Antinuclear

Australia’s Chernobyl: Country That Will Never Heal

It’s NAIDOC Week 2021 and this year’s theme is Heal Country! Tragically for the Anangu people of South Australia, their country may never heal from a series of nuclear blasts carried out by the British in the 1950’s and 60’s.

The Quicky speaks to a local First Nations campaigner who comes from a long line of outspoken traditional owners, an academic on Australia’s dark nuclear past, and a nuclear engineer who was fired for trying to blow the whistle on a dismal clean-up effort, to find out why huge parts of SA will remain uninhabitable for millennia.

Worse still, we hear about the many disturbing medical conditions and premature deaths of countless local people, who were given no protection and no warning about the consequences of the atomic tests.Guests:

Glen Wingfield – A Kokatha man based in Port Augusta whose late parents Mrs Eileen Wingfield and Mr Raymond Wingfield campaigned tirelessly for the recognition and protection of their country – to read about Eileen Wani Winfield, grab a copy of Fantastically Great Women Who Saved The Planet by Kate Pankhurst – https://bit.ly/2TrQLP7

Associate Professor Liz Tynan – Academic and former science journalist who has researched British atomic tests in Australia for many years, and author of Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story

Alan Parkinson – Nuclear engineer who was the official adviser to the Maralinga clean-up project, but after he voiced his concerns about the dangers of the shortcuts that were being taken, he was removed from the project and told to be quiet

The episode is now available online, you can listen here for free: https://www.mamamia.com.au/podcasts/the-quicky/maralinga-nuclear-tests—

July 5, 2021 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized