The station is on the Great Central Road and the nearest township is the Warakurna Aboriginal settlement (population 180), 5 kilometres (3 mi) North.

[9] Surveyor and roadbuilder Len Beadell, who worked for the Weapons Research Establishment (now known as the Defence Science and Technology Group), selected the site for a meteorological station in December 1955.

[11] Later, the weather station provided support for rocket testing programs at Woomera, as Giles was close to the centre-line of fire from the launch site.

Docker River, 100 kilometres (62 miles) north-east and just across the state border in the Northern Territory, was established by the government as an aboriginal settlement for local people in the 1960s.

[12] The periodic southward movement of the monsoon trough and ex-tropical cyclones cause heavy rain events in the wetter months from November to March.