In brief
The Pine Gap intelligence facility near Alice Springs has drawn renewed scrutiny following protests.The spy base has been shrouded in secrecy and controversy for nearly six decades.
It’s been nearly 60 years since a mysterious spy base was opened in a sacred stretch of Australian outback. Even today, what happens inside Pine Gap remains a closely guarded secret.
There’s been renewed focus on the joint United States-Australian intelligence facility this week after hundreds of protesters gathered there to protest its existence.
Located 18km south-west of Alice Springs, the top-secret base is often described as one of Australia’s most secure and secretive facilities.
Its most recognisable feature is the cluster of large white domes scattered across the site. The facility uses satellite equipment to collect intelligence and detect missile launches.
The three-day gathering over the weekend marked the 60th anniversary of the agreement between the US and Australia that paved the way for the construction of the facility on Arrernte Country.
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In a statement to SBS News, the defence department said the government does not comment on intelligence matters or the operation of its joint facilities.
Decades of secrecy
The facility has been a source of scrutiny and controversy since it was established by the US’ Central Intelligence Agency in the late 1960s to gather intelligence on Soviet missile tests during the Cold War.
Initially, locals were told it would be a space research base.
It’s expanded in scale and capacity over the decades, and has drawn repeated protest action, including a major demonstration in 1987 that saw more than 1,000 protesters march up to its gates. Organisers said Monday’s protest was the largest since then.
In 1983, hundreds of women camped outside Pine Gap as part of a two-week peace protest, arguing it made Australia a nuclear target and tied the country to the US military machine.
What goes on at Pine Gap continues to be cloaked in secrecy today.
In Alice Springs, where Census data puts the population at around 26,000, it employs around 800 of the town’s residents, ABC Backstory reported in 2024. According to that reporting, locals remain divided over the facility.
Some view it as vital to the local economy, while some still fear it makes Alice Springs a nuclear target.
The Australian Federal Police, in a recruitment page for protective service officers at Pine Gap, describes it as one of its “most unique and critical protection sites”.
Middle East conflict has renewed scrutiny
Anti-war and anti-AUKUS campaigners, as well as pro-Palestinian solidarity groups, participated in the gathering over the weekend, calling for greater scrutiny of the facility’s role in the Hamas-Israel war.
Last year, United Nations investigators accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza during the war, an accusation which Israel denies.
Richard Tanter, a senior research associate with the Nautilus Institute and longtime Pine Gap opponent, said signals intelligence gathered via Pine Gap-controlled satellites has, historically, been made available to Israel.
“Unless the Australian direct and indirect military relationship to Israeli activities in the Gaza Strip are closely reviewed … it is not possible for the Australian government to assure the parliament and Australian public that Australia is not complicit in acts of genocide,” he said.
Palestinian activist Remah Naji, from the Justice for Palestine Magan-djin coalition, said she believes “genocide in Gaza against my people is made possible by intelligence flowing from the heart of this colony in Alice Springs directly to the Israeli occupation forces”.
Israel has repeatedly denied accusations of genocide.
‘A sacred site’
Demonstrators at the site this week sought to send a message about Australia’s role in wars the US is involved in, and called for the land at Pine Gap to be returned to Arrernte Traditional Owners.
Traditional custodians Felicity, Wyonna and Jacquita Hayes say the facility sits on a sacred site and makes them feel complicit in war and genocide while they live without basic services.
“We want people to support us to close down Pine Gap. We want them to know it’s a sacred site,” they said in a joint statement.
“We don’t want to be feeling guilty all the time when bad things are happening overseas to little ones. We’re not the ones controlling that facility, but we feel guilty that it’s coming from our land.”
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Many custodians of the land Pine Gap sits on live at Irrkerlantye, also known as White Gate, an area about 5km from the centre of Alice Springs.
It lacks basic services that much of Australia takes for granted. Residents rely on water to be trucked in, and power is provided by a small set of solar panels. There is no sewerage.
“We want to see the Pine Gap facility closed so the generation coming can be safe. We want to be compensated so we can get houses at White Gate community,” the custodians said in their joint statement.
Greens senator Lidia Thorpe said she had met with the Hayes family over the weekend, as she called for Kuyunba, their sacred ancestral land, to be returned.
“This military and intelligence base, which is aiding and abetting the genocide in Gaza, enjoys security of tenure on stolen land, while the Hayes family are still fighting for secure housing, running water and essential services where they now live at Irrkerlantye,” she said in a Facebook post.
Felicity Hayes, who has lived at Irrkerlantye for most of her life, said her community had been asking for basic amenities for years.
“Our old people walked this land and hunted and lived here before the white man came — we got culture and language, we survived colonisation,” she said.
“We’ve been asking the government for housing and essential services this whole time, however nothing has been done to provide the most basic services all people are entitled to.”
— With additional reporting by AAP
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