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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 16, 2008 1:27:58 GMT 12
Whilst looking for other things at the National Library of NZ's website I found this book listed: Title: Woodbourne : the United States Air Force Aerospace Research Unit Installation situated at the RNZAF airfield near Blenheim / [David Cuthbert].
Author: Cuthbert, David.
Publisher: Wellington [N.Z.] : New Zealand University Students’ Association, [1971]
Description: 14 p. ; 34 cm.
Subject: Military bases, American --New Zealand --Marlborough District. Does anyone know what this is about? When did they arrive and when did they leave? What were they researching. Surely this predates the Waihopai domes? Is it connected? Source was nlnzcat.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=2&ti=1,2&Search%5FArg=rnzaf%20stafford&Search%5FCode=FT%2A&SL=None&CNT=25&PID=Drhi9D3VSSmDJOgqS__uah73Jhkt&SEQ=20080616011632&SID=18 |
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Post by vgp on Jun 16, 2008 7:20:28 GMT 12
had a web search came up with this on the peace website: the US Air Force's top secret Project Longbank, at RNZAF Base Woodbourne, which closed in the early 1970s www.converge.org.nz/abc/campaign_history.htmltop secret US Air Force Project Longbank, which was located inside the Royal New Zealand Air Force base at Woodbourne (which is also Blenheim’s airport). www.converge.org.nz/watchdog/09/09.htm google search pdf file: File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat New Zealand (Project Longbank), Fiji, and Easter Island to study the various effects. of. nuclear explosions. France provided the estimated time of each ... docs.nrdc.org/nuclear/nuc_09019401a_018.pdf |
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Post by skyhawkdon on Jun 16, 2008 7:39:16 GMT 12
Longbank is still the unofficial name of the buildings on the other side of the airfield. Was also known as "Eaky Squeaky" when the RNZAF Avionics guys operated out of there.
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Post by nzompilot on Jun 16, 2008 8:38:27 GMT 12
Not quite at Woodbourne, but from 1977-1995 we had the US Navy based ontop of Black Birch a mountain just south of Blenheim>
They were studying the 7inch transit circle of the International Reference Stars(whatever that is!?!), and had some association with Woodbourne/RNZAF.
Obviously Marlborough has a bigger US connection than most realise - Black Birch, Waihopai, Longbank.....
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Post by shorty on Jun 16, 2008 8:57:16 GMT 12
Longbank was going when I first went to Woodbourne in 68. Each night a Yank would come over to the YM (in a big Chev USAF pick up) doing a Joe run. The YM also sold a thing called a Yankee sandwich which was t0asted bread, grilled cheese, ham, tomato and lettuce sandwich.
This was prior to the Longbank buildings being built.
Ron Loader (of big R/C model fame) bought a Ford Galaxy station wagon from the USAF and had it for many years.
I'll have a look at my slides of the Freighters over the Longbank area and see if the dates can be worked out for the buildings.
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Post by shorty on Jun 16, 2008 9:55:20 GMT 12
I just checked my slides (which luckily were kodak with the date stamped on them) and the Longbank buildings were not there in Feb 68, all that was there then (apart from dead Freighters) was a tall radio aerial and an incinerator, so I don't know where they were operating from. When the buildings were put up and they moved over there there were a couple of dome there as well. Not as big as Waihopai but the same style. No one could ever get from them what they were doing.
There was a fanciful story that there was a "secret tunnel" coming in from the coast for submarines! yeah, right! Some one has seen too many James Bond movies.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jun 16, 2008 11:29:16 GMT 12
Fascinating stuff. Was it public knowledge of a US presence on base then? I'm wondering if that might be one reason why Woodbourne was so subjected to anti-Vietnam War protests.
I assume there has been no US presence since the ANZUS treaty broke down?
I remember seeing Ron Loader with his beautiful Hercules (both the first one at Woodbourne and then the second one when I was at Wigram). And I recall his big station wagon.
I had no idea there were dead Freighters in the dump as early as 1968, I thought they weren't retired till maybe two decades later. You learn somthing every day.
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Post by Bruce on Jun 16, 2008 11:51:05 GMT 12
Are the buildings in question the blast protected blockhouses on the far side of the field? There was one there during my brief tenure on base in 1990, but looking at Google Earth (such as the image on the "Rumours" Thread) I see that there is a second one further down the bank - looks substantially more overgrown.
