In the 1950s Britain was upset that the USA wouldn’t share its atomic bomb secrets. The Brits decided to build their own bombs and they chose to test them in Australia. Nobody will ever know how much sickness and premature death of Australians in the years that followed can be attributed to exposure to radiation and to lingering fallout from the tests. Much negligence and carelessness appears to have surrounded the exercise. The story of RAAF and other aircraft deliberately flown through radioactive mushroom clouds immediately after the atomic explosions is just one example.
Sometime in mid-October 1953 an Avro Lincoln bomber belonging to the Royal Australian Air Force landed at Williamtown RAAF base near Newcastle, NSW. The bomber had been one of a flight of six which had, on October 15, been ordered to fly through the mushroom cloud formed by the first atomic explosion on mainland Australia. The 10 kiloton bomb, labelled “Totem 1” was detonated at Emu Field, South Australia, by the British Government.
The Australians had been assured by the British that the assignment was perfectly safe and routine – just as they had been assured the previous year when RAAF Lincolns were sent into the clouds formed by Britain’s first test, codenamed “Hurricane” at the Monte Bello Islands off Western Australia. So the planes, equipped with canisters to collect dust from the explosion’s cloud, set off into the “Totem 1” cloud with no special precautions. Each plane carried a crew of at least seven, but some may also have carried ground crew members and other observers.
For some reason the Australians apparently weren’t warned about the potential radiation hazard they would encounter in and near the bomb cloud. The British also sent one of their own planes, a Canberra jet bomber, on the same assignment, but the Canberra’s crew was equipped with breathing apparatus and the plane was sealed with tape before takeoff in an attempt to prevent access by radioactive dust. The Canberra took samples of the cloud just six minutes after the bomb was detonated. When checked after landing the British plane was found to have been so badly irradiated that a plan to send it into the cloud of the next explosion, “Totem 2” – due on October 27 – was called off. When the aircraft was flown back to Britain, it was still heavily contaminated with radioactive dust, despite efforts in Australia to clean it.
Bushman Len Beadell – who selected the site for the blast and helped set up the test area – wrote about the Canberra in his book, Blast the Bush:
At last the clipped “four minutes to go” came over the air for all to hear, including the Canberra jet bomber streaking across the sky, scheduled to rip through the atomic cloud, when it rose high enough. The pilot was to fly away from the bomb in the last few seconds before the explosion, then bank when he saw the flash, and guide the Canberra at full throttle though the centre of the mushroom, snap shut some wing-tip canisters, and report to a coupled tape recorder any sensations he felt as he flew through the mass. He was then to scream at wide open throttle to Woomera where a cordoned-off area at the end of the cleared strip would be his parking place, and tumble out to a waiting ambulance for immediate medical checking.
Great Scott, what a sight! The entire sky as it domed out and down past the distant horizon lit up in a blinding flash of fire and we felt the heat on our backs for a fleeting fraction of a second. No noise yet, apart from the screaming jets of the Canberra bomber, as it made its run in.
The bright sun was about twenty degrees high by now in an otherwise cloudless burnished sky and the mushroom began to obliterate it as the screaming sliver streak of the Canberra closed the distance to the thickest part of the mushroom. We saw it again as it raced out of the other side and rose above the line of the mulga trees. As it banked the pilot indicated that he was going to have another go at it. The, without as much as a goodbye, his silver bullet lit out for Woomera.
American planes were there too. The Americans weren’t welcomed by the British, but the obliging Australians wouldn’t say no to either of their imperial masters so a pair of US Air Force B-29 bombers were on hand to sample the cloud from the British A-bomb, whether the British liked it or not. America had already detonated several bombs in various locations and had some idea what to expect. Crew members from the US planes are reported to have said that radioactivity in the cloud from the Totem 1 test in South Australia was the most intense they had yet encountered. It has been reported that samples taken from one of the B-29s were sent to Guam. The samples were reportedly “too hot” for Guam to handle and were forwarded to the mainland US.
In the event it appears the Australians had reason to be grateful for the presence of American personnel since it was they, and not the British, who explained the dangers of radiation to their naive and inexperienced RAAF counterparts.
