|
Thursday,
February 26,
2026
7pm Central
Time (8pm
ET, 6pm MT,
5pm PT) UTC -6
Registration
for the Zoom
Link is
required: click here *
The era of B ritish nuclear testing in Australia was
extraordinary,
and its
secrets are
still being
uncovered. Because
of ongoing
British
secrecy, we
may not
discover them
all. In her
talk Professor
Tynan will
examine the
complex
circumstances
that led the
British first
to Monte Bello
Islands off
the coast of
Western
Australia,
then Emu Field
and Maralinga
in South
Australia, to
test their
atomic
weapons. The
decision to do
so followed
the United
States’
exclusion of
Britain from
nuclear
weapons and
energy R&D
after World
War II,
ostensibly
because of the
detection of
Manhattan
Project spies.
Australia
acquiesced to
the atomic
tests without
asking hard
questions, and
as a result
considerable
damage and
suffering was
inflicted,
particularly
on Indigenous
people and
service
personnel.
Those hard
questions only
came decades
later, and
there are
still many to
be asked. The
British
conducted
their testing
with a greater
emphasis on
speed than
safety. The
recklessness
of so me of the tests carried out in Australia is
stunning. Tynan
will share
specific
stories of
these
dangerous
tests and
their deadly
ramifications
for
Australians.
She will also
cover what
happened
after the
British
terminated the
test series
and deliberately
misinformed
the Australian
government
about the
extent of
contamination
they left
behind. All
three test
sites were
abandoned
without proper
remediation. The aftermath led to a judicial enquiry, known in Australia
as a Royal
Commission, in
the mid-1980s.
This enquiry
marked a major
shift in
Australian
attitudes to
the tests, and
was an
important
milestone in
an era of
uncovering and
truth-telling
that
continues.
Professor Elizabeth Tynan is
Head of the
Professional
Development
Program at
James Cook
University’s
Graduate
Research
School, where
she teaches
academic
writing,
editing and
critical
thinking
skills to
postgraduate
researchers.
She is a
former science
journalist in
both print and
broadcast
media. Her PhD
from the
Australian
National
University
examined
aspects of the
British
nuclear tests
in Australia
in the 1950s
and 1960s.
Her book, Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story,
won the
Council of
Humanities,
Arts and
Social
Sciences
Australia
Prize for a
Book 2017 and
the Prime
Minister's
Literary Award
(Australian
History)
2017. The
follow-up
book, titled The Secret of Emu Field: Britain’s Forgotten
Atomic Tests
in Australia,
was published
in 2022. This
book
investigates
the history of
the
lesser-known
British atomic
test site in
South
Australia, Emu
Field. Her
next book, on
the British
atomic tests
held at
Western
Australia’s
Monte Bello
Islands,
titled Nuclear
Archipelago:
Secrets, Power
and the
Biggest Atomic
Blast in
Australia,
will be
released in
2026.
|
