Postcode(s) 5710 Mean min temp Annual rainfall Postal code 5710 | LGA(s) unincorporated area Mean max temp Mean min temp Elevation 39 m | |
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Location 770 km (478 mi) northeast of Adelaide302 km (188 mi) northeast of Lyndhurst330 km (205 mi) northeast of Leigh Creek230 km (143 mi) northwest of Tibooburra Weather 33°C, Wind SE at 21 km/h, 22% Humidity | ||
Moomba is a company town located in the Australian state of South Australia within the gazetted locality of Gidgealpa about 770 kilometres (480 mi) north of the state capital of Adelaide. It is operated by Santos Limited for the purpose of exploration and processing of natural gas found in and recovered from the Cooper and Eromanga Basins.
Contents
There are a number of partners and contractors on site including Bureau Veritas, O&G Solutions, Broadspectrum, OneSteel, Origin Energy, Diversified Construction, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, ProTechnics a Division of Corelab, GPA Engineering and SAGE Automation.
Geography
Moomba is situated on the Strzelecki Track which runs through northeastern South Australia and into South West Queensland. The settlement is located on a low-lying plain amongst sand dunes at very little height above sea level. Several hundred kilometres to the southwest lies Lake Eyre which is in fact below sea level.
Climate
Moomba experiences a mean maximum temperature of 38.6 °C (101.5 °F) in the hottest month of the year, January, with overnight mean minimum temperatures of 24.5 °C (76.1 °F). July is the coldest month, in winter, with 19.6 °C (67.3 °F) mean maximum temperature and 6.4 °C (43.5 °F) mean minimum temperature. On 12 January 2013, Moomba reached a record maximum temperature of 49.6 °C (121.3 °F), which is one of the hottest temperatures recorded in South Australia.
Moomba sits just on the edge of a rainfall region that has the lowest average rainfall in Australia (a region encompassing Marree and Lake Eyre). Rainfall is highly erratic, and some years it does not rain at all. However, when it does rain it can be extremely heavy and damaging thunderstorms can occur on a few days each year. Light winter rain can also be experienced, but this is just as infrequent and doesn't happen every year. The wettest month ever recorded was January 1974, with 439.4 millimetres (17.30 in) of rain falling.
Population
Santos Ltd employs some 1,201 people who work at Moomba and within the rest of the Cooper Basin (including Ballera in South-West Queensland). All employees work on a fly in-fly out roster basis; there is no permanent resident population in Moomba.
Facilities
Moomba has a sealed airstrip and 'camp' accommodation for its "fly-in, fly-out" residents who are, largely, Santos employees. Scheduled Services are operated by Alliance Airlines, flying passengers daily to and from Adelaide. Members of the public are not able to fly to Moomba; only employees, contractors and authorised visitors are able to visit.
The New South Wales motoring body, NRMA warns travellers of the absence of public facilities at Moomba. It states:
Note that the Moomba plant and field operations are closed to the public and there are no facilities, supplies or accommodation available for travellers [3].
The Royal Flying Doctor Service provides health services for Moomba and Ballera workers.
History
Moomba was established in the 1960s and 70s after discovery of gas and oil. The first commercial gas discovery was made at the Gidgealpa field in 1963. The first Permian oil discovery was made at the Tirrawarra field in 1970. The first Jurassic oil discovery was made at the Strzelecki field in 1978. Gas sales to Adelaide commenced in 1969, and gas sales to Sydney commenced in 1976. Ethane sales to Sydney commenced in 1996
An explosion occurred at the gas plant in January 2004. The explosion made national headlines and caused a costly temporary gas shortage for Santos Ltd.