Maralinga, South Australia

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Maralinga, South Australia in the remote western areas of South Australia was the home of the Maralinga Tjarutja, a southern Pitjantjatjara Indigenous Australian people. Maralinga was the site of the secret British nuclear tests in the 1950s. In January 1985, the Maralinga Tjarutja native title land was handed back to the Maralinga people under the Maralinga Tjarutja Land Rights Act, 1984^[1] passed by both houses of the South Australian Parliament in December 1984 and proclaimed in January 1985.

Under an agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia efforts were made to clean up the site before it the Maralinga people resettled on the land in 1995 and named the new community Oak Valley Community. The effectiveness of this cleanup has been disputed on a number of occasions.

The population ranges from 80-100; during special cultural activities with visitors from neighbouring communities it rises to 1,500 people.

1 Nuclear tests and cleanup
2 Neighbouring Aboriginal Communities and distances to main centres
3 Climate
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Nuclear tests and cleanup

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Main article: British nuclear tests at Maralinga

The Maralinga and Emu Field were the scene of UK nuclear testing and were contaminated with radioactive waste in the 1950s. Maralinga was surveyed by Len Beadell in the early 1950s, and followed the survey of the site called Emu Field, which was further north and which conducted the first two tests.

On September 27, 1956, Operation Buffalo commenced at Maralinga, Emu Field having been found to be too remote a site. The operation consisted of the testing of four fission bombs, codenamed One Tree, Marcoo, Kite and Breakaway. One Tree and Breakaway were exploded from towers, Marcoo was exploded at ground level and Kite was released by a Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant bomber from a height of 30,000 ft (9,144 m). This was the first launching of a British atomic weapon from an aircraft.

Operation Antler followed in 1957. Antler was designed to test the triggering mechanisms of the weapons. Three tests began in September, codenamed Tadje, Biak and Taranaki. The first two tests were conducted from towers, the last was suspended from balloons. Yields from the weapons were 1 kiloton, 6 kilotons and 25 kilotons respectively.

The local Aboriginal people have claimed they were poisoned by the tests, however the McClelland Royal Commission of 1984-1985 could find no evidence of this, however it did identify significant contamination at some sites. British and Australian servicemen were purposely exposed to fallout from the blasts, to see what happened. These facts came out in the Royal Commission between 1984 and 1985. Previously many of the facts were kept from the public.

Despite the governments of Australia and the UK paying for two decontamination programs, concerns have been expressed that some areas of the Maralinga test sites are still contaminated.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]