shown in this were taken in 2006 or earlier. We have no idea what is out their now. I have also heard from good sources that there is an air strip that can handle heavy aircraft.
Some of those pitches did catch part of the corner of strike zone
"Small Australian town of Alice Springs"
Alice Springs is the third largest city in the Northern Territory.
By Australian standards it is still a small town.
And the entire NT has 250,000 people.
It is a small town though, it being the third largest settlement doesn't make 25k people a city
Third biggest in a “state” think about what you said, even Darwin is small hence why the AUS government offers immigrants the option to live there to earn citizenship.
Strange people don't know about Pine Gap. It's been very well-known in Australia. I think it's the second largest CIA base Worldwide.
Americans are shockingly ignorant of Australia unfortunately.
Australian myself, never learnt about Pine Gap and thought the ABC drama was about a fake place as if it was made up... huh
I agree. It does matter from a generational perspective however. Older Australians are more likely to know as previous PMs made its removal an election issue.
No one ever DID actually act on that idea (except perhaps maybe Whitlam before the Constitutional Crisis) but for a time it was a big deal.
14 eyes alliance countries started in the 1950's
The 5/9/14 Eyes alliance is essentially a global surveillance alliance, which has far-reaching implications for personal privacy. The full extent of how much the intelligence agencies in these countries know about you is vague, but Snowden’s leaks and other media stories make it clear that your online activities, phone conversations, and other sensitive information is all fair game.
2022 Population
----------------------------
United States 338,289,857
Germany 83,369,843
United Kingdom 67,508,936
France 64,626,628
Italy 59,037,474
Spain 47,558,630
Canada 38,454,327
Australia 26,177,413
Netherlands 17,564,014
Belgium 11,655,930
Sweden 10,549,347
Denmark 5,882,261
Norway 5,434,319
New Zealand 5,185,288
So they can see the Chinese coming from afar. They also need the time to decide what to do.
New Zealand is the testing ground for a lot of things. Facial recognition software was tested here, then rolled out throughout the world. We're in the midst of testing software that can tell if you're on your phone, if you're driving a stolen car, and I don't know what else.
You are Easily becoming one of my favorite youtube channels. You're so concise and give so much information.
Zuri: Concise??? He's got more adjectives per square inch than the dictionary.
@@macforme 😂 spot on
@@cdg03 cool! 👍🤣😎
Used to drink at the Alice Springs Army Base with the American “gardeners” of Pine Gap, one of them got into a fight and Police were called. Before morning he was on a plane back to America without question, his car stayed on the street for at least a week or two and pretty sure he had a wife and kid over here with him too!
I guess they didn't need gardeners around there too badly 😂
@@Robert-xn3dc haha, they were expendable.
6:20 It's not just their travel direction that causes this, but also their altitude/speed. The ISS also orbits in the same direction the Earth rotates but is so much lower that it moves faster than Earth's rotation. Geosats move at the same speed the Earth rotates because they are higher up. Even then that doesn't mean it will stay in a fixed spot, if the Geosat is in an inclined orbit (ie, goes NE to SW) it will appear to wobble N to S from the ground. Only if it is in an equatorial orbit with an inclination of 0⁰ does it stay completely fixed.
I feel bad for any construction crew that had to build that.
I'd never heard of this before, and now that I have, I somehow feel like I know less about it.
Laf. Got a good chuckle from that one.
im so glad the compression is gone. the audio here sounds great.
It's a joint five eyes program. It's been there for a long time. Mostly Australia , America and UK.
Interesting place. I've heard a few stories about what is under there
There's a secret CIA base everywhere, my dude. Area 51, Radiator Springs, your mom's house, etc. The list is endless
900kms from the base to nearest coast is actually more like1600kms which is a long drive! Years ago a man I knew who owned a remote central Australian cattle station (Ranch) purchased a decommissioned ray dome from a government auction in Alice Springs, it was originally used at Pine gap and was dismantled and intended to be sold as scrap, constructed of aluminium frames and fibreglass panels. This fella bought the whole structure and reassembled it on his property to be used as a covered parking area for his trucks. Apparently it created a bit of a stir between the Russians and Australia when the structure was spotted on images from Russian spy satellites, they thought another base was constructed in the Outback without their knowledge!
