Maralinga, South Australia
Maralinga, South Australia in the remote western areas of
South Australia was the home of the
Maralinga Tjarutja, a southern
Pitjantjatjara Indigenous Australian people.
Maralinga was the site of
British nuclear tests in the
1950s. In January
1985, the Maralinga Tjarutja
native title land was handed back to the Maralinga people under legislation passed by both houses of the
South Australian Parliament in December
1984 and proclaimed in January
1985.
The Maralinga people resettled on the land in
1995 and named the new community
Oak Valley Community. The population ranges from 80-100; during special cultural activities with visitors from neighbouring communities it rises to 1,500 people.
The Maralinga and Emu Field were the scene of
UK nuclear testing and were contaminated with radioactive waste in the
1950s.
Maralinga was surveyed by
Len Beadell in the early 1950s, and followed the survey of the site called
Emu Field, which was further north and which conducted the first two tests.
On
September 27,
1956,
Operation Buffalo commenced at Maralinga, Emu Field having been found to be too remote a site. The operation consisted of the testing of four
fission bombs, codenamed
One Tree,
Marcoo,
Kite and
Breakaway.
One Tree and
Breakaway were exploded from towers,
Marcoo was exploded at ground level and
Kite was released by a
Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant bomber from a height of 30,000 ft (9,144 m). This was the first launching of a British atomic weapon from an aircraft.
Operation Antler followed in
1957. Antler was designed to test the triggering mechanisms of the weapons. Three tests began in September, codenamed
Tadje,
Biak and
Taranaki. The first two tests were conducted from towers, the last was suspended from balloons. Yields from the weapons were 1
kiloton, 6 kilotons and 25 kilotons respectively.
The local Aboriginal people were not warned effectively of the explosions and many suffered terrible after-effects from
fallout, although the
1984/
1985 Royal Commission could find no evidence of this for the Maralinga Tjarutja. British and Australian servicemen were purposely exposed to fallout from the blasts, to see what happened. These facts came out in the
Royal Commission between 1984 and 1985. Previously many of the facts were kept from the public.
Despite the governments of
Australia and the
UK paying for two expensive decontamination programs, concerns were expressed that some areas of the Maralinga test sites were still contaminated. The dangerous materials from the later ground tests, in which
plutonium was burned to simulate an accident, has been stabilised and buried. All the bomb plume fallout has long since decayed to safe levels.
Neighbouring Aboriginal Communities are:
*
Tjunjunjarra, Western Australia (west)
*
Pila Nguru (west)
*
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands and
Indulkana, South Australia (north)
*
Yalata Community (South)
Distances to main centres are:
*
Ceduna to
Oak Valley - 516 km (approx 7 hours)
*
Yalata to Oak Valley - 315 km (approx. 5 hours (via
Ooldea))
*
Pt Lincoln to Oak Valley - 919 km
*
Adelaide to Oak Valley - 1288 km
*Temperature from 6.5ºC in Winter to 44.7ºC in Summer, overnight minimum -3º in winter.
*Rainfall average .75mm - 1.25mm
*Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements (ATNS) project at the Indigenous Studies Program, The
University of Melbourne**
Maralinga Tjarutja Council**
Southern Pitjantjatjara People*
British Atomic Testing in Australia*
BBC Radio 4 photos from Maralinga*
British nuclear tests at Maralinga - Fact sheet 129 from National Archives of Australia
*Tame, Adrian & Robotham, F.P.J. 1982.
MARALINGA: British A-Bomb Australian Legacy. Fontana / Collins, Melbourne. ISBN 0 00 636 391 1.
