'In September 2016 it will be 60 years since the first British mushroom cloud rose above the plain at Maralinga in South Australia. The atomic weapons test series wreaked havoc on Indigenous communities and turned the land into a radioactive wasteland.
In 1950 Australian prime minister Robert Menzies blithely agreed to atomic tests that offered no benefit to Australia and relinquished control over them – and left the public completely in the dark. This book reveals the devastating consequences of that decision. After earlier tests at Monte Bello and Emu Field, in 1956 Australia dutifully provided 3200 square kilometres of South Australian desert to the British Government, along with logistics and personnel.
How could a democracy such as Australia host another country’s nuclear program in the midst of the Cold War? In this meticulously researched and shocking work, journalist and academic Elizabeth Tynan reveals how Australia allowed itself to be duped. Maralinga was born in secret atomic business, and has continued to be shrouded in mystery decades after the atomic thunder stopped rolling across the South Australian test site. This book is the most comprehensive account of the whole saga, from the time that the explosive potential of splitting uranium atoms was discovered, to the uncovering of the extensive secrecy around the British tests in Australia many years after the British had departed, leaving an unholy mess behind.' (Publisher's blurb)
[Review] Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story
2017
21937609
2017
single work
review
'This is a highly readable account of the history and consequences of the British nuclear testing program in Australia – primarily the minor and major trials at Maralinga, South Australia, and the 1985 royal commission investigation and findings. Tynan’s closest competitor, Robert Milliken’s No Conceivable Injury: The Story of Britain and Australia’s Atomic Cover-up, was published in 1986 and was thus unable to cover subsequent scandals associated with the tests, the more recent reviews of veterans’ claims and entitlements, the 2003 Maralinga Rehabilitation Technical Advisory Committee (MARTAC) report on the studies of the test site ‘clean-up’, and even the involvement of Wikileaks. Tynan addresses these developments with aplomb, and while her book covers much of the same ground as Milliken, Atomic Thunder has immediacy and verve, while successfully weaving in a huge amount of complex material. One chapter out of 12 deals with the impact of the tests on Aboriginal people: the Western Desert groups who moved between Warburton, Ernabella, Cundeelee, Ooldea and Lake Phillipson near Coober Pedy.'
[Review] Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story
2017
21937609
2017
single work
review
'This is a highly readable account of the history and consequences of the British nuclear testing program in Australia – primarily the minor and major trials at Maralinga, South Australia, and the 1985 royal commission investigation and findings. Tynan’s closest competitor, Robert Milliken’s No Conceivable Injury: The Story of Britain and Australia’s Atomic Cover-up, was published in 1986 and was thus unable to cover subsequent scandals associated with the tests, the more recent reviews of veterans’ claims and entitlements, the 2003 Maralinga Rehabilitation Technical Advisory Committee (MARTAC) report on the studies of the test site ‘clean-up’, and even the involvement of Wikileaks. Tynan addresses these developments with aplomb, and while her book covers much of the same ground as Milliken, Atomic Thunder has immediacy and verve, while successfully weaving in a huge amount of complex material. One chapter out of 12 deals with the impact of the tests on Aboriginal people: the Western Desert groups who moved between Warburton, Ernabella, Cundeelee, Ooldea and Lake Phillipson near Coober Pedy.'
'Between 1956 and 1963, the British government tested seven nuclear weapons on Australian soil, along with hundreds of minor tests that contaminated the land and exposed local communities to dangerous levels of radiation. They did so largely under a veil of secrecy, and it was decades before the Australian government moved to compensate affected remote Indigenous communities. Atomic Thunder tells the story of how a legacy of nuclear testing changed the face of Australia in the aftermath of the Second World War. The book traces the history of the British A-Bomb tests at Maralinga and Monte Bello from early research into the secrets of the atom through to the repercussions Australians faced for allowing the British to act unchecked on their land. Atomic Thunder skilfully untangles the history of nuclear testing in Australia by uncovering the stories of the people who helped to develop such devastating weaponry, the people who should have been holding them to account and those who suffered due to the lack of oversight. Liz Tynan exposes the many individuals and groups who failed to stand up for the interests of Australia by holding the British government in check. Tynan's skill as a journalist is apparent in her ability to take her readers seamlessly through the different stages of the Australian nuclear tests right through to the present while uncovering the stories of the people involved.' (Introduction)
[Review] Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story
2017
21937609
2017
single work
review
'This is a highly readable account of the history and consequences of the British nuclear testing program in Australia – primarily the minor and major trials at Maralinga, South Australia, and the 1985 royal commission investigation and findings. Tynan’s closest competitor, Robert Milliken’s No Conceivable Injury: The Story of Britain and Australia’s Atomic Cover-up, was published in 1986 and was thus unable to cover subsequent scandals associated with the tests, the more recent reviews of veterans’ claims and entitlements, the 2003 Maralinga Rehabilitation Technical Advisory Committee (MARTAC) report on the studies of the test site ‘clean-up’, and even the involvement of Wikileaks. Tynan addresses these developments with aplomb, and while her book covers much of the same ground as Milliken, Atomic Thunder has immediacy and verve, while successfully weaving in a huge amount of complex material. One chapter out of 12 deals with the impact of the tests on Aboriginal people: the Western Desert groups who moved between Warburton, Ernabella, Cundeelee, Ooldea and Lake Phillipson near Coober Pedy.'
'Between 1956 and 1963, the British government tested seven nuclear weapons on Australian soil, along with hundreds of minor tests that contaminated the land and exposed local communities to dangerous levels of radiation. They did so largely under a veil of secrecy, and it was decades before the Australian government moved to compensate affected remote Indigenous communities. Atomic Thunder tells the story of how a legacy of nuclear testing changed the face of Australia in the aftermath of the Second World War. The book traces the history of the British A-Bomb tests at Maralinga and Monte Bello from early research into the secrets of the atom through to the repercussions Australians faced for allowing the British to act unchecked on their land. Atomic Thunder skilfully untangles the history of nuclear testing in Australia by uncovering the stories of the people who helped to develop such devastating weaponry, the people who should have been holding them to account and those who suffered due to the lack of oversight. Liz Tynan exposes the many individuals and groups who failed to stand up for the interests of Australia by holding the British government in check. Tynan's skill as a journalist is apparent in her ability to take her readers seamlessly through the different stages of the Australian nuclear tests right through to the present while uncovering the stories of the people involved.' (Introduction)
[Review] Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story
2017
21937609
2017
single work
review
'This is a highly readable account of the history and consequences of the British nuclear testing program in Australia – primarily the minor and major trials at Maralinga, South Australia, and the 1985 royal commission investigation and findings. Tynan’s closest competitor, Robert Milliken’s No Conceivable Injury: The Story of Britain and Australia’s Atomic Cover-up, was published in 1986 and was thus unable to cover subsequent scandals associated with the tests, the more recent reviews of veterans’ claims and entitlements, the 2003 Maralinga Rehabilitation Technical Advisory Committee (MARTAC) report on the studies of the test site ‘clean-up’, and even the involvement of Wikileaks. Tynan addresses these developments with aplomb, and while her book covers much of the same ground as Milliken, Atomic Thunder has immediacy and verve, while successfully weaving in a huge amount of complex material. One chapter out of 12 deals with the impact of the tests on Aboriginal people: the Western Desert groups who moved between Warburton, Ernabella, Cundeelee, Ooldea and Lake Phillipson near Coober Pedy.'
