There is also a long-established precious gems (mainly opal) field near the Coober Pedy end of the Stuart Highway, which cuts through the middle of the Range.

The settlement draws its name, woomera, from a suggestion from RAAF Group Captain Alfred George Pither and was subsequently chosen by the Board of the Long Range Weapons Establishment in April 1947.

Woomera, formerly a rocket range site located 183 kilometres (114 mi) north-west of Port Augusta, shares its name with an Aboriginal throwing tool.

However, by the end of the 1960s, the Anglo-Australian Joint Project was rapidly winding down following the UK Government's reduction in further experimental work.

However, the creation of a Defence Estate management organisation in the 1990s shifted the focus of the Board's activities away from estate and infrastructure management toward principally that of a base welfare organisation supporting the small permanent community and the large number of transit Defence personnel who deploy to Woomera each year.

LRWE was based at Salisbury to the north of Adelaide city, the site now occupied by Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG).

However, with the establishment of the USAF/ADF Joint Defence Communications Facility in 1969 at the nearby Nurrungar site, approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) south of Woomera, along with its 1100 permanent staff, the village population stabilized at around 4,500 people (including around 800 children).

In the late 1990s, as the Nurrungar program was winding down, the ADF reassessed the role of Woomera in its future force structure.

This assessment was to result, positively, in redefining the future role and strategic importance of the Woomera Range Complex within Australia's long-term Defence requirements.

The aerodrome lies within the "Red Zone" of the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA), and public access to this part of the base is not permitted.

Visitors may also stay in the Defence-operated Eldo Hotel, and there is a privately operated public caravan park at the entrance to Woomera Village.

This cold-war project focussed on the development of long-range weapons systems, principally to counter the growing intercontinental ballistic missile threat from the Soviet Union.

This is principally so that tourists can access the significant historical displays and museums which cover the range's air and space activities since its establishment in 1947.

In particular, there is a dedicated section on Len Beadell, who became something of an outback legend as a Royal Australian Survey Corps Sergeant surveyor (1947–48) and road builder (1953–63).

In 1969, as the Anglo-Australia Project was winding down, the United States Air Force (USAF) began construction and installation of the Nurrungar Joint Tracking Facility.

The immigration detention centre, however, proved to be a highly controversial facility, and it closed in early 2003 after only about 36 months of operation, at which point the land and buildings were handed back to the Defence Department.

Following the closure of the Immigration Detention Centre, and the return of the site to the ADF, Woomera West was redesigned, altered, and re-established as a secure defence garrison support facility and renamed Camp Rapier.

It is now frequently used by the Australian Army and squadrons of the RAAF's Airfield Defence Guards as a base camp for specialized training and testing activities.

When the RAAF assumed operational command of Woomera in 1999, there was an increase in the number of temporary residents associated with the conduct of test and evaluation activities on the range.

The facilities in the village include a gym, hotel, swimming pool, hospital, cinema, school, two museums, and missile park.

Rooms are generally located close to the main hotel facility and some blocks have names such as "Redstone", "Black Knight", "Blue Steel" and "Skylark" – all former rocket or missile systems once tested at Woomera.

The nearby "Traveller's Village Caravan Park" is a privately operated venture centred around the old "senior ranks' mess" facility at the entrance to the base from the main road.

This display also features the story of Len Beadell, the famous surveyor who laid out the original range across vast tracts of the Australian Outback stretching from Woomera to the northwest coast of Western Australia.

Next to Missile Park, there is a museum featuring range artifacts and the activities and people who lived and worked at Woomera in the early years.

Woomera is a haven for observing and understanding Australia's desert flora and fauna, and there is a space observatory which operates one night a week or by appointment.