This is the appointment we’ve been working towards over the past few weeks, the final Maralinga Tour for 2023. Having paid $250 per person for the tour we didn’t want to arrive late and miss it. What did we get for our $500? Two nights luxury accommodation in our van, toilet facilities similar to those on a construction site (i.e. in shipping containers) and a 7 hour tour around the facility in a 20-seater mini bus with a driver/guide.
However, despite what we thought was a bit of price gouging, it was nonetheless very interesting, though there was really very little to see.
Aboriginal people have occupied the Maralinga Tjarutja lands since time immemorial. The people are part of the Western Desert culture. They have strong cultural and traditional links with the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people to the north and the Tjuntjuntara people to the west. Whilst official documentation refers to the displacement of the Aboriginal people, our guide Robin, who has been living in the region on and off for 50 years, and is married to a local Aboriginal woman, advised the tour that no Aboriginal people were living on the site at the time, though they did access it and for hunting and travel between tribes and settlements.
With the agreement of the Australian Government, Britain tested atomic weapons at three sites on Australian territory: the Montebello Islands off Western Australia, and Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia. The testing took place from 1952 to 1963, mostly at Maralinga. Australian authorities did not discover the extent of the contamination at Maralinga until 1984, just before the land was to be returned to its Aboriginal owners.
The Maralinga site occupied approximately 3,300 square kilometres.
We set up camp on one of the multitude of concrete slabs across the Maralinga Village Area that once supported sleeping quarters and administration buildings to serve the 3,000 military, scientific and civilian workers at any one time, who were all male. Women were forbidden to set foot on the site.The steps behind Carol lead up to what was once an Olympic size swimming pool, which has now been backfilled. The foreground structure in the bottom pic was a fountain, which we assume was to cool the bore water that was likely used for the pool.Very few buildings remain in the Village or across the broad Maralinga site. Most were either demolished, or shipped off and reassembled in other locations around the state.Some artefacts that have been collected or preserved, plus one of the many roads surveyed and constructed by Len Beadell. Len surveyed the entire Maralinga site as well as the Woomera rocket testing facility in SA.In addition to the village area of the site, a large airfield was constructed, with regular military and civilian flights, up to 30 per day. The airstrip is one of the longest in the southern hemisphere and has never required any surface repairs. Rainwater falling on the runway was channelled to a dam and used as drinking water in the Village. Some artefacts at the airfield include these kerosene landing lights.Ground Zero: Following the clean up of the test sites, plinths were placed at most of the seven detonation sites, three of which we visited; Marcoo, 4th Oct 1956 1.5kT, detonated at ground level creating a 30m deep crater; Breakaway, 22 Oct 1956 10kT detonated atop a 10m high tower; and Taranaki, 9 Oct 1957 27kT detonated from tethered balloons at 1,000 feet above ground. Yum Yum enjoyed the tour.In 1958 another site named Tufi was prepared for another detonation, with the bomb to be suspended from tethered balloons. This detonation didn’t proceed, however the multitude of concrete plinths used to tether the balloons have been retained; During the tour we came across this little thorny devil, and three Peregrine Falcon chicks part way down a well that was dug in 1878. Mr and Mrs Falcon make this a regular home.A photo of one of the actual detonations at Maralinga; at several of the sites, steel bunkers were placed nearby, with personnel inside (according to our tour guide), to test the impact of the blast. One of the bunkers tipped over during the blast. Not an experience I’d like to endure. Other resources indicate the bunkers contained delicate instrumentation. I guess a worker could be deemed “delicate instrumentation”. The bunker has been partially re-excavated exposing the entrance door; The ground at Breakaway was vaporised, becoming so hot from the blast that the soil vitrified, turning into glass. Some fragments of what was once a large green glass sheet still remain.The Brits did a dodgy clean up of the site in 1967. In 1986 the Australian Government established a Technical Assessment Group to undertake a risk assessment of the condition of the lands. Extreme contamination was detected in several areas so a complete clean-up was undertaken, burying over 350,000 cubic metres of contaminated soil, plus planes and vehicles used during the bomb testing and all of the equipment used to decontaminate the site. This Toyota had the driver’s side welded shut and a ship’s bulkhead door fitted to the passenger side to completely seal the cabin, with an air filtration system on the roof (now removed and buried). In the rear, sealed from the cabin was instrumentation to determine contamination levels. Several of these vehicles were kitted out and used to survey the entire Maralinga site. The shed is one of two that remain near the detonation sites, erected in the 1980s as maintenance workshops for the clean-up machinery. The clean-up was completed in the year 2000, costing $108 million.Signs warning of the contamination, and the side of the tour mini bus. Kuka palya = meat good. Ngura wiya = camp no.Carol locking up the perimeter fence behind us, as we were the last of the tour group to leave the site on the following morning. Several km from the site the land drops down to the Nullabor Plain; At the crossing of the Trans Australian Railway line, about 80km south of Maralinga, stands a monument to Daisy Bates who worked tirelessly with the aboriginal people in the late 1800s – early 1900s. We couldn’t find the monument commemorating the joining of the west and west sections of the line in 1917.South Australia, showing the location of Maralinga.
One thought on “The Big Bang Theory”
Thanks for sorting out the log in issues Graham. That worked well. Lovely to catch up on the phone tonight.
It must have been interesting to go to Maralinga. We saw a good series on ABC TV on what happened out there (the story was loosely based on the history).
Thanks for sorting out the log in issues Graham. That worked well. Lovely to catch up on the phone tonight.
It must have been interesting to go to Maralinga. We saw a good series on ABC TV on what happened out there (the story was loosely based on the history).