MAKING THE BRITISH H BOMB IN AUSTRALIA:
FROM THE MONTE BELLOS
TO THE 1956 MELBOURNE OLYMPICS
A REVISIONIST HISTORY
Sue Rabbitt Roff
JUST PUBLISHED
‘Truth Is the Daughter of Time, Not of Authority’:1 How Oral Histories
Revise the Official Narrative of British Atomic and Thermonuclear
Testing in Australia
SUE RABBITT ROFF
2023-Issue45-Roff.pdf (oralhistoryaustralia.org.au)
From
https://oralhistoryaustralia.org.au/journal/issue-no-45-2023/
Sue Rabbitt Roff has spent decades researching the cover up of British atomic testing in Australia, Christmas Island and the Monte Bello Islands. In her article, Roff demonstrates the crucial role oral histories play in countering official narratives that obfuscate or deny Australian tests. For those who have seen the film Oppenheimer, and who may have wondered about connections between the Manhattan Project and Australian scientists, or about the extent to which Australian prime minister Robert Menzies was informed regarding the intentions of the British, Roff’s dense and highly informative article will provide many answers. Roff includes a call to action, making the point that many primary sources are available to the public but have yet to be comprehensively studied.
See also FORTHCOMING
https://www.history.ac.uk/seminar/official-history-past-present-and-future for seminar for a series of FREE online seminars including
Whence cometh Official Histories? The case of the development of the British fission and fusion nuclear bombs in Australia (Sue Roff)
Margaret Gowing’s Britain and Atomic Energy, 1939-1945 (Matthew Jones)
on February 28, 2024
https://www.history.ac.uk/seminar/official-history-past-present-and-future
This online seminar series is sponsored by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Historians, in partnership with History & Policyat the Institute of Historical Research. It seeks to explore the past, present and future of official history, examining its purpose and value, and asking whether there is a future for such an enterprise in the age of the 20-year rule and Freedom of Information. It will do so from the perspective of scholars who have contributed to official and authorised histories, those who have studied the genre, and users of these works with particular reference to the views of policymakers.
Nuclear Options
- Oral testimonies fact-check the official narrative of the British nuclear tests in Australia – July 2023; published in Agora 58:2 (2023), 34-37
- ORAL HISTORY AS WITNESS AND EVIDENCE – (Slides) The Oral Transcripts Submitted to the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in 1984-5 – Presented to Oral History Association Conference, Launceston, Australia October 14, 2022
- MAKING THE BRITISH H BOMB IN AUSTRALIA – (Video) Presented at the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA), 12 October, 2022
- WHY DON’T WE TRUST GOVERNMENT STUDIES OF MULTIGENERATIONAL LEGACIES OF NUCLEAR TESTS IN THE PACIFIC? – Presented at a webinar under the auspices of the International Center for MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma, 8th November, 2021
- PROTECTING THE PRIMACY OF THE PRIMARY DOCUMENT IN NUCLEAR HISTORY – THE ROLE OF ARCHIVAL RESEARCH – Presented at Nuclear History and the Archive webinar, University of South Wales, UK, 7th Sept, 2021
- Qui custodiet ipsos custodes? Counting down to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics – johnmenadue.com, July 2021
- Archival Documents Reveal British H Bomb Was Developed In Australia Despite Denials – johnmenadue.com, June 2021
- Review Essay: David Kemp. A Liberal State. How Australians Chose Liberalism over Socialism 1926-1966 – johnmenadue.com, May 2021
- Wiped from history books: Menzies’ plan for the Jindivik pilotless bomber to finance Woomera – johnmenadue.com, January 2021
- It’s surely time to come clean on Australia’s 1950s’ nuclear plans – johnmenadue.com, January 2021
- The Ticking Time Bombs of Nuclear Australia – johnmenadue.com, December 2020
- How an Australian ‘safety adviser’ detonated the world’s first atomic bomb – johnmenadue.com, July 2020
- Mark Oliphant’s no-show at the British atomic and nuclear tests in Australia – the Fuchs factor – johnmenadue.com, June 2020
- Why are files on British nuclear weapons development in Australia being removed from public access at the UK National Archives? – johnmenadue.com, January 2020
- How Menzies Begged Macmillan For The Bomb – Meanjin blog, December 2019
- Making the Jitterbug Work – Marcus Oliphant and the Manhattan Project – Atomic Heritage Foundation, May 30 2019
- Cold War exhibition tries to airbrush Britain’s dark history of nuclear testing – The Conversation, May 2019
- Peace activist or atomic spy? The curious case of a Cold War nuclear scientist – CNN, April 2019
- Was Sir Mark Oliphant Australia’s – and Britain’s – J. Robert Oppenheimer? Meanjin blog, January 2019
- Australia’s Nuclear Olympics – Melbourne 1956
- Sir Mark Oliphant – Australia’s – and Britain’s – J. Robert Oppenheimer?
