Old wreck and current communication

Just twenty kilometres north of Exmouth the cattleship SS Mildura carrying
Kimberley cattle south, foundered on the reef during a cyclone in 1907.
Fortunately no lives were lost. The hull sat on the reef until WWII when
allied planes used it for bombing practice. The wreck is close to shore and
is visible at low tide with the access road on the way to the National Park.


The Harold Holt naval communication station is located just north of Exmouth
and the town really sprung up around the communications station to provide
support to the base and to house dependent families of US Navy personnel.
The town now has a population of about 2500 with many people involved in the
tourist industry. The station provides very low frequency radio
transmission to US Navy and Royal Australian Navy ships and submarines in
the western Pacific Ocean and eastern Indian Ocean. It is the most powerful
transmission station in the Southern Hemisphere.

The station has thirteen tall radio towers - the tallest is 387 metres and
for many years was the tallest man-made structure in the Southern
Hemisphere. The towers are placed in a hexagon around the tallest tower and
are clearly visible from quite a distance.