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Abstract: Sounding rocket programs for upper atmospheric research (UAR) commenced at Woomera in 1957, with the British Skylark project and the Anglo–Australian HARP rockoon program. Shortly afterwards, the Weapons Research Establishment (WRE) inaugurated its own sounding rocket program with the first successful Australian-built sounding rocket, Long Tom, developed from surplus British motors. This research would eventually lead to the development of Australia''s first satellite, WRESAT, launched in 1967. Long Tom became the first more than 10 Australian designed and built sounding rockets that would be employed at Woomera until the demise of the WRE upper atmosphere program in 1976, as the Range was winding down to the cessation of the Anglo–Australian Joint Project. Like Long Tom, most of the early Australian sounding rockets were constructed by the WRE from surplus British motors, but after 1967 the later vehicles had a much higher local content, based on combinations of British motors and/or rocket motors developed in Australia. These new motors were named after constellations of the southern sky, while the rockets themselves bore the names of Australian native birds. This paper will outline the technical and scientific history of the Australian sounding rocket program, examining its origins and the reasons for its demise. It will look at the sequential development of the various Australian rockets and consider the particular research projects with which they were associated, the relationship with the WRESAT project and the move to Australian production after 1967. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In late 1946, the Australian government formalised its attempts to acquire post-war German scientific and technical expertise with the establishment of the Employment of Scientific and Technical Enemy Aliens (ESTEA) scheme. Under this scheme, between 1946 and 1954 some 150 scientists, engineers and technicians were recruited to work in Australia, although several thousand candidates were actually under consideration.Among those who sought employment in Australia under this program was Austrian-born rocket pioneer Eugen Sänger, his long-time colleague and future wife Irene Bredt and several others who had been, to a greater or lesser extent, involved in wartime rocket development in Germany. With the establishment of the Anglo-Australian Joint Project for long-range missile development in 1946 and the opening of the Woomera Rocket Range in 1947, the prospect of enhancing the expertise-base within the Long Range Weapons Establishment by the acquisition of a team of experienced German researchers should have been appealing to the Australian Government: yet the 1949 applications by Sänger and the others were eventually rejected in 1951.This paper will outline the story of the now-forgotten attempts by Sänger and other personnel associated with the German rocket program to migrate to Australia under the ESTEA scheme. It will look at the background and operation of the ESTEA program and consider in detail the case of Sanger et al., examining both the reasons that may have prompted them to apply for work in Australia in the first instance and the possible reasons their ultimate rejection. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]