![]() ![]() The government responded to growing community concern by establishing the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia under Justice James McClelland. In addition to radiation danger, Aboriginal people around Maralinga also faced extreme social, emotional and physical hardship from being denied access to food and water resources for more than 30 years. For example, in 1957, the Milpuddie family was found camping next to a crater left by a Maralinga test detonation.Ī letter from Alan Butement, Chief Scientist, Commonwealth Department of Supply, to Walter MacDougall’s manager in 1956 stated, 'Your memorandum discloses a lamentable lack of balance in Mr McDougall's outlook, in that he is apparently placing the affairs of a handful of natives above those of the British Commonwealth of Nations'.įollowing the first 'Operation Totem’ test at Emu Field in 1953, Aboriginal people and white pastoralists were exposed to fallout which they described as a ‘Black Mist’. The extremely limited resources devoted to finding and warning people (one experienced native patrol officer, Walter MacDougall was responsible for covering hundreds of thousands of square kilometres by car) led to incidents of radiation exposure. None of the British tests adequately considered the presence of the A nangu Pitjantjatjara people, especially the greater risk of radiation exposure faced by families living on country. ![]() Some resulted in mushroom clouds reaching heights of 47,000 feet (14,325 metres), and radioactive fallout blown by wind was detected as far away as Townsville. Britain conducted 12 major trials of nuclear devices across the three sites. On 27 September 1956 Britain conducted its first test at Maralinga. Although two tests were carried out there in October 1953, the remoteness of this site prompted Britain to request a new site at Maralinga, closer to the Trans-Australian Railway. Soon after, Britain received Australian Government permission to conduct land-based tests at Emu Field, South Australia. On 3 October 1952 Britain conducted its first nuclear weapon trial on the Montebello Islands off the Western Australian coast. ![]() Menzies, who was eager to maintain strong links with Britain, agreed. In 1950 Britain’s Prime Minister Clement Attlee approached his Australian counterpart, Robert Menzies, to seek his agreement to test a British weapon on Australian territory. When the devastating effects of atomic weapons were revealed by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the Soviet Union and Great Britain accelerated the development of their own nuclear capabilities. Atomic blast during Operation Buffalo nuclear tests, Maralinga, South Australia ![]()
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