British nuclear bomb tests in Australia

Maralinga Our Own Shame – UK Nuclear Bomb Tests in Australia – Care2 News Network (UK) by David Buchan 19 Oct 09 Britain actively used Australian soil and people to conduct it’s nuclear testing program during the 1950s and 1960s. The 5 areas it conducted the tests are at Monte Bello Islands in north-western Western Australia (just off the mainland, near Monkey Mia); Emu Field in north-western South Australia; the infamous Maralinga in south-western South Australia; Christmas Island and Malden Island, both due south of Hawaii, on either side of the Equator. After the Grapple series of tests, the British lent the site to the US in 1962 for the Dominic series of 25 explosions……………..

During the mainland tests many army personnel were deliberately exposed to the blasts just to see what effect radiation had on troops. Security at the test sites was lax. The testing range boundaries were not properly monitored, allowing people to walk in and out. Any signs were in English, which the local Aboriginal population could not read. Fallout from the ground blasts led to massive contamination of the Australian interior. The fallout from Maralinga even reached Adelaide and Melbourne. Some places are still heavily radioactive due principally to the presence of 20 kg of plutonium, the most toxic element known to humans.
Maralinga is Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal dialect for “Field of Thunder”. Aborigines may have been directly affected by the blasts. Compensation is currently being sought in Australian courts.

Learn more: British Nuclear Testing in Australia UK ATMOSPHERIC NUCLEAR TESTS IN AUSTRALIA AND AT CHRISTMAS ISLAND 1952-58 at:

Maralinga – Our Own Shame

Maralinga – Our Own Shame – UK nuclear bomb tests in austral… – Care2 News Network