The two atomic bomb tests at Emu Field in outback SA are perhaps less notorious than those that followed at Maralinga, but the 1953 detonations were accompanied by some extraordinary incidents.
Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this articleIn hindsight, Michael Parkinson's TV talk show hardly seems the likeliest forum for sober reflection on nuclear annihilation.
Codenamed Totem, the two Emu Field bomb tests have, in the view of James Cook University author Elizabeth Tynan, been regarded for too long as mere precursors to the more notorious detonations at Maralinga. Amid Cold War hardships and anxieties, British officials were desperate to develop an affordable nuclear arsenal for their new fleet of jet bombers."They wanted to do it quickly because they had the V bombers coming, they had a number of political pressures and geopolitical pressures as well."Among several remarkable occurrences at Emu Field was the flight of a Royal Air Force Canberra bomber through the Totem 1 mushroom cloud barely six minutes after detonation.
One of the aims of that mission was to determine the threat from fallout in atmospheric testing to commercial airline traffic. The 1985 royal commission into British nuclear tests was equivocal on the health effects, but concluded that "Aboriginal people experienced radioactive fallout from Totem 1 in the form of a black mist or cloud at and near Wallatinna".Bruce Lennon was a young boy at the time and likened the impact to "having a really bad flu".Also in the area, at Mabel Creek station, was the family of Sister Kenise Neill.
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