FOREWARD INVISIBLE ALWAYS WAS VISIBLE
The subject of this essay is country, an indigenous term now widely acknowledged and used in Australia for all that it encompasses. Country is more than just the land; it is more than just a feeling. It is and forever will be a term that is used to describe all that cannot be described. It Is their story of how their land came to be. Their laws, their customs, their language, their people, and their identity. Their waterways, their seas, their gorges, their plants, animals, and their landscapes. Their seasons, stories, and their ancestors. Because it is their land, and it was stolen from them. Throughout this thesis, the use of ‘their’ is not to create an ‘other’ but rather, to empower an ‘other’. It is an acknowledgement of all that has happened, and it is an apology. And whilst the thesis will explore the ways in which Indigenous Australians have consistently been dispossessed of their country, it is my hope that through writing it, the notion of ‘the other’ that has so strongly been intertwined within this dispossession is deconstructed.
would, therefore, like to acknowledge all indigenous Australians, in the full belief that they are the Traditional Custodians of the land continuously spoken about throughout this essay.
It always was, and always will be, their country.
The photograph to the right is taken on November 5, 2014, some 226 years after the initial colonization of the country since known as Australia. The expression on Mr Peters’ blank face says it all. Despite this photograph signifying a rare moment of recognition in the ongoing battle for indigenous land rights within Australia, the gaze of this exchange is still inherently colonial. Sadly, not much has changed for this colonized nation.
The photograph in question, taken for and by the official Australian Defence Force, is for an event referred to as the “Section 400 Excision Event” which took place at Maralinga Airfield, in remote South Australia. In the photograph, we can see two white men, then Minister for Defense, the ‘Honourable 1’ David Johnston (left) and then Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Senator for the Northern Territory 2 , Mr Nigel Scullion (right), smiling whilst they casually present a map of what is known as ‘Woomera Prohibited Area’ Senior Elder and Chairperson to the Maralinga Tjarutja 3 , Mr Keith Peters.
The ‘Woomera Prohibited area’ 4 is a territory of both immense and long periods of trauma for Indigenous Australians. In 1946, Woomera, became the centrepiece and location of a joint project between the United Kingdom, and its colony, Australia. The project, named the AngloAustralian joint project, was to test and develop long range weapons, following Britain’s new defence necessities post World War II. Various sites were considered, however, in the end, Australia’s expansive and seemingly unpopulated landscape was chosen 5. The project which commenced in 1947, reached a peak between the 1970s and 1980s. At its largest, the Woomera Prohibited Area encompassed a staggering 270,000 square kilometres of restricted long range military weapon testing facilities.
On the ‘returned’ map we can see a small red rectangle located at the southwest corner of Woomera Prohibited Area. Within this thinly veiled but obstructively red, red rectangle, exists a parcel of land that has renamed nameless within countless colonial maps before. Within this red rectangle, exists a section of country that has been stripped of an infinite amount of indigenous history and culture. Within this red rectangle, exists the only piece of the Woomera Prohibited Area to ever be removed. Within
this red rectangle, exists Maralinga
Maralinga was the site of the British nuclear weapons testing. Seven nuclear bombs were exploded there, and more than 700 ‘minor’ 6 radioactive tests were performed. It is the site that was named as one of the most contaminated places in the world in 1985. It is one of the many locations that had been forcibly removed from the original custodians of the land under declarations such as Terra Nullius 7 in 1835. And It is the location that is being ‘returned’ in this ironic exchange that so effortlessly epitomises the endless dispossession of land brought upon indigenous Australians as an extension of the original colonisation by the British in 1835 8
Unsurprisingly, the ‘return’ of Section 400 was not honoured with a map portraying the now-completed geographical extents of the Maralinga Tjarutja, nor was it commemorated with a new map of the area that had been commissioned for the Maralinga Tjarutja. The Australian government, living up to their well-known reputation, made the decision to celebrate this event by deploying a military map that depicted the precise location that was the primary cause of an infinate amount of cultural trauma, and countless unnecessary deaths among the Maralinga Tjarutja. This map was displayed in order to mark the occasion. The Australian government opted to “return” a map that had very apparent colonial interests rather than one that embodied indigenous interests
This begs the question, what was actually returned? What is visible within this exchange and to who? Particularly when the theme of invisibility is consistent within counts of land dispossession and, more specifically, nuclear land dispossession. What does it mean when a triumphant moment where indigenous land rights are finally acknowledged, that the land in question is one of the most secretive, contaminated and downright dangerous in the world? Is it even possible for this land to be considered the same? Throughout this essay, I will explore three counts of dispossession that ultimately lead to the establishment of the Woomera Protected Area and the nuclear trials at Maralinga. The formal proclamation of Terra Nullius in 1835, The construction of the Trans Australian Railway in 1901 and the establishment of the Ooldea siding in 1917.
