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BTN: Nuclear tests at Maralinga

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Photo of people facing mushroom cloud at Maralinga
BTN: Nuclear tests at Maralinga

SUBJECTS:  History

YEARS:  5–6, 9–10


Can you imagine nuclear bombs being exploded in Australia, over your home?

Between 1953 and 1963, the Australian Government led by Robert Menzies allowed Britain to test nuclear bombs in the open air at sites in Australia.

These sites included Maralinga in South Australia. It was the land of the Maralinga Tjarutja people who, along with many Australian soldiers working on the nuclear project, suffered terrible consequences.


Things to think about

  1. 1.During wartime, people's lives and human rights are often violated. The Cold War was a time of world tensions during which both the eastern bloc led by the Soviet Union and the western bloc led by the USA built up stockpiles of nuclear weapons. This required nuclear testing and there was little public protest in the 1950s when Australia was chosen for such tests. How differently would Australians react today if our government allowed nuclear tests to be conducted here?
  2. 2.Why was Maralinga chosen for bomb tests? What is nuclear fallout? How were Australian soldiers and the owners of the land, the Maralinga Tjarutja people, exposed to fallout? How did radioactivity affect people in the area? For how long after the tests did the Maralinga Tjarutja people receive compensation? What ongoing fears do many Maralinga survivors have about their health problems?
  3. 3.Using what you now know about nuclear fallout, explain why forcibly moving the Maralinga Tjarutja people out of Maralinga would not have prevented them from being exposed to radiation. The reporter says, 'It turned out that soldiers had been deliberately exposed to fallout just to see what would happen'. Decide on three questions that should be asked about the decision to allow this.
  4. 4.

    Find out about Maralinga testing survivor Yankunytjatjara man Yami Lester, his experiences of the event and his following achievements (search ABC Rural Yami Lester Maralinga). In 1945, to help end World War II, the USA dropped nuclear bombs on two Japanese cities — Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Research the illnesses that the people of those cities were continuing to suffer. In view of your findings, what do you think the Menzies government should have already known in the 1950s about the dangers of open-air nuclear testing?



Date of broadcast: 25 May 2010


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