Montebello Islands

It’s unfortunate that the nuclear powers all decided to perform tests in remote locations not really part of themselves, many with indigenous populations who weren’t considered or consulted. It’s one of the last remnants of the colonial mindset. When Britain conducted tests in Australia, they deliberately misled the Australian government, didn’t share any of the results with Australia (and still haven’t), set off radioactive plumes across Australia that reached as far away as Fiji (that they covered up), and have been reluctant to provide any money towards cleaning up their mess. So far, the cleanups have cost more than double the compensation reluctantly provided some fifty years later. Australia is one of the few places in the world where a nuclear bomb has been dropped from a plane. 

Today I went to ground zero of one of the twelve main tests (and over 1000 in total) that the British performed in Australia, before they decided to use some of their pacific island territories. Three tests were undertaken in the Montebello Islands, and this was the third.

The islands are all real desert islands. 

Before the test, there were several endemic species on the islands that disappeared.  Humans weren’t allowed on the islands for many years, so wildlife has been undisturbed since. Cats and rats were eliminated, and, since the environment was compromised, the islands have been used for refuge populations of critically endangered species, and several have done really well on the islands. We saw a number of birds, and a goanna on the island when we landed.

And walked up to the lookout where they built a concrete bunker for the instruments they used to monitor the explosion. There was a railway up the hill.

Then I went to ground zero, where the tower was built for the nuclear test - it’s where the people are congregating.

We were all off the island within an hour. Because there’s a fair bit of wind around (the cyclone was downgraded to a tropical low, but it’s still very windy), we had a difficult landing, so we didn’t visit the other land ground zero site on the other island. Instead, we sailed around the Willy Nilly lagoon where the first test took place (a ship was exploded, while Australian sailors dressed in shorts and sandals stood on deck on an Australian ship nearby). 

And saw where the second test here was performed (there was a lot of spray as the water was rough).

Then we visited the site where cultured pearls were first attempted in the late 1800s. There is a large circular bay behind the wall, where you can see mangroves. The wall was built to stop the oyster spawn from dispersing elsewhere, and the pipes in the wall allowed water exchange. It was fairly low tide, so in a lot of the photos you can see oysters growing in the intertidal zone.

The pearling people built a house on the top of the island, and called it mansion island.

We saw two species of dolphins on the way back to the ship. Later on there was a superb sunset.