Atomic bomb test, South Australia

Press photograph, with grey gouache highlights, of the first nuclear test on the Australian mainland, Totem 1, which was carried out at Emu Field in the Great Victoria Desert, north-western South Australia on 15 October 1953. 

The British Government tested its first nuclear weapon in Australia at the Montebello Islands off Western Australia in 1952. This photograph shows the first nuclear test on the Australian mainland, actually carried out at Emu Field in the Great Victoria Desert and not the Woomera weapons-testing range as the press caption asserts. This explosion pre-dates the notorious series of nuclear tests that were conducted at Maralinga. It is highly unlikely that the indigenous traditional owners of the land were given any warning about a pending nuclear blast, considering that the British Government was feeding false co-ordinates and propaganda to the press even after the explosion had taken place.

Permission to use this item for any purpose, including publishing, is not required from the State Library under these conditions of use.

Buy a high resolution copy.