Maralinga, in the remote western areas of South Australia, was the site, measuring about 3,300 square kilometres (1,300 sq mi) in area, of British nuclear tests in the mid-1950s.
Landscape of Maralinga site
British nuclear test Operation Buffalo at Maralinga in 1956
British nuclear tests at Maralinga
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 (500 mi) north west of Adelaide. Two major test series were conducted: Operation Buffalo in 1956 and Operation Antler the following year. Approximate weapon yields ranged from 1 to 27 kilotons of TNT. The Maralinga site was also used for minor trials, tests of nuclear weapons components not involving nuclear explosions. Kittens were trials of neutron initiators; Rats and Tims measured how the fissile core of a nuclear weapon was compressed by the high explosive shock wave; and Vixens investigated the effects of fire or non-nuclear explosions on atomic weapons. The minor trials, numbering around 550, ultimately generated far more contamination than the major tests.
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