The Long Range Weapons Establishment was created as a result of World War II when, with the exception of the Munitions Supply Laboratories there was no particular organisation equipped to deal with the scientific aspects of warfare. During the emergency the Commonwealth Council for scientific and Industrial Research, the universities, various civilian laboratories and individual scientists, all
contributed to provide the scientific effort required. Soon after the end of the war, the United Kingdom began a large programme of research and development in the field of guided weapons and in 1946 approached Australia with proposals to set up experimental guided-weapons testing range.
 
This led in 1947, to the setting up of Long Range Weapons Establishment as Salisbury, near Adelaide in South Australia, with the object of building a Range at Woomera (about 300 miles north-west of Adelaide, extending across central Australia in north-west direction to the Western Australian coast) and establishing basic facilities for research and development on rocket-propelled weapons. The range was known as Long Range Weapons Establishment Range, Woomera (South Australia) (CA 3075). The Salisbury facility was accommodated in the existing building of the Ammunition Factory, Penfield. Many of the Munitions workers (both staff/ and day labour) were transferred to the new agency 1974. [subject to further research
 
The next step was to bring together the existing laboratories engaged on defence work; these were the Long Range Weapons Establishment, the Munitions Supply Laboratories ( renamed the Defence Standards Laboratories), and the Division of Aeronautics of the C.S.I.R.O. ( which was transferred to the Department of Supply and Development (II) and renamed the Aeronautical Research Laboratories). Thus, in 1949, a Research and Development Division was formed within the Commonwealth Department of Supply and Development (II) to direct these three establishments as the nucleus of an Australian Defence Scientific Service (A.D.S.S.). While the various laboratories located at Salisbury were more or less independent they and the Long Range Weapons Establishment Administration were all serviced by a single
decentralised registry system.
 
Concurrently with the information of the A.D.S.S it was decided to introduce other facilities to give a broader background for work on guided weapons, and cover other aspects of defence science. The first step (in 1951) was to transfer some activities of the Aeronautical Research Laboratories into a new High Speed Aerodynamics Laboratory. The second was to establish a Propulsion Research Laboratory to work on guided-weapon rocket motors, and the third was to establish an Electronics Research Laboratory for research and development in applications of electronics to Australian defence science. All three laboratories were set up at Salisbury. In 1953 for administration purposes, the Electronics and Propulsion Research Laboratories were combined to form a new establishment, the Chemical and Physical Research Laboratories.
 
In January 1955, a reorganisation of the Research and Development Division took place, in which these laboratories (High Speed
Aerodynamics Laboratory and Chemical and Physical Research
Laboratories) and the Long Range Weapons Establishment, all located at Salisbury, were amalgamated into a single establishment, the weapons Research Establishment Salisbury (CA 3039)
 
Sources:
 
Australian Encyclopaedia (Grolier Society of Australia, Sydney 10963) Vol. 3, 'Defence Science' pp.218-277.
 
Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, No.38, 1951, p.1203; No. 39, 1953, pp. 1242, 1257-1258; no 40, 1954, 1122-1123; No. 41 1955 p.1005
 

Historical agency address
Salisbury SA

Previous agency unregistered

Ammunition Factory Penfield (South Australia), 1942-1947 (Subject to further research)