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By
SUSAN BRYCE
It
is a challenge to Australian men to show that the pioneering
spirit of their forefathers who developed our country is
still the driving force of achievement… The whole project
is a striking example of inter-Commonwealth cooperation
on the grand scale. England has the bomb and the know how;
we have the open spaces, much technical skill and great
willingness to help the motherland… Between us we shall
help to build the defences of the free world, and make historic
advances in harnessing the forces of nature.
— Sir Robert Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia during
atomic test operations
During
the 1950s Australia became a testing ground for nuclear weapons,
and service personnel and civilians became the human victims
of radiation experiments. It was considered dangerous to conduct
nuclear testing in Britain, therefore five major atmospheric
nuclear weapons tests – Hurricane, Totem, Mosaic, Buffalo
and Antler – were conducted in Australia from October 1952
to October 1957. So-called cleanups were held in Australia
up until the 1990s. While the full consequences of Australia’s
involvement in these disastrous projects will never be known,
some material has been made available due to the tenacity
of nuclear veterans, indigenous Australians and academic researchers.
The
first nuclear weapons test in Australia was conducted at Monte
Bellos island, then Emu and finally at Maralinga, South Australia,
in the Great Victoria Desert, which became the permanent mainland
test range and the largest permanent nuclear waste dump in
the southern hemisphere. During that period the Australian
Government sent approximately 8,000 service people and about
the same number of civilian contract personnel to be involved
in the tests. These service people became guinea pigs for
the British Government for the express purpose of testing
nuclear weapons and radiation effects.
The
exposure to radiation was deliberate and planned. Service
people were ordered to enter into ground zero (the point of
explosion) immediately following detonation of atomic bombs.
Planes flew into and tracked mushroom clouds over Australia
taking air samples and photos. Ships and ground crews washed
down equipment and their own bodies with irradiated water.
They drank contaminated water while eating food contaminated
by dust from the red sand and soil in which they lived.
Ric
Johnstone, national president of the Australian Nuclear Veterans
Association, referred to the military personnel at Maralinga
in a July 2000 statement: “They were provided with little
or no protective clothing and seldom badged while some badges
and dosimeters were falsified or not recorded because of high
readings.”
Most
of the service people were required as a part of their “indoctrination”
to witness the detonations of atomic weapons, often with minimal
protective equipment. Some were simply ordered to face their
backs to the blast and cover their eyes with their hands.
As the bomb detonated, veterans were reportedly able to ‘see
their bones’ and they were ordered to turn around and view
the mushroom cloud as it plumed into the air.
Most
stood within a 20 km radius of the blasts. Sampling of the
blast area was conducted on foot, to measure fallout over
specific areas. At one site, numerous cobalt 60 pellets were
collected by hand using tobacco tins for storage until transfer
onto lead shielded trucks for air transport back to the UK.
Personnel wore little in the way of protective clothing, with
overalls and respirators affording frail protection to excessive
radiation doses.
Despite
being exposed to dangerous level of radioactivity, the Australian
Government expected the test participants to believe they
were exposed to only minimal non-hazardous levels of radiation.
In 1984 the Hawke Government called a Royal Commission to
inquire into the effects of the British atomic weapons tests
in Australia. Although the health effects on service personnel
involved in the tests was not part of the letters patent,
(service personnel were not asked to attend but had to seek
leave to appear) this was begrudgingly granted by the Commissioner,
the late Jim McClelland, who remarked at the time, “I don’t
suppose it will do any harm”.
There
are many reports in the McClelland Royal Commission that demonstrate
disregard for the safety and welfare of Australia’s indigenous
people during the tests. In many situations authorities had
a callous, and incompetent approach to Aborigines, with little
regard for their safety, rights or future well being.
The
Hurricane tests, for example, were conducted with no regards
to the unique lifestyle of Aboriginal people on the mainland,
near the Montebello Islands, despite the reported population
of over 4,500 in neighbouring coastal areas. During the Totem
tests, the fallout cloud passed directly over Aboriginal settlements
at Wallatina and Welbourne Hill at short range, in the form
of a black mist.
Following
the Royal Commission, claims were made to Britain to compensate
the atomic test victims. However, the European Court of Human
Rights in 1997 deemed that no humans were used in experiments
in nuclear weapons trials – a claim which enabled the British
government to successfully defeat Australia’s compensation
demands.
But
new evidence – a document found in the Australian National
Archive in February this year – names 70 Australian military
personnel and one civilian, plus five New Zealand officers,
as suffering from radiation exposure during the Buffalo series
of four atmospheric nuclear tests conducted at Maralinga in
September and October, 1956. The document was unearthed by
Sue Rabbitt Roff, a senior research fellow from Scotland’s
Dundee University. After the documents were revealed, the
UK Ministry of Defence responded that it was clothing which
was being tested, not humans. A statement released by the
British government said that military personnel were “transported
to or walked in various uniforms to an area of low-level fallout.”
