Tynan - Atomic thunder: the Maralinga story

ATOMIC

THUNDER

ELIZABETH TYNAN is an academic at the James Cook University Graduate Research School in Queensland. A former journalist, she has a background in print and electronic media; previously she was a reporter and subeditor at the ABC and a correspondent for New Scientist magazine. She has also worked as a writer and editor at CSIRO, the Australian National University and the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Born in South Australia, she has long been fascinated by Maralinga and in 2011 completed a PhD on aspects of British nuclear testing in Australia. She is also a freelance science writer and editor, and co-author of the textbook Media and Journalism: New Approaches to Theory and Practice, now in its third edition, and of Communication for Business.

ATOMIC THUNDER

THE MARALINGA STORY

ELIZABETH TYNAN

A NewSouth book

Published by

NewSouth Publishing

University of New South Wales Press Ltd

University of New South Wales

Sydney NSW 2052

AUSTRALIA

newsouthpublishing.com

Elizabeth Tynan 2016

First published 2016

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

National Library of Australia

Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Creator: Tynan, Elizabeth, author.

Title: Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga story / Elizabeth Tynan.

Notes: Includes index.

Subjects: Nuclear weapons Great Britain Testing.

Aboriginal Australians, Treatment of South Australia Maralinga.

Radioactive pollution South Australia Maralinga.

Cold War.

Australia Politics and government 19451965.

Great Britain Politics and government 19451964.

Maralinga (SA).

Dewey Number: 994.05

Design Josephine Pajor-Markus

Cover design Blue Cork

Cover images Landscape at Maralinga, 2007: Wayne England/Wikimedia

Commons. John L Stanier at Maralinga in protective clothing, with a camera also protected in a plastic cover [detail], c. 1950s: National Archives of Australia A6457, P214.

Extract from The Boy in the Bubble , p. 11: Words by Paul Simon. Music by Paul Simon & Forere Motloheloa. Copyright 1986 Paul Simon (BMI). All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used by permission of Music Sales Limited.

All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The author welcomes information in this regard.

To the future.

May it learn something from the past.

Acknowledgments

A s a bookish introvert, I enjoy nothing more than the challenge of living inside a big writing project. I have lived inside this one for quite a while. I havent been entirely on my own, though. In fact, without the magnificent contribution of a number of people, there would be no book. I hasten to add that while I have been greatly assisted by some excellent individuals, if there are any errors in this book they are mine alone.

My incomparable mother, Rosemary Jennings, has been central to the creation of this book. Her experience as a history researcher, including work for the Australian Dictionary of Biography, honed her acute historical brain and great love of history. She is also naturally pedantic and has directed this superpower onto my work. She has picked up errors that I have not been able to see, and she has been a sounding board for my ideas. She is one of the few people who will allow me to talk at length about Maralinga without suddenly remembering that she has to be somewhere else. I am grateful to have been able to do that, because sometimes the ideas just want to come out, and having someone willing to receive them has been inexpressibly important to me.

I would also like to thank radiation scientists and Maralinga experts Dr Geoff Williams and Mr Peter Burns. My visit to Geoff and Peter at the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Authority in Melbourne in 2004 planted the seed of an idea that later became my PhD thesis and still later became this book. I never knew that the Maralinga story was so rich and fascinating and terrible until I spent those crucial, life-changing hours in the presence of such knowledgeable scientists. Both Geoff and Peter have been kind enough to read parts of the manuscript to check for factual accuracy. Geoff also introduced me to Graeme Newgreen, who worked at Maralinga during the tests, and Graeme kindly read part of the text too.

Paul Malone was one of the intrepid investigative journalists who took on th Maralinga story when it became an important media event in the 1980s. His work with Howard Conkey at the Canberra Times revealed a complex story that he worked meticulously to uncover. He has generously given me access to his extensive archive of original documents relating to the nuclear tests in Australia, and I have drawn upon them gratefully and at length.

One of Australias best journalists, Brian Toohey, broke the story about plutonium contamination in a series of stories in the Financial Review in 1978. He kindly answered my questions about his Maralinga reporting when I put them to him while researching my PhD. I have quoted those answers in this book as well, to help provide some insights into the era of uncovering that he did so much to initiate. I acknowledge the considerable contribution of the late Ian Anderson, a science journalist of great talent and influence who was taken too soon. His work in the early 1990s in uncovering the true extent of plutonium contamination caused by Vixen B at Maralinga was an object lesson in why investigative journalism is essential in a democracy. I was privileged to work with him briefly at New Scientist; he taught me so much. His widow, Dr Robin Anderson, generously gave me access to parts of Ians personal archive in the early stages of my PhD research.

I gratefully acknowledge my employer, James Cook University. Part of the work involved in this book was carried out during a period of study leave in 2014. I particularly acknowledge the dean of graduate studies, Distinguished Professor Helene Marsh, who has always shown heartening and much-appreciated confidence in my abilities. Thank you also to linguists extraordinaire Professor Alexandra Aikhenvald and Professor Robert Dixon at James Cook University, who did the detective work that tracked down the origin of the word Maralinga.

This book had its genesis in the work I did for my doctorate. I would like to thank and acknowledge my supervisor at the Australian National University (ANU), Professor Sue Stocklmayer, and also Dr Will J Grant, both at the National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. My PhD was a life-changing experience, and I thank them for their role in it.

My dear friend Susan Davies, who lives in New York and has been away for so long, will always be close to my heart. There truly is no friend like ones oldest friend. I am fortunate all-round in the quality of my friends. Special mentions to Melissa Lyne, Nicola Goc, George Roberts, Nadine Marshall, Marilyn Chalkley and Annie Warburton, who have all in a multitude of ways enriched my life.