Filmic Mutation: British nuclear tests in Australia 1952–1963

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the mid-1980s a Royal Commission was established to investigate the conduct of the British nuclear testing program in Australia (1952–1963). It sought to document the impact on military participants, nearby Indigenous communities and downwind rural and urban populations. Amongst the evidence presented were official documents, photographs and films recording the atomic detonations. This article considers as ‘visible evidence’ previously unknown or withheld films – as both raw and edited footage, now publicly available – that hold the latent potential of filmic ‘mutation’, evolving from the original utilitarian or propagandist use to be recast as corroborative data that may serve to clarify disputed claims of harm caused by occupational exposure to radiation and ongoing contamination of traditional lands.