I'd just like to point out that geostationary orbit isn't as much about going the same direction as the earth's spin so much as it is mostly about achieving an orbit altitude far enough away from the earth that your orbit speed is the same as the earths rotation.
Basically the higher your orbit, the slower you can go and still achieve full orbit, the lower you go you have to go faster to maintain orbit, geostationary is just an altitude sweet spot where you can orbit at the speed of earth's rotation.
Those golf ball looking things are to make sure you cannot see the direction the Satelites are pointing to; stops signal jamming and countries that are capable of hacking said signals.
A Australian PM, Gough Whitlam, was ousted for questioning the presence of Pine Gap - concerned about it being used by the CIA on Australia as well, to spy on his own Government.
While not "proven" as the reason for his sacking by the Governor General, it's a well known secret. And it's one of the most controversial moments in Australian Political history, and is treated as a tragedy by the Australian Left.
In Australia it's as well known as the Kennedy assassination is known in America (except that in the Australian case it actually was a conspiracy).
It's just fallen off the "radar" a bit since the internet, as that's a more pressing area of _three letter agency_ surveillance of the general public.
Came here looking for this comment.
Bullshit Whitlams dismissal had nothing to do with pine gap or him speaking of it, sorry but the americans do not control Australian politics nor have the power to oust a prime minister, this had nothing to do with his dismissal it was a well known double disillusion bill based on medicare, nothing to do with an American base. FFS
Lol the Left it seems, in any country. Always trying to ruin things one way or another.
Yeah, i've read the news about america caught spying on australian government. That's a very scary predicament, my neighbor
I highly doubt the US cares to spy on the Australian government
So it was the CIA scouting me when I was living in Hawley beach Tasmania ,they showed me on a tv show how to get a false confession how to quickly identify and give an accurate description amongst other things
It's hardly top secret when there's been an internationally syndicated TV show about a fictional version of this base
Which needed to stop abruptly.
Drinking game: How often can he say "in the center of Australia"
I used to work on a huge watermelon farm in the outback north of Alice Springs, there was a road house which kept a log of ufo sightings there! Must have been sightings of weapon/drone testing from this base
I knew a guy that went to work out there. He will literally add to the awful torture of being in the middle of no where. Most excruciating person to talk to
The existence of Pine Gap (allegedly run in conjunction with the Australian Signals Directorate) has been known for decades, you can drive right up to the the main gate (many media and protesters have done so over the years) and there's quite clear pictures of it on Google Maps. If one is to believe the information released by Edward Snowdon, the significantly smaller facilities at East Chapman, Western Australia and Shoal Bay, Northern Territory perform similar functions to Pine Gap. Currently, both of these are also clearly visible on Google Maps.
@aswer huio because you were shown nothing
Despite denials by the government it is another spy base linked to the 5 "Spies" monitoring all Australian communications. A group with which I am familiar have been watching their movements when they leave the base. Satisfying to spy on spies
Excellent reconnaissance, keep it up soldier!!! 🪖🪖
Yes and so does Tidbinbilla it is also a satellite tracking station
Australias area 51 run by the US
A "secret base"? Yea, secret from the US citizen, nobody else. I worked at one in Morocco, '66/'67. Everybody knew what we did except the people who paid for it.
Underground bunkers were the workplace, surrounded by an antenna field. Marines patrolled the fence line. I took my meals at a private club, passing on the "free food". It was brutal. I left base every chance to visit Rabat for ice cream and movies. I couldn't go far with only 72 hours.
Nowadays a secret service is the enemy of the people.
to be fair there isn't really any such thing as a truely secret base anywhere. More a hush hush base :D
The existence of the base isn't a secret nor is it intended to be, what's secret is what is inside.
A secret base is one that isn't talked about in TH-cam comments
Not that secret anyone. It was revealed in the late 1980s. Its an earth station for satellites. No more, no less