Flying through the cloud was evidently an interesting experience. In a statement years later former squadron leader Ray Turner stated that his Lincoln flew into a cloud of red dust and couldn’t get out of it. The primitive radiation monitor aboard the plane went to its highest level and stayed there throughout the flight. When the plane landed at Woomera he said it sent the Geiger counters of the scientists off “like machine-guns” and he was told to take several showers.
“That machine is bloody hot . . . “
The Lincoln that landed at Williamtown RAAF base, near Newcastle, NSW, was reportedly checked with a Geiger counter by a US airman next day. The American had reportedly planned to hitch a ride on the plane back to its home base at Richmond, near Sydney, but after running his test he decided he’d take the train instead. According to one report, the US airman walked around the plane with his instrument and said nothing except: “Oh, shit . . . oh, shit.” Later he reportedly said: “That bloody machine is hot. I’m not going anywhere near it”. When the situation was explained to senior RAAF personnel they were shocked and angry that the British had not warned them of the radiation risk. “We were firmly told this was not a hazard,” one officer wrote in a report – later tendered to the 1984 Australian Royal Commission into the atom tests.
“The precaution to have the Lincoln aircraft which landed at Williamtown inspected proved the importance of this aspect and how ignorance on the part of RAAF personnel on matters of this nature could possibly have proved dangerous,” the report continued. “It was only through seeking assistance of the US Air Force specialists and equipment that it was at all possible to ascertain that Lincoln aircraft and personnel had obtained any degree of contamination. It was fortunate that the US Air Force element contained personnel very experienced in [decontamination] operations and were thus able to assist the operations commander at Richmond by advising him on the degree of contamination on aircraft and personnel and the safety precautions to be observed.”
It took until 1980 for the story of the contaminated planes to leak out to the general public. On August 19 of that year Australia’s then deputy prime minister, Doug Anthony, was obliged to respond to allegations made on the ABC’s Four Corners program about sickness among RAAF personnel involved with the contaminated aircraft. Admissions in Mr Anthony’s answers included that 21 irradiated Lincoln bombers carried “approximately” 150 RAAF personnel on these hazardous missions in 1952 and 1953. These aircraft had variously landed at air bases at Townsville in Queensland, Parafield in South Australia and Williamtown in NSW before being sent for decontamination at Woomera, Richmond and Amberley, he said.
Mr Anthony’s scanty statement was immediately criticised by the Australian Nuclear Veterans’ Association (ANVA), which pointed out that the estimate of 150 personnel was an obvious understatement that also skated around the issue of ground staff at air bases who had been involved in servicing or trying to decontaminate the irradiated planes.
While the Government clearly wanted people to assume that all the aircraft were thoroughly cleaned at purpose-built decontamination facilities at Amberley, Woomera and Richmond, the truth was less comfortable.
Between 1952 and 1957 British defence authorities detonated 12 atomic bombs in Australia. The first, labelled “Hurricane”, exploded at the Monte Bello islands off the coast of Western Australia on October 3, 1952. Testing then shifted to inland South Australia, at Emu Field, where the “Totem” I and II tests occurred on October 15 and 27, 1953. Then it was back to Monte Bello for the “Mosaic” G1 and G2 tests on May 16 and June 19, 1956. All subsequent full-scale atomic explosions were at Maralinga, South Australia. The four “Buffalo” tests took place in 1956; on September 27 and October 4, 11 and 22. The final series of three tests, labelled “Antler”, were in 1957; on September 14 and 25 and October 9. There were at least 600 smaller tests at Maralinga that didn’t involve atomic blasts but which nevertheless scattered hazardous waste across a wide area. The 1984 Royal Commission into the tests found that Australian prime minister Robert Menzies (pictured at right) had agreed to the tests without even consulting his cabinet – much less the Australian public.
A former RAAF corporal, Ray Donald, of Ipswich, alleged in the 1980s that he and many others had helped overhaul irradiated Lincoln bombers – with no protective clothing or equipment – for two days after the tests began. After they were told the truth about the risks, RAAF authorities shifted the contaminated bombers to quarantine at Amberley. Some veterans claimed in later years that they worked on irradiated planes for a fortnight before being told the aircraft were contaminated. Some described removing the test canisters from the wings without even the protection of gloves, sometimes handing them to British scientists who were clad in protective outfits. Other talked of steam-cleaning radioactive parts with no respiratory protection. Still others said they used steam cleaners overhead while wearing ordinary clothing. Former radio technician Robert Dash said he and others were ordered to burn their overalls after senior officers realised that precautions should have been taken. Former warrant officer Noel Freeman claimed it took a year to clean four Lincolns at Amberley. When the “decontamination” was finished, he alleged, the waste water and aircraft parts too “hot” to clean were tipped into 44-gallon drums and dumped at sea, where some of them burst on impact.