Like much of Australia, the landscape surrounding Maralinga has been subjected to more than a century of conflict. Incompatible structures of governance, historically at odds with one another, reveal a dichotomy between how the landscape has both been cared for, and used. Prior to colonial settlement and occupation of this land, the land surrounding Maralinga was the land of the dreaming9 A land at the intersection of sacred stories and song lines10 that predetermine sites of extreme significance and cultural importance to Indigenous Australians. These narratives embed themselves within country as a network of sacred sites that canvass the entire continent, predetermining locations for food and water and through doing so, connecting languages, cultures and knowledge and history. The land itself is their cultural heritage.
Above all they cared for its kapi, its water, its precious water, and used it wisely, walking many miles for one rockhole to another, always seeking permission from Wanampi, the Rainbow Serpent, who guarded each one, before they took the living water. 11
Before Maralinga was Maralinga, it was the land of the Southern Pitjantjatjara12 people. The history of these people and their immeasurable ties to land dates back over a millennium, and the land itself includes countless places of significance including stone arrangements, rock art sites, ceremonial sites and archaeological sites. These sites represented indigenous relationships to country and showed how the Southern Pitjantjatjara people both cared for and used, country. These sites were their country. It is a complex embodiment of ancestral knowledge that defines and signifies a territory. The occupancy of the land by
Indigenous Australians has not been built upon; rather, it is entwined with the significant aspects of the environment that are required for survival. In contrast to this subjective way of inhabiting the land, settler-colonisers view the land through the apparatus of extraction.
Maralinga managed to escape the early onslaught of European settler-colonisers due to this extraction-oriented mindset. Witnessed by both the French and Dutch during their 17th century seafaring expeditions13, it wasn’t until the early 19th century that Maralinga welcomed European settlers. Despite British explorers walking upon Maralinga, it was largely ignored due to the seemingly unavailability of fresh water and therefore, issues potential pastoralists would have making the land productive. This ignorance of and unwillingness to comprehend the significance of the land before them is ultimately what lead to the establishment of Britain’s colony, with the arrival of James cook first in 177014 and again in 178815, and the subsequent declaration of Terra Nullius in 178816
The proclamation of terra nullius established the path for this land to be found, exploited, further exploited, and abandoned in an incredibly visible and radiated state without any repercussions. The proclamation of terra nullius established wilful, calculated, and purposeful blind spots within Australian society. The proclamation of terra nullius essentially ruled out any chance for the establishment of common ground between these two entities. The proclamation of terra nullius was the beginning of centuries of very violent counts of land dispossession for indigenous Australians.
“We are to consider that we see this country in the pure state of nature; the Industry of Man has had nothing to do with any part of it, and yet we find all such things as nature hath bestowed upon it in a flourishing state” 17
In his initial diaries from 1770, Cook has single handily transcribed perhaps the most stripped back foundation for Australian settler colonialism ideals. Cook and friends first impression of the land was that it was ‘man has had nothing to do with any part of it’18 thus making it the perfect location for a new British colony. In his inability to recognise, or more specifically, in his ability to dismiss so simply, what was directly Infront of him, is the colonial gift that keeps on giving. One that has been instrumentalized throughout the years to allow the spread of colonial settlement and destruction of indigenous lives, cultures and ways of being.
