xii, 340 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, (some colour), facsimiles, maps, portraits ; 24 cm
regular print
Contents
Location of key places and test sites -- Direction of fallout -- Prologue -- Of course you can explode your atom bombs in Australia -- "The sight before our eyes was terrifying" -- "Flying into the gates of hell" -- The mystery of the black mist -- A "beautiful" bomb -- Maralinga guinea pigs -- "The earth itself looked as though it was boiling" -- "You never saw those Aborigines, and that's an order!" -- Minor, secret and very dirty -- Whistleblower heroes -- Diamond Jim takes on the Poms -- The baby body snatchers -- "What did the bastards do to us?" -- The dirty clean-up -- The fight goes on -- Back to the future - the outback as nuclear waste dump -- Epilogue -- Appendix 1. Nuclear tests -- Appendix 2. Nuclear timeline -- Appendix 3. Conclusions of the Royal Commission
Summary
The facts are shocking. The treachery is chilling. The fallout ongoing. During the 1950s-60s, with the blessing of Prime Minister Robert Menzies, the British government used Australia as its nuclear laboratory. They exploded twelve atomic bombs on Australian soil - at the Monte Bello Islands, Emu Field and Maralinga. Sixteen thousand Australian servicemen were guinea pigs. RAAF pilots were ordered to fly into nuclear mushroom clouds, soldiers told to walk into radioactive ground zero, sailors retrieved highly contaminated debris - none of them aware of the dangers they faced. But the betrayal didn't end with our soldiers. Secret monitoring stations were set up around the continent to measure radiation levels and a clandestine decades-long project stole bones from dead babies to see how much fallout had contaminated their small bodies - their grieving parents were never told. Investigative journalist Frank Walker's Maralinga is a must-read true story of scientists treating an entire population as lab rats and politicians sacrificing their own people in the pursuit of power
Analysis
Australian
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-324) and index
