LISTENING TO THE UNIVERSE
Radio astronomy in Hornsby Park
Between 1947 and 1955, Hornsby Park and Old Mans Valley became an unlikely birthplace of modern science. In this quiet bushland, scientists carried out some of the world’s first radio astronomy experiments, using radio waves instead of light to study the universe.
Australia quickly became a leader in this new field and Hornsby was at its heart.
One of the pioneers here was Ruby Payne-Scott, a physicist and trailblazer now recognised as one of the world’s first female radio astronomers. Despite barriers for women in science, her expertise helped uncover radio emissions from the Sun, laying foundations for discoveries that followed.
The work relied on repurposed wartime radar equipment, adapted to listen to signals from the cosmos. What began as improvised tests in a bushland valley went on to revolutionise our understanding of the Sun and the wider universe.
Today, Old Mans Valley is a place for community and recreation, but it also holds the memory of a time when its ridges echoed with the first steps into the radio universe.
DID YOU KNOW
Pioneering space science
took place right here at Hornsby Park.
Radio station
Scientists at radio astronomy field station
