Tuesday 3 September 2024: A Long But Not Very Winding Road

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Today we are on the lands of the Nuking people.

After an early morning walk we made a start from Coober Pedy for Port Augusta. For city people like us it was going to be a long drive, but probably it would not be seen that way by the locals.

Underground building at Coober Pedy

A real tail-wind 



Between 1956 and 1963, the United Kingdom conducted seven nuclear tests at the Maralinga site in South Australia, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area. Approximately 1000 local Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara were forcibly relocated to Yalata, located 200 kilometres west of Ceduna, hundreds of kilometres from their homeland.  The site was left contaminated with radioactive waste, with several attempts at "cleanup". Alan Parkinson, a nuclear engineer and former Government Representative to oversee the Maralinga Rehabilitation Project, in his 2007 book Maralinga: Australia's Nuclear Waste Cover-up  states that "What was done at Maralinga was a cheap and nasty solution that wouldn't be adopted on white-fellas land."


A very small section of a very long train heading south

Island Lagoon - one of several lakebeds near the Stuart Highway

Southern Flinders Ranges approaching Port Augusta

No driving tomorrow - we're having a wander around.

Location: Port Augusta SA, Australia

Comments

  1. Marama3 September 2024 at 23:00

    So close to home now!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lyn4 September 2024 at 12:40

    Looking forward to your return. Thanks for the run down on Woomera. Seems it was OK to put a detention Centre at Woomera. After all the govt didn’t care about refugees. Or the staff of the centre. Having spent 6 weeks there I know how bleak it was. Although the town had a nice pool. Did you see the town or is it off limits? Journey safely. I think luckily you will miss the wild windy storms . down south. The weather here is calming down . Although unseasonably warm.

    ReplyDelete

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