In the 1950s, CSIRO biochemist, Hedley Marston, became embroiled in what Roger Cross describes as ‘the single most important crisis’ of his professional life. Research into fallout from the British atomic tests in Australia brought Marston into bitter conflict with the government appointed Safety Committee. It was a dispute that involved many of the major [...]
The clouds of radioactive fallout are descending and humanity is doomed to extinction. In Nevil Shute’s book, On the Beach, the inhabitants of Melbourne await their end – the final victims of a 37 day nuclear war that has destroyed the northern hemisphere. John Osborne, played by Fred Astaire in the film version, decides to [...]
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Posted 01 July 1996
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atomic age § conference presentations
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Also tagged: AAEC, ANU, ASIO, atomic bomb, atomic energy, Bikini Atoll, Cold War, crossroads, CSIRO, David Rivett, Emu Field, George Briggs, Lucas Heights, Maralinga, Mark Oliphant, Monte Bello Islands, progress, secrets, uranium, Woomera
Then there was a great flash that reached the far horizon. Even Dr Penney, who had witnessed the first historic cataclysm in the desert at Almagordo and later seen a bomb burst over Japan, described the scene as ‘terrifying’ as he turned around to find the frigate Plym had vanished and to see a great [...]
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Posted 01 December 1985
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articles and book chapters § atomic age
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Also tagged: atomic bomb, atomic tests, Emu Field, Ernest Titterton, Maralinga, Mark Oliphant, Monte Bello Islands, RG Menzies, secrets, WAS Butement, William Penney
The radioactive dust had barely settled on the devastated cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when, in November 1945, Winston Churchill proclaimed: ‘This I take is already agreed, we should make atomic bombs.’ It was, and they did – seven years later Britain exploded its first atomic bomb in the Monte Bello Islands off the coast [...]