Psychological
problems, physical injuries and numerous cancer types have
been implicated in survivors of British atomic testing in
Australia. However, it was not only people within the immediate
vicinity of the testing that were exposed to deadly radiation.
During
the Mosaic series, a CSIRO team was committed to measure the
radioactive content in the thyroids of cattle and sheep in
Australia. Thyroids from sheep and cattle were collected in
March 1956, and tested for radioactive iodine 131. Investigations
revealed that sheep thyroids from Bourke and Marree had given
iodine 131 count rates of 800 counts per 100 seconds following
the initial Mosaic blast. This was against a normal control
level of 50 counts per 100 seconds. Rates of 8,000 to 24,000
counts per 100 seconds were obtained in some specimens following
the second Mosaic detonation. The increase indicated a major
hazard from strontium 90 and the uptake of other radioisotopes
into human bones.
Fallout
from the atomic tests spread across mainland Australia, leaving
virtually no corner unpolluted.
•
Fallout passed over the city of Adelaide.
•
Significant fallout and contamination in rainwater was detected
at Townsville, Rockhampton (200 times the background radiation),
and Brisbane (10 times background radiation). Results were
not provided for Broome (closest major occupation on the mainland
to the site).
•
Significant aerial contamination was detected from as far
as Auckland and Suva and Fiji.
•
A radioactive cloud travelled over Australia and crossed the
coast near Townsville 50 hours after the blast. Fallout was
experienced across the mainland.
•
A radioactive black mist from Totem 1 significantly contaminated
the areas of Wallatinna and Welbourn Hill. This resulted in
the exposure of at least 45 Aboriginal people, who experienced
radiation sickness and death.
•
Coober Pedy and Maralinga Village were contaminated.
Radioactive
contamination remains to this day at Maralinga, and possibly
in other parts of Australia. The last of four cleanups at
Maralinga was completed last year, but a leaked email from
a senior officer of the Australian Radiation Protection and
Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), complained about “a host
of indiscretions, short-cuts and cover-ups.” ARPANSA chief
executive officer Dr. John Loy described the clean up as “world’s
best practice.” The radioactive materials were buried in unlined
trenches. As one critic pointed out, more stringent requirements
are demanded for the dumping of domestic household rubbish.
Many
other people have become guinea pigs in human radiation experiments
that were conducted as adjuncts to nuclear weapons testing
in Australia. The British newspaper, The Independent,
recently reported that several Australian soldiers, based
at Maralinga, had seen two groups of severely disabled people
taken to a test area shortly before one of 12 nuclear detonations.
The people with disabilities were never seen again after the
tests and probably died after being present at nuclear explosions,
the report said.
Earlier
this year, Australians reeled in horror when it was confirmed
that cremated bones from some Australian babies, children
and adults of up to 39 years old had been shipped to the United
States and Britain to test for radioactive fallout from nuclear
tests. The remains of the babies were also used by British
scientists for similar tests and research that ended only
in the 1970s. Medical officials had given approval for the
bodies and body parts to be used in the tests without parental
or family consent. Further reports in British and Australian
newspapers estimate that some 6,000 stillborn babies and dead
infants from Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, the United
States and South America were used in radiation experiments
over a 15-year period.
It
is likely that many other human radiation experiments and
atomic tests have been carried out in Australia in conjunction
with British and American ‘allies’. Australia and the United
States detonated a 50-tonne bomb in rainforest at Iron Range
in northern Queensland in July 1963, as part of a secret military
experiment codenamed Operation Blowdown. The Australian government
has denied that the bomb detonated was a nuclear weapon –
despite the government’s own declassified documents which
describe the blast explicitly as “an airburst nuclear device”.
With
a world class radioactive waste dump planned for South Australia,
the proposed introduction of food irradiation (treating food
with radiation), the ‘refurbishment’ of Lucas Heights – our
only nuclear reactor – and expanded uranium mining operations
given the green light, the Australian government looks set
to repeat its nuclear mistakes in the past.
References:
Australian
Nuclear Veterans Association web site: http://www.tac.com.au/~anva/veterans.htm
UK
Admits Military Personnel Deliberately Exposed to Nuclear
Tests, http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2001/2001L-05-18-04.html
Ham,
Paul, “Britain accused of lying over Australian A-bomb ‘guinea
pigs’”, Sunday Times, 13 May 2001.
“UK
Scientists Conducted HK Baby Nuclear Tests”, South China
Morning Post, 15 June 2001.
___________________________________________________________
Susan
Bryce is an Australian journalist and publisher of the newsletter
Australian Freedom & Survival Guide. Her interests include
global politics, big brother and the New World Order. She
can be contacted at PO Box 66, Kenilworth, Qld 4574,
Australia. Email: sbryce@squirrel.com.au
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