been wandering the lands and came across Uluru , Kata Tjuta and the nearby Lake Amadeus ( Pantu in the indigenous language ). They ’ d continued west and nearing the region of Mount Scott , had realised that the land provided no water and with horses nearing death had turned to return to the expeditions depot . Exhaustion struck one of the horses , and as it died the expedition leader put his companion on his own horse and told him to continue for help . Eight days later the leader returned to the depot , on foot , to discover that his horse and companion had not returned . They searched and found nothing , the area was named in his honour , Alfred Gibson had been ‘ given ’ his own desert .
Like Gibson , the site of the object in the sky had now vanished , and yet I held my gaze hoping for one last glimpse . Shuffling of feet beckoned for a return to the present . A small shed with a gas nozzle , a silent man walked back to a modest , mid twentieth century , styled building . His silence compounded by that around the vast landscape . The morning sun searched to arouse the environment .
The almost out of place building houses a weather station built in the 1950 ’ s to assess climatic conditions for nuclear weapons testing by the Defence Science and Technology Group . The famous surveyor and road builder , Len Beadell had recommended the region , even going as far as building an airstrip that still remains and is in use to this day , yet his proposal was vehemently fought by missionary and indigenous patrol officer , Walter MacDougall .
MacDougall understood that the region was on tribal lands and contained numerous sacred sites and believed that rocket testing from Woomera as well as the atomic testing at Maralinga and Emu Fields would greatly affect the peoples
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