Wayne Rankin's homestead is an amusing illustration of the odd reality he lives in.

In between the quad bikes and bits of machinery is an authentic assortment of rocket remnants which have rained down on his remote pastoral property.

Mr Rankin and his wife Sharon run the cattle station The Twins, just off the Stuart Highway in the north of South Australia.

The pastoral lease is also within the Woomera Test Range - a massive weapons testing area that is twice the size of Tasmania and not open to the public.

"Perhaps everyone hasn't got rockets flying around, but you grow up with it and it's part of your life and it just becomes normal," Mr Rankin said.

The world's largest overland weapons testing range was set up after World War II.

Wayne and Sharon Rankin with a rocket that landed on their property in South Australia. ( ABC: Kerry Staight )

Lately there has been renewed interest in the Commonwealth-owned patch, both above and below ground.

Local and international defence agencies are clamouring to use it with bookings in place for another decade.



Then there is the move to give mining companies greater access to the Air Force's playground, with an estimated $35 billion worth of minerals buried in the range.

But what is not widely known is that there are also around 130 pastoralists sharing the same space, trying to make a living on 27 stations.

"Pastoralists are the lowest rung of the ladder and we have been for a while but it doesn't mean that we go quietly about it," organic beef producer Col Greenfield said.

Mr Greenfield is Mr Rankin's neighbour and the manager of Billa Kalina, a pastoral lease which has been in his family's hands for four generations.

Like Mr Rankin he has picked up a few interesting bits of debris, including the back end of a missile that he says was fired from Woomera in the 60s.

But perhaps it is the bomb shelter among the usual array of homestead buildings that is the clearest pointer to this multi-purpose region.

The shelters were built on all pastoral properties more than fifty years ago for protection, but in many cases they quickly turned into extra storage space with a handy viewing platform.

"I think most people sat on top with a beer and a pair of binoculars to try and see a rocket going past," Mr Greenfield said.

These days they usually miss the sky shows, as pastoralists now have to evacuate when tests are carried out in their area.

Col Greenfield in front of his bomb shelter at his property. He now uses the area to store tyres. ( ABC: Kerry Staight )

They are also discouraged from updating their rocket collections with any of the leftovers.

"We wouldn't be very happy about that today," RAAF Air Commodore Noel Derwort said.

"We'd rather people don't collect bits and pieces and today we actually go and collect everything that we put on the range."

But that doesn't mean Mr Greenfield cannot update his bomb shelter.

"When I get into tourism one day I'm going to set a restaurant up there with a really good wine cellar," he said.