It helped broadcast man's first steps on the moon and was immortalised on the silver screen.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Now "the dish" has been added to the national heritage list.
The Parkes telescope becomes the 118th site on the list, which will see it preserved and protected.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the CSIRO Parkes Observatory helped beam Australian science, technology and engineering around the world.
"It has also shone a unique light on the role of rural Australia and its contribution to scientific discovery," she said on Monday.
Along with NASA's Honeysuckle Creek Station in Canberra, the dish played a key role in televising signals from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
The scientific feat inspired the 2000 film The Dish, starring Sam Neill.
Science Minister Karen Andrews said the 64-metre telescope continued to play an important role in understanding the universe.
"As Australia again plays a critical role in the next efforts to put people on the moon, and go on to Mars, this listing couldn't come at a more appropriate time," she said.
The telescope has been continually upgraded and is now 10,000 times more sensitive than when it was built in 1961.
Astronomers have used it to find most of the known pulsars, rapidly spinning neutron stars, and identified the first fast radio burst, a phenomenon researchers are racing to explain.
CSIRO chief Larry Marshall said the telescope had the most advanced radio receiver systems in the world and continued to monitor the universe around the clock.
Australian Associated Press