On his expedition, Cook was instructed to conduct a survey of the new territory without interfering with any native people. When he arrived on the eastern beaches of Australia, on April 29, 1770, Cook and his crew defied these orders when landing in the area he would eventually call Botany Bay19. On arrival, and despite being given a peaceful mission, they opened fire. During the first contact between Europeans and the oldest existing civilisation in the world, an indigenous man who was standing on the coast was shot at and injured. A dangerous omen of things to come.
Some eight years later, On January 26, 1788, Cook returned. This time arriving at Port Jackson, now known as Sydney, Cook, Captain Arthur Phillip20 and the rest of First Fleet21 arrived at the shorelines of Australia once again. Included on the first fleet of ships were over 1000 British citizens, the vast majority of them being prisoners, to establish Britains new colony. This day of arrival, January 26, is still celebrated as ‘Australia Day’, a divisive national day that commemorates a day of immense trauma for indigenous Australians. The First Fleet’s arrival marked the beginning of a string of formal actions taken by the
colonial powers to undermine the way of life and culture of the numerous Indigenous people who had lived on the continent for more than 60,000 years.
Such formal actions included a short two-page proclamation issued on August 26, 1835, in New South Wales by Governor Richard Bourke22. This is a pivotal moment in the history of the Australian state’s conception of itself. The precedent of Australia being considered a void, a land untouched by man, a land so empty it was ripe for exploitation, all of these colonial romances were set by Bourke’s proclamation, which can be acknowledged as the first formal Australian declaration of terra nullius. This proclamation formally exposed the Australian continent to a formal confrontation between a now invisible and disposable Indigenous people and the visible and lethal coloniser sent by the British Crown. The violent politics that arose because of terra nullius has been a consistent theme since this day, replicated in many predictable and other times surprising ways.
Through the use of this example, it is possible to understand how this fundamental declaration of terra nullius contributed to the circumstances in 1947 that made it possible for Woomera, and later, Maralinga, to become the state of exception that it was. From the time of the first British arrival on the continent in 1770 until the first agreement for with the Maralinga Tjarutja in 1984, terra nullius was strictly enforced and overriding ideology used at Maralinga. Strategically located and out of the British’s line of sight, the deserted Maralinga was an ideal location for what was to follow. However, this contemporary example of complete disregard for this sacred indigenous land is only the latest in a series of examples of violent land dispossession. What follows is a visual archive of these examples of land dispossessions, beginning with the digging out of land and subsequent establishment of the trans-australian railway at the time of federation, closely followed by the settlement of Ooldea Station, to the violent nuclear bomb trials of Maralinga and finally to the initiation
In 1901, when the six British colonies23 were on the verge of coming together to form a federation, Australia’s western and eastern colonies were only connected to one another by a treacherous sea journey24 and a single telegraph connection. Many people believed that this hindered commerce between the colonies and as a result, Western Australia made the construction of a railway linking the nation’s two colonies a condition for joining the Commonwealth. The Trans-Australian Railway became arguably the first major work of a federated Australia after it was completed.
In 1907, surveyors and engineers started laying out a path through huge stretches of country between Kalgoorlie in the west and Port Augusta in the south. The contemporary colonial name for this section of land is the “Nullarbor Plain”25, established at the beginning of the nineteenth century by European surveyor Edmund A. Delliser 25. He defined the country in the simplest of terms: nullus for “no” and arbour for “tree” and as such, the Nullabor Plain become distinctly memorable for its lack of trees. In many ways, the Nullarbor Plain embodied the fabled Australian myth of the outback desert. One of a vast, empty landscape rampant with danger. A land that continues for as far as the
eye can see. A land that ruthlessly needs to be conquered. However, this myth could not be further from the truth, with aboriginal communities notably occupying this plain and leaving behind elaborate and beautiful rock art in the southern caves of Murrawiginnie, Koonalda and Abrakurrie
The aim of the trans-continental rail was to provide a link between the eastern states and Western Australia, and as such, the establishment of such an infrastructure was intended to give the newly formed Commonwealth a sense of national unity26. Construction began on the rail in 1912 with two teams setting out at either end of the surveyed route. The rail stretches across a total of 1693 kilometers of Australia’s driest and most isolated landscape33, delineating edges of territory that have otherwise been inhabited for thousands of years. It includes the longest straight section of rail in the world, at 478km long. Viewed from above, one can witness this section in its purest colonial form, a direct straight line that is imposed over, and completely alien to, its surrounds. An arrogant and ignorant manmade construct that drastically opposes the landscape on which it lies. An apparatus used to conquer and dispossess Indigenous Australians of their land.
