From around 1955 to 1963, our government allowed the UK to conduct twelve nuclear detonations in Australia, most of them at Maralinga in SA. Obviously, no permission was sought from affected Aboriginal groups such as the Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara, Tjarutja and Kokatha

Thousands of people were adversely affected and the impact on the population was especially profound. Many people suffered from radiological poisoning. The land contaminated and thousands were displaced. There are even tragic accounts of families sleeping in the bomb craters.

About forty years later, our federal government carried out a clean-up of the Maralinga nuclear test site. Suffice to say it was second rate, and many tonnes of debris contaminated with kilograms of plutonium remain buried in shallow, unlined pits in totally unsuitable geology