WANGARA, THE URANIUM MINE LINK PART 2. THE SOMERTON MAN CODE PAGE CRACKED. THE ROAD TO PORT PIRIE

IT'S ANOTHER LEVEL OF CODE...

THE SOMERTON MAN CODE PAGE CRACKED

Following on from the incredible discovery of the hidden code letters:

AOAIQSR

(Every 7th letter of the 49 letter code page)

=

(SS)WANGARA

Those who saw that original post will know that these letters, AOAIQSR, when put through a 'Hill Cipher' decoder, produced the letters (SS)WANGARA. Our interest is the last 7 letters, WANGARA, the name of a Hill and Lookouts in South Australia's Flinders ranges. Whilst I am not entirely certain of the meaning of the two letters SS, at the end of this post I offer some thoughts on that subject.

As you can see from the map above, there is a place called Mount Painter near Arkaroola where Uranium Ore was discovered in 1910 followed by an intermittent mining operation that ceased in 1932. the mine and possibly the 6 other localised sites were reopened in 1944 in response to increased demand from the Allies in relation to their weapons programs. 

(An interesting aside is that Sir Douglas Mawson sent a sample of ore from Mount Painter to France where Nobel prize winner Madam Marie Curie was involved in Radioactivity research.)

Importantly, from the map you can clearly see that the road from Mount Painter through Hawker, Port Augusta and eventually Port Pirie went directly past WANGARA HILL to the East, an ideal position to observe, record and pass on information detailing the nature of traffic headed South towards Port Augusta and Port Pirie.  There was an alternative route that went from Mount Painter across to the Outback Highway, (Birdsville Track) and it also would have passed WANGARA HILL but to the West, but still in view.

Read more about PORT PIRIE, URANIUM here...

INTELLIGENCE GATHERING

Consider the information that could be gathered from a WANGARA HILL lookout position. Types of vehicles, loads carried as in open-top or barrels, if so how many barrels or an estimate of weight. Any passengers either in the trucks or accompanying vehicles.

This information could be quickly passed on to others who may have been able to retrieve samples of the ores when the trucks parked up to rest or alternatively if the loads were transhipped to rail at Port Augusta and thence to Port Pirie.

It is known that, in 1947, some basic ore processing was done within the confines of the lead-smelting factory in Port Pirie ahead of the much-improved facilities that opened in the early 1950s. 

Critical information on the quality of the ore could be obtained in this way with a follow-up operation to retrieve samples of the processed ores and with luck, they may even have been able to gather information on the exact processes used.

(In the early days, pre-1917, the ore was sometimes shipped by camel to less hilly country, trucked down to Copley by lorries, and from there by rail to Dry Creek in Adelaide's Northern Suburbs. At this time I have been unable to find information on what processing of Uranium ore took place in Dry Creek or whether it was ever resumed)

SOVIET AGENTS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

As per earlier posts on this subject, it is known that Soviet Agents were operating in SA in those years. Two were known Soviets and two were Australian born Soviet agents The areas they covered were the Far north of the State and the Long Range Weapons establishment in Salisbury:

https://tamamshud.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-adelaide-spies-part-4-russians.html

THE 'SS' PREFIX

The letters SS ahead of the name WANGARA interesting, if we take the position held in that the code page large letters and microcode, were transcribed by someone listening in to a short wave radio broadcast, then it is possible that the meaning of those letters was 'Signals Station', a term that you can find when searching via Google. It is possible that the person doing the transcription was not aware of some or even all of the information they brought together, that wasn't their role, it may have been for others with the appropriate skills to decrypt what was overheard. I do think that the transcriber was aware of the concealment techniques that were being used as in the Ink H method.

The 'Signals Station' at WANGARA Hill, may have been in morse code or possibly a 'numbers station' broadcast.