Sunday October 18, 2009, 2:32 am
Harold Macmillan, U.K. Prime Minister, 1957:

"We have made a successful start. When the [nuclear] tests are completed, as they soon will be, we shall be in the same position as the United States or Soviet Russia. We shall have made and tested the massive weapons. It will be possible then to discuss on equal terms".

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Britain actively used Australian soil and people to conduct it's nuclear testing program during the 1950s and 1960s. The 5 areas it conducted the tests are at Monte Bello Islands in north-western Western Australia (just off the mainland, near Monkey Mia); Emu Field in north-western South Australia; the infamous Maralinga in south-western South Australia; Christmas Island and Malden Island, both due south of Hawaii, on either side of the Equator. After the Grapple series of tests, the British lent the site to the US in 1962 for the Dominic series of 25 explosions.

Britain detonated its first nuclear device, Hurricane, on Monte Bello Island on October 3, 1952, followed by tests on May 16 and June 19, 1956. The June blast had a 60 kiloton capacity. At one monitoring point, over 3,200 kilometres to the east, radioactive iodine concentrations increased a hundredfold.

Two further atomic bomb tests, Totem 1 and 2, were carried out at Emu Field on October 15 and 27, 1953. The next series of atomic bomb tests were carried out at Maralinga between September 27, 1956 and October 9, 1957, along with a series of "minor" trials up to 1963. The Grapple series of tests were undertaken at Malden and Christmas Islands May 15, 1957, to September 23, 1958.

During the mainland tests many army personnel were deliberately exposed to the blasts just to see what effect radiation had on troops. Security at the test sites was lax. The testing range boundaries were not properly monitored, allowing people to walk in and out. Any signs were in English, which the local Aboriginal population could not read. Fallout from the ground blasts led to massive contamination of the Australian interior. The fallout from Maralinga even reached Adelaide and Melbourne. Some places are still heavily radioactive due principally to the presence of 20 kg of plutonium, the most toxic element known to humans.

Maralinga is Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal dialect for "Field of Thunder". Aborigines may have been directly affected by the blasts. Compensation is currently being sought in Australian courts.

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How much is one Aboriginal life worth?

Sunday October 18, 2009, 5:33 am
my life -no human being on this planet is worth less than my own life -we all serve a purpose -we can hate that purpose -but by no means does that make one unvaluable as a whole. $$$ can never undo what has already been done. it seems unreal david -is there not one single land or original dweller left on this planet that has not been defiled, destroyed, sickened, or killed?

Sunday October 18, 2009, 9:46 am
The way in which both the lives and the land of the Aboriginal people dismissed by the white man be they British or Australian is a whole subject that shows all the disdain of an apartheid system to equal the worst excesses of the former South Africa. When I visited Australia in 1988 I was informed that a recent law change made it now obligatory to inform the authorities should I hit an Aboriginal...in other words there was a time when one didn't? At the time of my visit I was told they could get enough benefits to drink but could not obtain permits to work in certain areas of their own country...so this story is no surprise somehow.

Sunday October 18, 2009, 10:46 am
IS it the awakening? human life is not worth a handful of dirt! for those who are all geared to greed, there is no value to no one, non at all but them self! sad but true!
the whole history of The Aborigines and the Ethnic American, is a black shame in the crown's Jewels!
God shave the Queen!
Peace be with all of us! Namasté

Sunday October 18, 2009, 11:45 am
Horrific, something I was not aware of. Thanks for bringing this to light, David.

Sunday October 18, 2009, 12:01 pm
Great post David. What is Government going to do when they have killed all us peasants off Who will be left or them to abuse then? They will kill of all wildlife and then the lower class peasants little by little. Who will do the work of slaves to keep them getting richer and richer?

Sunday October 18, 2009, 5:38 pm
Ahhhhhh, now I understand why you Aussies flush & the toilets swirl backwards!!


(Kat)

Sunday October 18, 2009, 5:56 pm
It's just an ever spinning reverse vortex in the windmills of your mind your 'wickedness' (Kat)...Bring back yor pink eyed soul and the bubblegum!...I liked you better like that :)

Has the fallout of Maralinga clouded your mind?

Sunday October 18, 2009, 6:05 pm
"God shave the Queen!"...Sorry Huda I just stubbled over that and missed the point...What is the point? :)

Sunday October 18, 2009, 6:30 pm
AND, as an asside to this story, but not entirely irrelevant?...

Australia, for some inhumane reason has a problem with 'too many' refugees...Currently they are 'stored' behind razor wire fences on Christmas Island awaiting approval (offshore) for entry into Oz by the Oz government...Having googled 'my library'...Maybe the following is worth a thought?...

The ghost of Christmas past.(British nuclear-testing military veterans seek compensation)

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists| September 01, 1997 | Roff, Sue Rabbitt | COPYRIGHT 1997 Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)Copyright...

Copyright? What is that? :)

Research online. Academic journals & books at Questia Online Library.
www.Questia.com/Journals

In 1958, Ken McGinley was a 20-year-old British serviceman and "participant" in Operation Grapple -- a series of five British hydrogen bomb tests near Christmas Island. On the morning of the first test, he and the other men assembled on the beach and waited for the three-megaton blast. As the countdown neared zero, he turned his back to the blast and covered his eyes with his bands; the only protection McGinley bad been issued was a light cotton jumpsuit. Later, he told an interviewer that when the explosion lit up the early-morning sky, he could see the bones in his hand, as if in an X-ray.

Three of the bombs in the test series were in the megaton range...

Is Christmas Island radioactive?...Beats me, but maybe the refugees will simply disintegrate in a cloud of plutonium enriched iodine?...Problem solved?...

Sunday October 18, 2009, 7:21 pm
Yes, each person's life is equally valuable. And like the great socialist evolutionary Che Guevara said, a single human life is worth more than all the wealth on Earth!

Sunday October 18, 2009, 7:22 pm
oops, I meant to say that Che was a great socialist _R_evolutionary, not "evolutionary" ;)

Sunday October 18, 2009, 9:06 pm
The point David that disregards for human life and othe people's land has been the evil which the Britsh crown have planted in this world!Australia was built on the blood of many innocent people! just for profet as you said,
"Is Christmas Island radioactive?...Beats me, but maybe the refugees will simply disintegrate in a cloud of plutonium enriched iodine?...Problem solved?.." the have used convects, orphans, and the killing of the Aboriginals to built it! the Australian white Policy, and all of the unjust to human rights , has originated from Britain , for the Monarchy to exist! that is the point, they have no disregards for human life! God save the Queen ? or shave the Queen? what do you think! beside , google David Icke ! the story is too old and long!.
Did you Hear about the CERN experiment last year? and its effect? it was not done at home, I wonder where from they got the idea, that earth is their inheritance and they may do what they want to it, and its natives!
Namasté

Monday October 19, 2009, 4:59 am
It is too our shame that this happened

Monday October 19, 2009, 1:17 pm
This affects us all not just the Aboriginals. It is no wonder we have so much cancer now. There is no telling how much radioactive junk the released into the atmosphere to be distributed world wide.