Qualla: Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory

Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory: Introduction

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Suzyj, CC BY-SA 4.0. You cannot make a phone call here. You cannot turn on a television, key a CB radio, or use a wireless router. Within a 70-kilometre radius of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, nearly every device that emits radio waves is prohibited. Within 150 kilometres, they require special approval. The coordination zone extends to 260 kilometres. This is not a security measure. It is a scientific one. The telescopes at this site are listening for signals so faint that a mobile phone on the Moon would register as one of the brightest objects in the radio sky.

Image: Suzyj | CC BY-SA 4.0

Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory: Boolardy's Transformation

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Виктор В, CC BY-SA 3.0. The observatory began its life in 2009 near Boolardy Station, a former cattle station in the Murchison Shire of Western Australia, roughly 800 kilometres north of Perth. CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, chose the site for its extraordinary radio quietness -- a product ...

Image: Виктор В | CC BY-SA 3.0

Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory: Sharing Sky and Stars

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Suzyj, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2022, the observatory expanded dramatically -- growing 27 times larger than its original footprint -- to accommodate the SKA-Low telescope, the Australian component of the international Square Kilometre Array project. The expanded site was formally named Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bu...

Image: Suzyj | CC BY-SA 4.0

Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory: Listening at the Edge of Time

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Suzyj, CC BY-SA 4.0. The instruments at the observatory pursue different questions at different wavelengths. ASKAP, with its innovative phased-array feeds, surveys the sky rapidly and has already mapped millions of galaxies. The MWA operates at lower frequencies, between 70 and 300 MHz, hunting for t...

Image: Suzyj | CC BY-SA 4.0

Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory: The Cost of Quiet

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Suzyj, CC BY-SA 4.0. Radio silence comes with consequences for the people who live nearby. The Wajarri Yamatji communities have felt the loss of seasonal cattle mustering work, reduced pest control, and fewer community activities since the observatory's establishment. CSIRO and the Australian Governm...

Image: Suzyj | CC BY-SA 4.0

Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory: A Cathedral of Emptiness

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Suzyj, CC BY-SA 4.0. From the air, the observatory is almost invisible. The antenna dishes and tile arrays are scattered across terrain so flat and so vast that they register as specks. There are no tall buildings, no fences worth noticing, no roads that stand out against the red-brown earth. What di...

Image: Suzyj | CC BY-SA 4.0