Between 1956 and 1963, the United Kingdom conducted seven nuclear tests at the Maralinga site in South Australia, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area about 800 kilometres north west of Adelaide. Two m
Buffalo R4/Breakaway nuclear test
The United Kingdom Minister of Defence, Duncan Sandys (centre) meets with Howard Beale (right), the Australian Minister for Supply in August 1957.
Emu-Ooldea-Tietkens Well reconnaissance
Cutting a temporary access road from Watson to Tietkens Well
Operation Grapple
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Operation Grapple was a set of four series of British nuclear weapons tests of early atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs carried out in 1957 and 1958 at Malden Island and Kiritimati in the Gilbert and Ell
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
…Australian concerns about safety at an early date was inadvisable; on the other, there was the urgent need to test Red Beard in time for the upcoming Operation Grapple, the test of a British hydrogen bomb. Whether Buffalo or Grapple was more important was the subject of debate in the UK between Willis Jackson, who…
Grapple X test in November 1957. Britain's first fully successful hydrogen bomb test
The survey ship HMNZS Lachlan
Royal Engineers assemble huts on Christmas Island
HMS Warrior, a Colossus-class light aircraft carrier, was the headquarters ship for Britain's atom hydrogen tests on Christmas Island.