Despite what you may think, Australia has a long history of space activities. But this is the first time the Australian public has been asked its opinions on space.
The British atomic tests at Emu Field in South Australia pre-dated Maralinga by three years. Largely forgotten, they remind us the costs of harmful political decisions are borne by the most powerless.
Australia was a significant global space player during the 1950s and 1960s. Now we’re one of only two OECD countries not to have a space agency. What happened?
History is writ large in the remote areas around Woomera and the Nullarbor: from the fossils of microscopic, cell-like creatures to ancient stone tools to the deitrus of rocket tests and the painful legacy of the Maralinga atomic blasts.