Fallout: Hedley Marston and the British bomb tests in Australia by Roger
Cross, Wakefield Press, A$24.95, ISBN 1862545235
HEDLEY MARSTON was 鈥渁 snob of incredible proportions鈥�, 鈥渋ntolerably
domineering鈥� and 鈥渧indictive鈥�, suggests Roger Cross. One of Australia鈥檚 foremost
biochemists until his death in 1965, Marston was a protagonist with more than a
few flaws. Yet by the end of this book, you somehow can鈥檛 help feeling that all
his cantankerous bombast might have achieved something.
If it hadn鈥檛 been for Marston, we might never have known that Adelaide was
contaminated with radioactivity by a bomb that the British exploded at Maralinga
in the south Australian desert on 11 October 1956. He found increased levels of
radioactivity in the air and in the thyroids of sheep, and insisted on
publishing his findings.
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Based at the University of Adelaide, Marston was commissioned to help monitor
the bomb tests, but he ended up annoying the British scientists who ran them and
infuriating the Australians who unquestioningly helped. He concluded that both
governments had conspired to mislead the public over the safety of the fallout.
In his final report he labelled the whole process 鈥渟ordid鈥�, saying that it had
鈥渄isgusted me beyond measure鈥�.
The official British version of events was a whitewash, Cross alleges, and
the unsuccessful attempt of government scientists to hamper publication of
Marston鈥檚 findings was 鈥渁rguably the worst case of politically motivated
interference in Australian science鈥�.