Maralinga, South Australia in the remote western areas of South Australia was the home of the Maralinga Tjarutja, a southern Pitjantjatjara Indigenous Australian people. Capital Adelaide Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Premier Mike Rann (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 11  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $59,819 (5th)  - Product per capita  $38,838/person (7th) Population (End of March 2005)  - Population  1,540,200 (5th)  - Density  1. ... The Maralinga Tjarutja are the Indigenous Australian people who traditionally inhabit the remote western areas of South Australia. ... Pitjantjatjara is the name of both an Aboriginal people (or Anangu) of the Central Australian desert and their language. ... Australian Aborigines are the indigenous peoples of Australia. ...

Maralinga was the site of British nuclear tests in the 1950s. In January 1985, the Maralinga Tjarutja native title land was handed back to the Maralinga people under legislation passed by both houses of the South Australian Parliament in December 1984 and proclaimed in January 1985. The Maralinga atomic weapons test site was set up on the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia during the early 1950s, as a joint test facility between the British and Australian governments. ... // Recovering from World War II and its aftermath, the economic miracle emerged in West Germany and Italy. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Native title is a concept in the law of Australia that recognises the continued ownership of land by local Indigenous Australians. ... Capital Adelaide Government Constitutional monarchy Governor Marjorie Jackson-Nelson Premier Mike Rann (ALP) Federal representation  - House seats 11  - Senate seats 12 Gross State Product (2004-05)  - Product ($m)  $59,819 (5th)  - Product per capita  $38,838/person (7th) Population (End of March 2005)  - Population  1,540,200 (5th)  - Density  1. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Maralinga people resettled on the land in 1995 and named the new community Oak Valley Community. The population ranges from 80-100; during special cultural activities with visitors from neighbouring communities it rises to 1,500 people. 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Nuclear tests and cleanup

See also: British nuclear tests at Maralinga

The Maralinga and Emu Field were the scene of UK nuclear testing and were contaminated with radioactive waste in the 1950s. Maralinga was surveyed by Len Beadell in the early 1950s, and followed the survey of the site called Emu Field, which was further north and which conducted the first two tests. The Maralinga atomic weapons test site was set up on the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia during the early 1950s, as a joint test facility between the British and Australian governments. ... // Recovering from World War II and its aftermath, the economic miracle emerged in West Germany and Italy. ... Len Beadell (b. ... Emu Field was located in the desert of South Australia, at approximately 132E 29S. Variously known as Emu Field, Emu Junction or Emu, it was the site of the Operation Totem series of nuclear tests, conducted by the British government in 1953. ...

On September 27, 1956, Operation Buffalo commenced at Maralinga, Emu Field having been found to be too remote a site. The operation consisted of the testing of four fission bombs, codenamed One Tree, Marcoo, Kite and Breakaway. One Tree and Breakaway were exploded from towers, Marcoo was exploded at ground level and Kite was released by a Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant bomber from a height of 30,000 ft (9,144 m). This was the first launching of a British atomic weapon from an aircraft. September 27 is the 270th day of the year (271st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Military history notes three events dubbed Operation Buffalo: 1. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18 km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ... RAF redirects here. ... this article is about the jet powered bomber, for the biplane see Vickers 131 Valiant. ...

Operation Antler followed in 1957. Antler was designed to test the triggering mechanisms of the weapons. Three tests began in September, codenamed Tadje, Biak and Taranaki. The first two tests were conducted from towers, the last was suspended from balloons. Yields from the weapons were 1 kiloton, 6 kilotons and 25 kilotons respectively. Operation Antler was a series of three open-air nuclear tests conducted by the United Kingdom in September and October, 1957 at Maralinga, Australia. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A megaton or megatonne is a unit of mass equal to 1,000,000 metric tons, i. ...

The local Aboriginal people were not warned effectively of the explosions and many suffered terrible after-effects from fallout, although the 1984/1985 Royal Commission could find no evidence of this for the Maralinga Tjarutja. British and Australian servicemen were purposely exposed to fallout from the blasts, to see what happened. These facts came out in the Royal Commission between 1984 and 1985. Previously many of the facts were kept from the public. Fallout is the residual radiation hazard from a nuclear explosion, so named because it falls out of the atmosphere into which it is spread during the explosion. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... In states that are Commonwealth Realms a Royal Commission is a major government public inquiry into an issue. ...

Despite the governments of Australia and the UK paying for two expensive decontamination programs, concerns were expressed that some areas of the Maralinga test sites were still contaminated. The dangerous materials from the later ground tests, in which plutonium was burned to simulate an accident, has been stabilised and buried. All the bomb plume fallout has long since decayed to safe levels. General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass (244) g·mol−1 Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ...

Neighbouring Aboriginal Communities and distances to main centres

Neighbouring Aboriginal Communities are:

• Tjunjunjarra, Western Australia (west)
• Kokotha, South Australia (east)
• Pila Nguru (west)
• Anangu Pitjantjatjara Lands and Indulkana, South Australia (north)
• Yalata Community (South)

Distances to main centres are: The vast and harsh Nullarbor plain, as seen from space. ... Anangu is a word that means people in a number of Australian Aboriginal languages, including, but not limited to: Arrente Western Arrente Eastern Arrente Central Arrente Pitjantjatjara Ngaanyatjarra Yankunytjatjara Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjara refer to themselves as Anangu, which originally just meant people in general, but has now come to... Pitjantjatjara is the name of both an Aboriginal people (or Anangu) of the Central Australian desert and their language. ... Yalata () [1] is the main settlement of the Yalata indigenous Australians. ...

• Ceduna to Oak Valley - 516 km (approx 7 hours)
• Yalata to Oak Valley - 315 km (about 5 hours (via Ooldea))
• Pt Lincoln to Oak Valley - 919 km
• Adelaide to Oak Valley - 1288 km

Ceduna main street during total solar eclipse celebrations, December 4, 2002. ... The Maralinga Tjarutja is the Aboriginal people who inhabit the remote western area of South Australia. ... Yalata () [1] is the main settlement of the Yalata indigenous Australians. ... Ooldea (30°27′S 131°50′E) is a tiny settlement in South Australia. ... Port Lincoln (postcode 5606) is a small city of 15,000 people in the Australian state of South Australia. ... Adelaide is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of South Australia, and is the fifth largest city in Australia, with a population of over 1. ...

Climate

• Temperature from 6.5ºC in Winter to 44.7ºC in Summer, overnight minimum -3º in winter.
• Rainfall average .75mm - 1.25mm

External links

• Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements (ATNS) project at the Indigenous Studies Program, The University of Melbourne
  • Maralinga Tjarutja Council
  • Southern Pitjantjatjara People
• British Atomic Testing in Australia
• BBC Radio 4 photos from Maralinga
• British nuclear tests at Maralinga - Fact sheet 129 from National Archives of Australia

The Old Quad Building, formerly Old Law The University of Melbourne, located in Melbourne, Victoria, is the second oldest university in Australia, and the oldest in Victoria. ...

References

• Tame, Adrian & Robotham, F.P.J. 1982. MARALINGA: British A-Bomb Australian Legacy. Fontana / Collins, Melbourne. ISBN 0-00-636391-1.