As for the air crew themselves, former wireless operator Lance Edwards reported wearing only normal flight clothing on the first sortie, with white overalls and hoods supplied for the second. One flier said he used a respirator during the flight – only taking it off to eat a meal!
The British and Australian governments liked to insist that all proper precautions were taken, but this is patently untrue. One monitoring measure that was adopted was the provision of “film badges” for people to wear in proximity to radiation hazards. These badges changed colour if radiation reached certain levels. They were supposed to be collected and checked after each potential exposure. But former RAAF fitter Brian Last reported receiving two film badges during his time at Maralinga in 1956. He took the second one home with him and kept it for years. He was surely not the only one.
Amazingly, the British appeared to learn little from the experience. A British sampling aircraft became “substantially contaminated” after detonations off Western Australia in June 1956 and later that year at Maralinga they sent a flight of Canberra bombers into the cloud immediately after the explosion. Indeed, they continued the practice even after they quit Australia and moved their bomb-testing activities to Christmas Island and Kiribati.
The story of the irradiated aircraft is far from the worst or most disturbing story to emerge from the British atomic test episodes. In the decades that followed the tests many dreadful stories began to emerge about the impact on Indigenous people, on service personnel and others. Despite continual and stubborn blocking behaviour by the Australian and UK governments, a Royal Commission was eventually established in 1984. It published its two-volume report the following year. Its findings were damning. It found that the Australian Government let the British have more or less free rein, accepting assurances that all would be well and requiring very little genuine consultation or information sharing. It was clear that the British frequently misled the Australians.
Royal Commission “failure”
The commission found that the “Totem 1 test” was fired under inappropriate weather conditions, without consideration for Indigenous populations, and resulted in “unacceptable levels of fallout”. This test caused the infamous and dreadful “black mist” episode.
The commission found that “it was negligent to allow aircrew to fly through the cloud without proper instructions and without protective clothing”. “There was lack of foresight shown in the failure to institute a proper system of decontamination for RAAF aircraft at Woomera before the Totem 1 detonation.” “Procedures to deal with the RAAF cloud sampling aircraft at Totem were non-existent prior to the operation. This was a serious omission because a number of the aircraft were contaminated with significant levels of radioactivity. Procedures had to be improvised until a decontamination centre was set up at Amberley.”
A great deal more might have been found and reported by the commission if the two governments had fully co-operated. The UK Government reserved a right to veto examination of its documents. The Australian Government delayed for three months appointing a counsel to the commission and it supplied documents of dubious veracity. This included a supposedly “complete” list of RAAF personnel involved in the cloud tracking that did not include the names of men who had already given detailed evidence to the commission about their own roles.
Ultimately the commission declined any attempt to quantify the link between radiation exposure and subsequent illness, leading the veterans’ association to declare it a failure. Perhaps assisted by this failure, the Government has remained stubbornly reluctant to recognise any illnesses reported by exposed veterans as being linked to their exposure. To this day the government refuses to recognise the presence of defence personnel at the bomb tests as military service. This excellent article by Max Billington, published in July 2025, highlights the extent to which government secrecy and obstruction continue to obscure the truth about what really amounts to a national scandal.
Another excellent recent article by Sue Rabbitt Roff, highlighting some major inconsistencies in the official records of the atom tests, can be found here, on the Michael West Media website. More good reading here too.
After years of pushing and litigation by former British servicemen claiming their lives were damaged by their involvement with the tests, the UK Government is releasing some material relating to the tests and the personnel involved. The data is limited in scope and hard to search, but nevertheless its begrudged availability is a small step in the right direction. Click this link to learn more about the “Merlin database”.
Not surprisingly, the UK Government is still concealing huge amounts of data, with one motive being to avoid paying compensation to people it injured. Read about the continuing fight for more information here.
