British nuclear testing took place at Maralinga, South Australia,
between 1956 and 1963, after Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies
had handed over 3,200 square kilometres of open desert to the British
Government, without informing his own people. The atomic weapons test
series wreaked havoc on Indigenous communities and turned the land into
a radioactive wasteland. How did it come to pass that a democracy such
as Australia suddenly found itself hosting another country's nuclear
program? And why has it continued to be shrouded in mystery, even
decades after the atomic thunder clouds stopped rolling across the South
Australian test site?
In this meticulously researched and shocking work, journalist and
academic Elizabeth Tynan reveals the truth of what really happened at
Maralinga and the devastating consequences of what took place there, not
to mention the mess that was left behind.