Perth Voice Interactive

A RADIOACTIVE Land Rover was taken to Leeuwin Barracks after atomic testing up north, adding fuel to what’s often been brushed off as an urban myth—that’s it’s still buried there.

Declassified Navy documents from the 1950s show the Land Rover was transported from the site of Britain’s first nuclear test at the Monte Bello Islands and unloaded at Victoria Quay in Fremantle before being driven to HMAS Leeuwin Navy base for decontamination.

But what happened after that is still hotly contested by navy veterans, with those such as John Shotton convinced his now-deceased mate Bob Smith dug a big hole behind the barracks and dumped the vehicle there when it proved impossible to clean (“Radioactive riverside,” Herald, November 21, 2015).

Others like John Hogan think that’s bunkum, as he reckons rules around dealing with contaminated material brought back from the nuclear tests were very strict.

Defence says it ran ground-probing radar over the most likely spots and came up empty handed.

Following the nuclear testing in the 50s and 60s, it wasn’t unusual for radioactive material to be buried if it couldn’t be cleaned; a rehabilitation program at the Monte Bellos codenamed Operation Capelin specifically calls for the “burial of contaminated debris.”

Another clean up operation, code named Operation Hercules V at the Maralinga testing site in South Australia, gave instructions to “clean or bury any contaminated vehicles and other plant and equipment that cannot be cleaned”.

What is clear from the declassified documents is that the Land Rover was “hot” after being used in clean up and recovery operations on Tremouille Island following Operation Hurricane, where a plutonium implosion bomb had been detonated just offshore in the hull of the HMS Plym a year earlier.

Hosed down

“Lt Andrews examined the Land Rover ashore and reported that the outside of the vehicle was relatively clear and internal readings of 120cps,” the report from the Karangi on November 14, 1953 reads.

“Embarkation was progressed on receipt of this information.

“The Land Rover was hosed down whilst slung from the derrick: the external reading on embarkation was 30cps.”

While this is far from Fukushima-level radiation, a 2006 report published by the Department of Veterans Affairs into health effects and exposure levels of radiation following Australia’s involvement in nuclear tests notes that having the Land Rover aboard the boom defence vessel HMAS Karangi on its voyage back to Fremantle was enough to contaminate the ship.

After being unloaded at the A-shed on Victoria Quay on November 24, 1953, the Land Rover was driven to Leeuwin Barracks, a driving distance of less than five minutes.

It was reported in official documents to be “radioactive.”

“HMAS Leeuwin and Western Command Workshop” engineers are noted as work groups who were exposed to elevated radiation levels from driving and decontaminating the vehicle on land.

“Primarily wet methods of decontamination, hosing and use of detergents minimised the risk of ingestion and inhalation. There is a reference to scrubbing with a  ’wire brush’, the DVA report noted, although it doesn’t mention whether this proved successful.

Radiation

It also notes that while the handling and transportation of the radioactive Land Rover exposed the workers and drivers to slightly elevated levels of radiation, there was no evidence that it led to health complications.

As for the HMAS Karangi, she was sold off in 1966, partially scrapped and now lies among the mangroves along with several other rusted hulks at Homebush Bay, Sydney.

by KAYLEEN BELL
and STEVE GRANT

CHARGING people $15 to get into the Perth’s revamped museum will deter people on low incomes from visiting, The Chamber of Arts and Culture WA says.

Last Saturday (May 19) the McGowan government issued a press release announcing; “children to get free entry to New Museum”. The sting in the tail was that adults will be charged $15 and pensioners and concession holders $10.

The new 6000sqm museum, due to open in 2020, will overhang the old WA Museum and allow more of the state’s collection to be shown to the public.

Chamber executive director Henry Boston says taxpayers are already stumping up $400 million to build the New Museum, as it’s being branded.

“The New Museum was framed as a museum for everyone,” he says.

“The people most affected by an admission charge will be those on lower incomes, many of whom come into Perth from the outer suburbs.

Accessible

“Whilst there is free entry for children, who will be accompanying those children?”

The chamber says around the world there’s a tacit understanding that major museums should be accessible to all.

All major museums and art galleries in London are free, along with the Smithsonian Museums in the US and major museums in Queensland, Canberra and Sydney.

“It’s bit like paying to build a house, paying for the contents of the house and then being asked to pay for the privilege of being let past the front door. Western Australians deserve better than this,” Mr Boston says.

The chamber wants to know what modelling was done to test whether Sandgropers had the appetite to pay for a bit of history.

Arts minister David Templeman said: “The decision to exempt children from an entry fee was made despite significant budgetary pressures…the McGowan government is committed to keeping entrance fees affordable for Western Australians.”

by DAVID BELL

THE state government has opened a new emergency clinic to treat drug-and-alcohol affected patients at Royal Perth Hospital, after hospital staff and other patients in ER reached breaking point.

The new six-patient “Urgent Care Clinic” will specialise in toxicology and treat “patients who can be disruptive to other patients and staff, and at worst pose a security threat”.

Clinic staff will be supported by drug and alcohol specialists, homeless healthcare professionals, mental health clinicians and social workers.

Other measures to be rolled out to ensure staff and patient safety include more CCTV, staff training in de-escalation techniques and the purchase of 250 stab vests and personal alarms for frontline staff.

The new clinic follows an announced $11.8 million in funding towards building a mental health observation area at RPH.

Health minister Roger Cooke says; “while the election commitment on Urgent Care Clinics envisaged an acute primary care setting, the advice from the Department of Health was that a toxicology unit at RPH would best serve the needs of the hospital and ease pressure on the emergency department”.

Perth MP John Carey agrees: “It just makes common sense given there is a high number of people affected by drugs and alcohol coming through Royal Perth, that we have a dedicated unit that will be able to treat people specifically presenting with those issues, and with mental health issues,” he says.

“Having a dedicated unit is going to provide relief and ease the pressure of the main emergency unit. It’s welcome, I know the city community welcome this.”

by DAVID BELL