The British Bombs Down Under
The legacy of a decade of British weapons testing in its vast central deserts has forced Australia into an uncomfortable reckoning with its nuclear past.
Deep in Australia’s central deserts lies Section 400. Surrounded by bright red sand, tufty spinifex grass, and stumpy mulga trees, this patch of desert – covering some 1,782 square kilometres – was handed back to its traditional owners, the Maralinga Tjarutja, in November 2014. The return, however, was largely ceremonial: Section 400 remains a toxic military exclusion zone, housing irradiated soil, metal, and other debris created during Britain’s decade of nuclear testing in Australia.
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