Today is a beautiful clear sky, a cool breeze and a wonderful start to a very interesting tour of the Maralinga nuclear bomb site.

We visited the dam and airport, both provide water to today’s Maralinga village. Water was once supplied by bore and desalinator but these were taken away. One good thing was the clever engineering undertaken on site. All water from hard surfaces at the airport runs through drains to the dam. Water from the airstrip was taken by drains to tailing dams to be treated. Aircraft could not be parked until thoroughly cleaned and checked by scientists for radiation, some of these aircraft flew through radioactive clouds and hence were considered contaminated. The airstrip is the biggest in the southern hemisphere it is capable of taking the Spaceshuttle in the event of an emergency.

The site was one of the first to use solely flushing toilets in Australia, with an Australian design used.

The cleanup operations were interesting, it would take a book to explain it but basically everything was buried. The British told porky pies about the cleanup and consequently Australia was and still is left with the cleanup bill. The logistics to build and run this facility is phenomenal, communications were extensive and we found plenty of PMG infrastructure, now known as Telstra/Australia Post.

Between 1953 and 1963 the British conducted 9 major nuclear bomb tests and several hundred smaller scale tests.

We learn about the sacrifices of our defence force members who are basically worked hard 24/7 and exposed to great danger by the British who knew about the nuclear risks. How the Menzies conservative Australian government (Liberal and Country party) handed over aboriginal land to Britain and both governments showed scant regard for the the many indigenous people who called this country home or travelled through it. The Menzies government even gave the land to the British so it meant no customs no pesky Australian laws so most of the products and services needed at Maralinga were facilitated by British companies and not Australian. I don’t like to be political but conservative politics seems to be all about business and little about the true welfare of Australians. I am concerned about the conservatives support for nuclear today and about history repeating itself.

There is time to admire the wildlife and bushland, the most notable was the Little Eagle flying above us and learning about the bush bananas (Marsdenia australis).

The night sky is beautiful.

Camp at Maralinga.