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Maralinga, South Australia in the remote western areas of South Australia was the home of the Maralinga Tjarutja, a southern Pitjantjatjara Indigenous Australian people. Maralinga was the site of British nuclear tests in the 1950s. In January 1985, the Maralinga Tjarutja native title land was handed back to the Maralinga people under legislation passed by both houses of the South Australian Parliament in December 1984 and proclaimed in January 1985.

The Maralinga people resettled on the land in 1995 and named the new community Oak Valley Community. The population ranges from 80-100; during special cultural activities with visitors from neighbouring communities it rises to 1,500 people.

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Main article: British nuclear tests at Maralinga

The Maralinga and Emu Field were the scene of UK nuclear testing and were contaminated with radioactive waste in the 1950s. Maralinga was surveyed by Len Beadell in the early 1950s, and followed the survey of the site called Emu Field, which was further north and which conducted the first two tests.

On September 27, 1956, Operation Buffalo commenced at Maralinga, Emu Field having been found to be too remote a site. The operation consisted of the testing of four fission bombs, codenamed One Tree, Marcoo, Kite and Breakaway. One Tree and Breakaway were exploded from towers, Marcoo was exploded at ground level and Kite was released by a Royal Air Force Vickers Valiant bomber from a height of 30,000 ft (9,144 m). This was the first launching of a British atomic weapon from an aircraft.

Operation Antler followed in 1957. Antler was designed to test the triggering mechanisms of the weapons. Three tests began in September, codenamed Tadje, Biak and Taranaki. The first two tests were conducted from towers, the last was suspended from balloons. Yields from the weapons were 1 kiloton, 6 kilotons and 25 kilotons respectively.

The local Aboriginal people were not warned effectively of the explosions and many suffered terrible after-effects from fallout, although the 1984/1985 Royal Commission could find no evidence of this for the Maralinga Tjarutja. British and Australian servicemen were purposely exposed to fallout from the blasts, to see what happened. These facts came out in the Royal Commission between 1984 and 1985. Previously many of the facts were kept from the public.

Despite the governments of Australia and the UK paying for two expensive decontamination programs, concerns were expressed that some areas of the Maralinga test sites were still contaminated. The dangerous materials from the later ground tests, in which plutonium was burned to simulate an accident, has been stabilised and buried. All the bomb plume fallout has long since decayed to safe levels.

Neighbouring Aboriginal Communities are:

• Tjunjunjarra, Western Australia (west)
• Kokotha, South Australia (east)
• Pila Nguru (west)
• Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands and Indulkana, South Australia (north)
• Yalata Community (South)

Distances to main centres are:

• Ceduna to Oak Valley - 516 km (approx 7 hours)
• Yalata to Oak Valley - 315 km (about 5 hours (via Ooldea))
• Pt Lincoln to Oak Valley - 919 km
• Adelaide to Oak Valley - 1288 km

• Temperature from 6.5ºC in Winter to 44.7ºC in Summer, overnight minimum -3º in winter.
• Rainfall average .75mm - 1.25mm

• McClelland Royal Commission

• Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements (ATNS) project at the Indigenous Studies Program, The University of Melbourne
  • Maralinga Tjarutja Council
  • Southern Pitjantjatjara People
• British Atomic Testing in Australia
• BBC Radio 4 photos from Maralinga
• British nuclear tests at Maralinga - Fact sheet 129 from National Archives of Australia

• Tame, Adrian & Robotham, F.P.J. 1982. MARALINGA: British A-Bomb Australian Legacy. Fontana / Collins, Melbourne. ISBN 0-00-636391-1.