- Under-ascertainment of multiple myeloma among participants in UK atmospheric atomic and nuclear weapons tests – BMJ Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Volume 60, Issue 12, 2003
- Sue’s nuclear bibliography – PubMed articles
- Sue’s nuclear bibliography – books and chapters
- Roff S. “Knocked over by a pile of bombs. Hasn’t felt well since.” Nuclear test veterans and the UK Ministry of Defence Pensions System” in Suzannah Linton (ed) Festschrift for Roger Clark. Brill/Niijhoff 2015
- Roff, Sue Rabbitt. “Long-term Health Effects in UK Test Veterans” in Holdstock D and Barnaby F (eds) The British Nuclear Weapons Programme 1952-2002. Frank Cass London, Portland OR 2003
- Roff, Sue Rabbitt. Hotspots: The Legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. London ; New York : Cassell, 1995
https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21098359?q&versionId=25128861
http://www.nlb.gov.sg/biblio/8858704 - Sue Rabbitt Roff. Overreaching in paradise: United States policy in Palau since 1945. Juneau, Alaska USA. Denali Press 1991
Culture Shocks
- The Secrets of Henry Handel Richardson:Is Ultima Thule a literary or a literal case study? – August 2023
- Shirley Hazzard’s life writing in light of her authorized biography – July 2023
- False memories: How Errol Flynn gaslit his ghostwriter – June 2023
- On the question of whether Iris Murdoch was a Soviet spy – Overland, March 2022
- The tale tellers: why Muriel Spark fell out with Shirley Hazzard – Overland, November 2021
- Ned Kelly – ‘The Man with the Iron Head’ – johnmenadue.com, May 2021
- The Colour of the Road – Embark, April 2021
- Rewriting the creation myth of Blue Poles as it approaches 70 – johnmenadue.com, March 2021
- Sidney Nolan’s St Kilda paintings: the ‘innocence’ of a man in his 20s with a wife and two mistresses – johnmenadue.com, February 2021
- The Curious Case of the Memetic Marsupial, January 2021
- Whose Kangaroo Was It Anyway? – johnmenadue.com, December 2020
- The war reparations of Sidney Nolan and Benjamin Britten – reckless innocence? – johnmenadue.com, November 2020
- Lady Chatterley and Alexander Portnoy: Narrowing the Limits of Censorship in Australia – johnmenadue.com, November 2020
- Re-Reading The Lady Chatterley Trials In New York And London After 60 Years, adelaidemagazine.org, October 2020
- The Conundrum of the London Kangaroos – johnmenadue.com, September 2020
- ‘What would you have me do? Go to the wars?’ Sidney Nolan’s soldier – overland.org.au, September 2020
- D.H.Lawrence’s Australian Climacteric – johnmenadue.com, August 2020
- Fast Tracking a National Care Service – johnmenadue.com, August 2020
- GRETA – adelaidemagazine.org, May 2020
- Blue Poles – Asset or Liability? April 2020
- Sir Kenneth Clark’s Australian Epiphany, January 2020
- James Mollison: the public art teacher who brought the Blue Poles to Australia – The Conversation, January 2020
- Who Sold Blue Poles to Australia? – Meanjin blog, January 2020
- Indecent Advertisements: The Ern Malley Hoax – Meanjin blog, June 2019
- Peevish Paddy and Sir Neddy: Patrick White’s Nobel Prize – Meanjin blog, December 2018
- What Will the Judge’s Copy Tell Us About the Second Lady Chatterley Trial? – Meanjin blog, October 2018
- Ern and Ned, Sun and Sid: The Anglo-Australian School of Faux Naive Fusionism – Meanjin, Spring (Australia) September 2018
- Blue poles 45 years on: asset or overvalued drip painting? – The Conversation, September 2018
- The Sidney Nolan mystery: did British government knowingly knight a wartime deserter? – The Conversation, February 2018
- How huge gamble by Lady Chatterley lawyers changed obscenity law forever – The Conversation, November 2017
- Sodomy’s low profile in Lady Chatterley trial – The Guardian, November 2017
- How huge gamble by ‘Lady Chatterley’ lawyers changed obscenity law forever – Independent, November 2017
- Kangaroo pictures found at RCS may be Australia’s earliest oil paintings – The Guardian, March 2017
Memory Lanes
