Alex Johnson, her father Rob and her brothers were given the reward for finding a payload of sensors and cameras which had been attached to a high altitude balloon as part of Department of Defence trials being conducted in the region.

The family had been on the hunt for the payload after council informed them the balloon's launch company, ThunderStruck Space, had been looking for it.

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"We were looking as we were working in the paddocks but we could never see it," Mr Johnson said.

"Then one day the kids were bored and wanted something to do, so we decided to go searching and we found it."

ThunderStruck Space's Innovation Manager, Robert Brand, said the payload had come down around 15 to 20kms from where they had predicted.

"We released it in a little town called Binya... It got caught in a jet stream and was travelling at a ground speed of 200km/h," he said.

"We did have a lot of fun watching it come down but then we lost touch with it at 4.5 kilometres altitude.

"We were waiting for the secondary tracker to tell us where it was and it failed to do its job.

"On the morning of launch we had predicted it landing to the east of the Weddin Mountains and it's arrived here 15 to 20kms off."

Mr Brand said it was only the second time they had to resort to community help to find a payload.

"The first time we did manage to recover the payload through electronic means eventually," he said.

"This time though it worked really well.

"We were interested in farmers' kids searching for it, not the general public coming and trespassing, so the reward was aimed at them and we're pleased someone found it.

"We are now going to change this so it will be very hard to fail again but we found the interest found the community has been great," he said.

Nestled on the payload was a 3D model of "Jasper", the red-headed face of the Air Force's initiative to encourage girls and women into STEM fields.

Alex Johnson said, as a fellow red head, it had been special for her to find the payload and Jasper.

"I think it was pretty fun and ironic I found it," she said.

"It's good to see the encouragement going into STEM because we get taught at school that it is the future.

"I'm hoping to do some work which involves medical science, so it's good to see it (encouragement of girls) happening."

A Defence spokesperson said the flight was an exciting way to demonstrate the application of science and advanced technologies to a broad audience.

"Having Jasper take part in the balloon launch gave children in Australian a real sense of the incredible opportunities and STEM pathways that are available in Australia right now," the spokesperson said.

"Air Force and the wider aerospace sector need a diverse range of bright and creative minds to create the force of the future.

"Jasper was created to spark this interest in a whole new generation of talent."

The spokesperson said the a video highlighting some STEM elements of the flight was being produced for Science Week in August of this year.

They said the payload recovery following the event enabled Air Force to validate sensor configuration and power requirements for stratospheric flight, helping to ensure the success of Air Force's future high altitude balloon trials.

Mr Brand said they were excited to be expanding their footprint within the region.

"We are expanding our footprint in this area from West Wyalong to Temora and as part of that we'll be launching some fairly big airships in the near future," he said.

"Hopefully we'll be bringing some opportunities to the area.

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"We are going to reach out to some of the schools to help give them more information.

"The kids can then come out see what it's all about and see how hard it is to get all the programs behind this going.

"A little bit of a taste of what's happening in the space," he said.