Ooldea is a territory in remote South Australia with a deep history that dates back over a millennium. It is the name given by the local indigenous people for water soak here, emphasising its significance as a land marker in indigenous culture and as a means of self-preservation in the vast Australian outback. In 1917, the completed trans-Australian rail converged at Ooldea. To facilitate the maintenance of the line, small settlements of six houses27 were established roughly 30 km apart along the most isolated section across the Nullabor Plain. On one stretch of more than 700 kilometers the only permanent supply of water was from a water soak, roughly 5km north of Ooldea.
“long before the days of the white man Ooldea Water . . . was the gathering place of those tribes and groups which had to temporarily abandon their own localities in times of great drought ... They trekked to Ooldea only when their own semipermanent waters, which held over ordinary seasons, dried up ...Ooldea was known amongst the groups far and wide as a refuge when drought struck their land”28
Ooldea Soak had been a sacred waterhole and ceremonial ground for centuries, with indigenous Australians coming from far and wide to meet. It was a node in the intersection of their songlines, a known water resource passed down from generation to generation that could be relied upon in times of drought, it was one of the region’s few reliable supplies of clean water. However, with the arrival of the railway, the soak would begin a new chapter.
After the construction of the railway in 1917, the soak was obtained by the Commonwealth to provide water for the steam locomotives as well as the employees positioned at the sidings constructed along the rail. Within just a few years
almost fifty wells had been drilled at the Soak, and it was now supplying up to 45,000 litres of water per day. Sadly, by 1923 the soak was no longer usable due to increasing salinity within the water, caused by over-exploitation of this sacred water source. A permanent rupture in the existing water ecology caused by the arrival of colonial-settlers. At the same time, aboriginal communities were forced to flee their desert homelands due to severe droughts and began to wander into the camps and depots along the rail, drawn by the abundance of food and water. Many local communities ended up at Ooldea, a customary sanctuary during times of drought, however, this time there was no sacred soak. For many of them, this was their first time to encounter colonial settlers.
After the railroads returned Ooldea to the South Australian government in 1938, it became the Ooldea Aboriginal Reserve29, which at the time covered roughly 5,000 square kilometres. At the Soak, several structures were built, including a church, a children’s dorm, and homes for the missionaries. Government officials were stationed at the soak, undertaking ‘research’ into the ‘customs’ of the people gathered at the mission30. By 1940s the conditions at Ooldea had become incredibly difficult, with drift sands brought upon by the loss of vegeation and tearing down of trees threatening to engulf the last active well. Finally, in late 1953, then-Prime Minister Menzies asked the South Australian Government to withdraw Ooldea’s Aboriginal reserve designation to allow for British nuclear experiments at Maralinga38. In December 1954, the Ooldea Aboriginal Reserve was cancelled and much of the Great Victoria Desert was proclaimed a British nuclear testing Prohibited Area31
“In the 1950s there was British Government and the Australian Government made an agreement to have bomb testing in Australia. Not far from here. was only a little kid. They were working there, testing the bombs. The first one when they let it go was called Totem 1. We heard it here, loud and clear, and felt the ground shake. We seen the radiation fall out over our camp. It was moving very quietly and very deadly. After that I went blind in the right eye straight away and on the left I had some sight left” 32
What began all the way back in 1788 with the arrival of James Cook ultimately culminated with the AngloAustralian Joint Project33 which was established in 1947, as the first chapter in South Australia’s nuclear history. To develop long-range weapons, the governments of Australia and the United Kingdom established a joint alliance that manifested in the Woomera Rocket Range34. From 1947 to 1950, the range served as a secret base for the West’s war machine because of its isolation and vastness, both of which were crucial in it’s selection as a location. Essentially, Maralinga became Maralinga because of the Trans-Australian Railway, and between 1953 to 1967, the British military operated out of Maralinga as a covert, quasisovereign state inside a state. A self-sufficient civilization
was established in the Australian outback by thousands of scientists, photographers ,engineers, pilots and soldiers, and, who relied heavily on the rail for goods and services.
