Maralinga

And I remember reading those lyrics and being like, I've got to get involved.

I've got to learn about Maralinga.

What's this thing? Like all of these things.

And like bands like U2, I remember discovering kind of what the troubles were.

We've been over and disassembled it, and we're just waiting on permits for that to come.

Those aircraft served in South Australia from 48 to 68, going up to Maralinga and Woomera.

and EMU.

So there'll be some publicity about that when it arrives.

Unpopular.

And I believe today also marks the anniversary of the f- um, nuclear weapons testing in Maralinga.

Ah.

Um, yeah.

Listeners to this podcast know that better than most.

We've examined the archive, Woomera, Maralinga, the Sea Fury incident, Tullamarine, Townsville, Goulburn, Westall, Frederick Valentich, RAF investigations, Department of Air correspondence, intelligence assessments, reports from civilians, reports from pilots, radar events, files that eventually found their way into the National Archives of Australia.

Some cases were explained, some remain contested.

Some are fascinating because important information was never preserved, some because records survive that almost nobody reads anymore.

September 27th in 1932, Maud Bonney becomes the first woman to fly around in Australia, and she later includes solo flights to England and South Africa.

1956, the British nuclear tests at Maralinga begin with Operation Buffalo, and the tests and subsequent cleanup operations remain subjects of controversy and compensation claims.

And if you want to hear an in-depth dive into that, I'll leave a link to the six-part video Two Ticks Town talk that DK did on Woomera.

So it talks about these tests, the leads up to them, where they occurred.

But aside from the lyrical masterstroke, obviously you're talking about, you know, the impact that words can have on someone.

Then in Cool World, you're talking about like, you know, the impact of the destruction of the lands around Maralinga.

Then I Got Dressed, you flipped the disclaimer that we often hear about Indigenous people into, like, you know, the victories of Indigenous people.

Do you see this as kind of, in your eyes, at least partly like a protest album? Or is it more just about that visibility that you're talking about?

If we can get hold of everybody, and have a massive big protest, we just might wake the government up and they'd be scared of losing their powerful positions.

And now we're going on to rocket launches because We've had Maralinga, which has actually affected every person in Australia, because the radiation fallout didn't just stop at Maralinga.

The winds made sure Australia, Tasmania, the whole continent turned black with radiation fallout.

So that's where we've got our cancers.

But we've got all these diseases we never used to have before, deformities, miscarriages.

And that's just in my family I'm talking now.

I don't know how many other families out there that have suffered these same things, that have been caused through the bomb testing at Maralinga and Emu Fields and Montebello.

But none of us, doesn't matter whether you're rich, poor, black, white, brindle, none of us can escape the radiation poisoning.

Or a Ma- I've got a better one.

A Maralinga

...

A Mar- Yeah, Maralinga would be good.

Yeah.

[laughs]

Maralinga.

Yeah, Ga- Gaza kinda looks like Maralinga right now.