Maralinga-Tjarutja land and peoples still trying to recover from black mist of 1950s atomic bomb testing
A 1953 headline marks the first atomic bomb test on Australian soil with the test sites at Emu Field and Maralinga. From a display at the South Australian Aviation Museum, Port Adelaide.
Most of the Maralinga-Tjarutja land, used between 1952 and 1963 by the British government to test seven atomic bomb devices, was handed back to its traditional owners in 2009 after rehabilitation work.
Seven tests were carried out at Maralinga, around 800 km northwest of Adelaide, and two at Emu Field. But the biggest cause of contamination was from hundreds of minor trials that didn’t involve nuclear explosions but contained radioactive material. Aboriginals called the effect of that material “puyu” or black mist.
Aboriginal people shared the symptons of British servicemen and Australian soldiers after the tests: cancer, blood diseases, eye problems, skin rashes, blindness, vomiting. But the other effect for the Anangu people was from having to flee from their homeland to Yalata, Renmark and elsewhere. This created generational problems such as alcoholism, drugs, crime, homelessness and lack of acceptance from new towns where they lived on the fringes.
In 1962, premier Thomas Playford promised that traditional lands would be restored to Maralinga Tjarutja people. Under his successor Frank Walsh, two-week bush trips were permitted, enabling a reconnecting with traditional lifestyles. In the 1980s, the native peoples started setting up outstations near their original lands. Under John Bannon’s government, the Maralinga Tjarutja secured freehold title in 1984 and moved back into Oak Valley.
In 1994, the Australian Government reached a $13.5 million settlement with the Maralinga Tjarutja of all claims relating to the nuclear testing.
In 2003, premier Mike Rann opened a $2,000,000 building at Oak Valley to replace what had been called the “worst school in Australia”. Rann also handed back title to 21,000 square kilometres of land to the Maralinga Tjarutja and Pila Nguru people. This is now Mamungari Conservation Park, including the Serpentine Lakes and the sacred Ooldea area (with the site of Daisy Bates’ mission camp).
