Ministry of Defence: Australian Royal Commission into United Kingdom Nuclear Weapons...

DEFE 16

1941-1986

This series consists of photocopies of evidence given by the Ministry of Defence, the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston and Rowley, and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, to the Australian Royal Commission into United Kingdom Nuclear Weapons Testing in Australia which sat in London between January and March 1985. Photocopies of the proceedings also appear here. The commission was set up by Australian Royal Warrant in July 1984 after fears had been expressed about the safety of both military personnel and local inhabitants present at these tests.

Photocopies of papers presented by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the Commission are in FCO 1

See also: ES 18

Other records of the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment are in ES

Public Record(s)

English

1005 file(s)

Open unless otherwise stated

From 1985 Ministry of Defence

Topics

Litigation

Research

Weapons

Australia and Pacific

Armed Forces (General Administration)

The first British atomic test in Australia was on the Monte Bello Islands off the coast of Western Australia in 1952, which was given the code name Operation Hurricane. Another test of an atomic weapon followed at Emu Field near Woomera, South Australia (Operation Totem) a year later. In 1955 the British Government announced a plan for the construction of a new atomic weapons testing range at Maralinga, South Australia in agreement with the Australian Government. The code name for this plan was Operation Buffalo. The first device was exploded on 11 October 1956 and was the first drop of a nuclear weapon successfully carried out by Britain. Preliminary tests including the explosion of a nuclear device on the ground (Operation Mosaic), had already taken place on the Monte Bello Islands in May 1956. Following the tests in Australia further devices were exploded on Christmas Island in the Pacific (Operation Grapple) during 1957 and 1958.