Page 28 - CAMPAIGN Winter 2021

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CAMPAIGN Winter 2021
Reader’s Story by Verna and Mark Mottram, widow and son of a nuclear test veteran.
Memories of Woomera
Mark Mottram, son of a nuclear test veteran, lives in Townsville, Queensland. He is administrator of “Australian Fallout”, a Facebook group which has almost 100 members who are descendants of the Commonwealth atomic tests in Australia.
Mark says,
“I have attached a draft of Mum's memories of life in Woomera 1951-1956. My father was also an observer in early tests of British Forces Atom bomb tests by flying through the mushroom cloud that tests produced. My father continued in Civilian Life working for the Weapons Research Establishment. He was often away visiting monitoring places such as Broome, Port Hedland, and Giles, and others as well. His rank in RAAF was LAC while in civvies he was given a rank of Squadron Leader and Lieutenant Commander when on Navy trials.
Mum also told me that he also worked with the USA while they set up Pine Gap.”
Marks’ mother, Verna, writes,
“One of Australia's first forays into space came in November 1967, with the launch of the WRESAT satellite at the Woomera test range in outback South Australia.
In doing so it laid claim to being just the third nation to build and launch a satellite on its own soil, following in the footsteps of the United States and the Soviet Union at the height of the Space Race” Canberra Times, September 25, 2017, 8:26pm.
My husband Laurence Arthur (Tony) and I went to Woomera when we were first married. Tony went there in 1950 and I followed in 1951.
The landscape was very green, a bit hilly but not big hills. We lived on the outskirts of Woomera and the nights were very cold. Tony had been seconded from the Australian Airforce to the British Atomic Testing Programme. There were around 20 Australians there and soon after they were joined by around 30 British families.
We were young and silly, made our own fun, dammed up a creek so that we had a swimming pool and paddled around finding things that were lost with our feet. We played cricket when we found a suitable spot, but, at all times, we had to be vigilant for snakes.
We had on base; transport provided by the ambulance/taxi driver. He was also on call for medical emergencies
which all had to be treated at Port Augusta. There was another man, David, who would drive anyone who needed transport to Port Augusta, to hospital or the doctors. He would also meet the plane from Adelaide and take the passengers to their new home.
There was no medical clinic at Woomera until five years after we arrived. Women had their babies at Port Augusta’s hospital. Being an Adelaide girl, I chose to have my babies in Adelaide and was fortunate to have regular trips to Adelaide, but Tony spent most of the time at Woomera. I developed a leg problem and had treatment in Adelaide but then had to go back to Woomera and start all over again. We sometimes went to Port Augusta for some rec reation leave.
In 1952, two planes carrying staff from England landed. The planes then sat there permanently, deteriorating all the while.
I was a ladies and men’s hairdresser and had a room in the Officers’ mess. I looked after the hair of all service people, Navy, Army and Airforce, including British and Aussies, hierarchy, officials, and everyone.
I was kept busy. There was no school for the children and food was in short supply. About five years after we left, a shop was provided. We had to put in an order and received our groceries