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Post by shorty on Jun 16, 2008 12:20:54 GMT 12
There were four freighters there, one was Pakistan Air Force, (without props), one Safe fuselage only,two Ansett Mandated Airlines, one without props and one fuselage only. I can't read the regos of the slide in my little viewer.
No they were not the blockhouses, they were concrete breeze block buildings, with no windows, I presume they are still there?Avionics used them in the 80s
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Post by phil on Jun 16, 2008 12:28:37 GMT 12
There was a fire that pretty much gutted one of the buildings over at Longbank in about '03. I recall seeing the photos of it when I did a stint at the photo unit there in '04 or '05.
The blast protected building you refer to will be the explosive storage area.
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Post by nzompilot on Jun 16, 2008 12:39:54 GMT 12
The probable area and buildings in question  Although google earth says the images are (c)2008 they can be dated to 2003 by the aircraft parked by the hangars and the fact the runway is still marked 07/25. |
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Post by shorty on Jun 16, 2008 12:46:40 GMT 12
The Vampire bodies were about where the - google scroll bar ends.
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Post by nzompilot on Jun 16, 2008 13:53:14 GMT 12
Project 435 Longbank.
Rang a friend today who is a local historian and asked him a few questions on this.
US Project 435 Longbank was a Vietnam era project that operated at Woodbourne from the early-mid 60's through to 1975.
It began in a couple of rooms and the loft of number 3 hangar before being moved to a purpose built building on the far side of the airfield. the same building that Don mentions Avionics moved into and the same building that Phil mentions was destoryed in a spectacular fire, apparently the walls were filled with straw.
He says although it has never been officially released as to what Longbank was doing, it is believed from what the Yanks could say that the project was measuring the effects to the ionisphere from Chineese Nuclear testing and also monitoring transmissions from Black Bird's and U2's.
There were several A-frame / beehive like structures next to the building that housed antenna used for the purposes.
He said it was very similar to Waihopai not so much in what it monitered but the way it operated and the way information was collected and then transferred to Wellington. It had a secure line to Wellington just like Waihopai does.
He also said a gentleman who lives in Picton, after marrying a local girl, was involved with the project - unfortunately he couldn't remember his name.
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Post by phil on Jun 16, 2008 16:42:59 GMT 12
The buildings in the lower left are what you are looking at in regards to Longbank. The building just right and high of center is the store house, the lower, older looking one must be an old store house, WB only has the one, but looking at the way it is traversed that's definitely what it is/was.
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Post by 14liney on Jun 19, 2008 15:52:43 GMT 12
The YM also sold a thing called a Yankee sandwich which was t0asted bread, grilled cheese, ham, tomato and lettuce sandwich. Shorty, over here thats called a BLT, bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich. Longbank was operating in 1966 when I was at ACS. You rarely saw them around the base but I remember that one guy drove around in a corvette stingray. |
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Post by catherine on Sept 28, 2013 15:14:07 GMT 12
He also said a gentleman who lives in Picton, after marrying a local girl, was involved with the project - unfortunately he couldn't remember his name. That was my father and he now lives in Nelson. |
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Post by beagle on Sept 28, 2013 16:09:27 GMT 12
Hi catherine. maybe we will hear some great stories on here soon ??
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Post by catherine on Sept 28, 2013 21:30:14 GMT 12
My father doesn't often use the internet and is in failing health so even if he was inclined, I doubt he'd share much here. He did work on several projects he wasn't allowed to discuss but I don't know if this was one of them. Actually, this is the first I've heard that what they were up to in NZ was rumoured to be 'top secret'.
Our entire family was in Blenheim for the duration. We left early in '71 (arrived in the US on Groundhog Day). There were protests at the airport the day we were leaving. We were told that the protestors were supposed to march all the way but decided to take a bus instead. Who knows if that's true or not, kids get told all sorts of things and memories are flaky.
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Post by nuuumannn on Sept 29, 2013 2:40:20 GMT 12
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Post by baronbeeza on Sept 29, 2013 3:14:17 GMT 12
Some good pics of the demonstrators there. Is that Tim in the pic at the top of Page 7 ?
I would have known a number of the demonstrators and then just a few years later many of the RNZAF guard. I certainly can remember hearing the stories. Such is life..
I enjoy those old pictorial mags. They were good reading at the time as well.
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