Atomic thunder : the Maralinga story / Elizabeth Tynan.

Sydney, NSW : NewSouth Publishing, 2016.©2016

Tynan, Elizabeth. author.

01-01-2016

xv, 373 pages : maps ; 24 cm

text

volume

994.05 TYN (Copy 1) MAIN-MONO 309014 INLIBRARY

Nuclear weapons tests

Atomic bombs

Radiation side effects

South Australia

Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders

Cold War

History

Nuclear weapons -- Great Britain -- Testing.

Aboriginal Australians, Treatment of -- South Australia -- Maralinga.

Radioactive pollution -- South Australia -- Maralinga.

Cold War.

Maralinga (S.A.)

Australia -- Politics and government -- 1945-1965.

Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1945-1964.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9781742234281

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. 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.

1181803

309014

Library Catalogue