‘Utterly gripping. It reads like a thriller.’
JON FAINE
This edition contains a new author note with shocking new material that has come to light as a result of the groundbreaking original publication.
Investigative journalist Frank Walker’s MARALINGA is a must-read true story of the abuse of our servicemen, scientists treating the Australian population as lab rats, and politicians sacrificing their own people in the pursuit of power.
During the Menzies era, with the blessing of the Prime Minister, the British government exploded twelve atomic bombs on Australian soil. RAAF pilots were ordered to fly into nuclear mushroom clouds, soldiers told to walk into radioactive ground zero, sailors retrieved highly contaminated debris – none of them aware of the dangers they faced.
But the betrayal didn’t end with these servicemen. Secret monitoring stations were set up around the country to measure radiation levels and a clandestine decades-long project stole bones from dead babies to see how much fallout had contaminated their bodies – their grieving parents were never told. This chilling expose drawn from extensive research and interviews with surviving veterans reveals the betrayal of our troops and our country.
JON FAINE
This edition contains a new author note with shocking new material that has come to light as a result of the groundbreaking original publication.
Investigative journalist Frank Walker’s MARALINGA is a must-read true story of the abuse of our servicemen, scientists treating the Australian population as lab rats, and politicians sacrificing their own people in the pursuit of power.
During the Menzies era, with the blessing of the Prime Minister, the British government exploded twelve atomic bombs on Australian soil. RAAF pilots were ordered to fly into nuclear mushroom clouds, soldiers told to walk into radioactive ground zero, sailors retrieved highly contaminated debris – none of them aware of the dangers they faced.
But the betrayal didn’t end with these servicemen. Secret monitoring stations were set up around the country to measure radiation levels and a clandestine decades-long project stole bones from dead babies to see how much fallout had contaminated their bodies – their grieving parents were never told. This chilling expose drawn from extensive research and interviews with surviving veterans reveals the betrayal of our troops and our country.
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Reviews
chilling expose ... excellent examination of a dark chapter in Australian history.
An amazing tale - utterly gripping, it reads like a thriller
I have read your book Maralinga through for the first time and it is a must for me to read it for a second time. Believe it or not but this is now my Bible. It is an eye-opening story, a story that just about every Australian should be made aware of, a frightening truth of what those who were at ground zero were subjected to and the aftermath
Walker demonstrates powerfully why, regardless of the context in which the testing took place, the emotional legacy of Maralinga will linger in the Australian psyche, just as do Gallipoli, Bodyline and Singapore. The cost in terms of damage to health, the environment and public trust in government will remain with us for generations to come."
This account, which Walker has pieced together from previously secret files and interviews with surviving veterans, sparks a rage in the reader that human beings could be treated with such contempt, such cold-blooded, Nazi like calculated evilness by a nation that, at the time, was regarded as our best friend and ally. It's simply horrifying. Walker's book is a well written unmasking of a dirty secret that remains a black stain on our history
Frank Walker's book will shock you, but you'll also be enlightened. This book forces you to question our government and its role in what is described by one interviewed veteran as one of the greatest miscarriage of justice this country has ever seen."
Review
Walker, drawing on his own interviews with surviving servicemen and the evidence presented to the 1984 Royal Commission, has written an original and compelling account that succeeds in exposing the subterfuge and myopia of both British and Australian governments. The details he elicits from servicemen who witnessed the explosions give the narrative its power."
The dusty file dragged from thousands stored in the archives at Kew in London seemed innocuous enough. But its contents made the hairs on author Frank Walker's neck prickle to attention....
Titled Nuclear Nightmare
Walkers book is a well written unmasking of a dirty secret
Frank Walker's Maralinga is a highly critical account of the British testing. Walker, a veteran journalist and author, argues that the shameful neglect of the safety and wellbeing of the victims of the above-ground tests was evident not only in the poor treatment of servicemen and their families - to say nothing of the local indigenous population - but also manifested in the attitude shown towards everyone living on the Australian mainland at the time
BRITISH scientists secretly used the Australian population to test for radiation contamination after the nuclear tests at Maralinga in the 1950s, a new book confirms. Its author, Frank Walker, has obtained the minutes of a top secret meeting in England where the UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment approved a program to determine the long-term effects of the tests on Australia and its citizens.
Review
This book will make you angry, and the details of the botched clean-up will make you nervous about the Abbott government's plans to make Australia the world's dumping ground for nuclear waste
titled: Explosive Findings
An extraordinary story - there are things here that would make your hair stand on end
This book will contribute to a much greater awareness and perhaps much more action on this issue
deeply engrossing, often enraging, read.
The story reaches out and grabs you by the throat
Shocking revelations...
[Walker] demonstrates powerfully why, regardless of the context in which the testing took place, the emotional legacy of Maralinga will linger in the Australian psyche, just as do Gallipoli, Bodyline and Singapore.
This book should be on the school syllabus
This book will make you angry, and the details of the botched clean-up will make you nervous about the Abbott government's plans to make Australia the world's dumping ground for nuclear waste.
a must-read true story
Review
Maralinga is a top read....a disgraceful saga - thank you again for the book
Walker's book is a well written unmasking of a dirty secret that remains a black stain on our history
original and compelling account that succeeds in exposing the subterfuge and myopia of both British and Australian governments