Despite the fact that Maralinga exemplified an advancement in Australian colonialism, its victims were the same as before. The extents of the Woomera Rocket Range often overlapped with or entirely engulfed aboriginal settlements of villages, causing endless chaos and destruction. Despite well-organized opposition and demonstrations in opposition to the British occupation of this place, the military or administrations of the United Kingdom or Australia showed little care. These acts of prejudice and devastation were not only cultural, nor were they new; they were tools the British used to acquire the large tract of land needed for the arsenal in the first place. Woomera’s position provided a key advantage that no other nation could match, as the British military tests needed a clear path of 1,500 kilometres on dry terrain. Only during the nuclear colonisation craze of the mid-20th century could a line have been drawn at such an abstracted scale. Regardless of the gravity of the situation, this line was drawn, and in doing so, it proved Terra nullius was not only still alive and well at Maralinga, but it had spread to a new level.
Almost seventy years after the initial blast that shook Maralinga and permanently scarred a landscape and culture, a final effort to remediate this error was conducted by the Australian Government in 2016 with a rather tokenistic gesture. The long-winded caption to the following images reads:
“During the period 26 Sep – 07 Oct 16, the inaugural Regional Compliance Officer (RCO) Recruit Course 01/16 was conducted. The RCO program is a CAF endorsed Indigenous Specialist Reserve initiative designed to enhance Defence’s relationship with those indigenous groups whose traditional lands form part of the Woomera Prohibited Area. Through consultation Air Force has subsequently recruited representatives from Maralinga Tjarutja (MT, Antakarinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara (AMY) and the Kokatha Mula Nation to be part of this initial recruit course”.35
In a ceremony that has a similarly eerie and ironic feeling to that of the ‘returning’ of the section 400 map to indigenous elder Keith Peters, we can again witness a series of staged photographs (again by the Defence Force of Australia), however, this time of the initiation of two indigenous regional compliance officers into the DFA. This new role created by the DFA is said to enhance the defence force’s relationship with those who lost traditional lands as part of the Woomera Prohibited Area and nuclear trials at Maralinga. Sadly, this tokenistic exchange seems heavily weighed to alleviate the conscious of the Australian Government rather than actually doing anything positive for those affected by the deadly nuclear trials. Do they
really expect those who lost their lands in this horrific story to celebrate this moment?
Despite the fact that the section 400 event was a momentous win in the fight for indigenous land rights, there would be no celebrations, no haste to return home, and no construction of new homes or villages. There is very little interest in upsetting their land once again now that Peters and the Maralinga Tjarutja have finally gained control of it. Alongside this, it must be noted, that the choice made by the Maralinga Tjarutja people to include the term “Maralinga” in their name is a powerful example of the ways in which they have recovered some agency within the context of this colonial narrative. ‘Maralinga’, a term that carries such pain and heartbreak for them, has been reconceptualized in order to be received in a new light, where a community of people that have made this section of country their home for thousands of years before the arrival of colonial settlers, are now officially coming together under the name Maralinga Tjarutja. Through reappropriating this name, their shared trauma and pain can become a strength that can unite them for years to come.
Nowadays there is not a lot to see at Maralinga, the memories of the past remain immortalized onto the landscape through the very infrastructure that remains and facilitated this violent exploitation of land rights. Harnessed as a tool to exert political control and dominance in a war that was never meant to be even, the landscape is forever changed and remains, in an uninhabitable state of permanence.
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