Australian
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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows uranium mining in the 1980s, and at the first Australian uranium mine at Radium Hill in South Australia in the 1950s. It opens in the early 1980s with the then South Australian Minister for Mines and Energy, Roger Goldsworthy, stating that Australia has a ‘moral obligation’ to supply uranium for world energy needs, followed by narration claiming that the government has relaxed controls over the sale of uranium. The clip concludes with historical footage of Radium Hill in the 1950s and scenes of an abandoned Radium Hill in the 1980s.

Educational value points

• The argument put forward in the clip by the SA Government Minister that Australia has an obligation to export uranium to meet world energy needs is a long-standing one that is still used by the pro-uranium lobby, but in the early 21st century is also linked to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the control of global warming. Australia has some of the world’s largest uranium reserves and exports about 20 per cent of all uranium sold on the world market.

• This clip, from the television documentary Backs to the Blast, an Australian Nuclear Story, reflects community concern in the 1980s about the expansion of uranium mining to supply overseas nuclear power plants. In 1977, just three years before this documentary was made, the Australian Government announced that new uranium mining was to proceed, commencing with the Ranger project in the Northern Territory, which opened in 1981.

• In this clip the minister’s language, which is intended to persuade the community to mine uranium by including phrases such as ‘moral obligation’ and ‘there is no other option’, is juxtaposed with that of the narration, which makes ironic use of these phrases, referring to the ‘last time South Australia felt morally obliged to enter the race to sell uranium’. This irony implies a disbelief that uranium mining at Radium Hill had anything to do with morality.

• Concerns mentioned in the clip about the adequacy of safeguards governing the sale of Australian uranium are still held by environmental and disarmament groups. The Australian Conservation Foundation argues that the safe management and storage of the industrial waste produced by nuclear reactors, which remains highly radioactive for thousands of years, is still unresolved and that such waste could be used to develop nuclear weapons.

• The Olympic Dam mine at Roxby Downs in SA, referred to in this clip, is the world’s largest known uranium reserve. Operations commenced there in 1988. It produces about 4,000 tonnes of uranium each year, and since 2005 has been owned by BHP Billiton.

• Radium Hill, 460 km north-east of Adelaide and 110 km south-west of Broken Hill, was Australia’s first uranium mine. The deposit was discovered in 1906 and mined intermittently until 1931, mainly to extract radium for medical use. In the 1950s the mine was recommissioned to fulfil a 7-year contract signed by the Australian and SA governments to supply the USA and the UK with uranium for nuclear weapons. In fact, most of this uranium was used for electricity production.

• The Radium Hill township, shown in this clip, was built by the SA Government to accommodate 1,200 people. Originally a tent city, eventually 165 houses and 220 two-man cubicles were built. After the mine closed in 1961 the town was razed and today all that remains is a huge concrete ore bin and a 9-million-L water tank. Between 1981 and 1998 Radium Hill was used as a repository for low-level radioactive waste, mainly contaminated soil.

• The long-term effects on the health of the miners, many of whom were European immigrants who came to Australia after the Second World War, has been significant with the cancer rate for Radium Hill workers four times that of the general population. The SA Government offered high wages to attract workers to the Radium Hill mine and many migrants took advantage of the unskilled or semiskilled occupations such as mining being offered by the Government.

This clip starts approximately 4 minutes into the documentary.

A media interview.
Roger Goldsworthy – South Australian Minister, Mines and Energy We’re living in the real world, and, uh, countries like Canada, France, Britain, Sweden, Japan, all of which we visited, are committed to an increasing nuclear program. In fact, I believe we have a moral obligation to supply energy to an energy-hungry world and there is no other option.

Archival footage of press clippings about mining as well as scenes of Radium Hill and photographs of migrant workers.
Reporter’s voice-over The press prepares us for a new mining bonanza when Australia will supply uranium to the world. We are assured that it will be used for safe, clean and peaceful purposes. Yet, in order to sell the huge amounts of uranium produced by mines like Roxby Downs, the government has been forced to loosen the controls on how it is used once it is sold. This situation bears comparison with the last time South Australia felt morally obliged to enter the race to sell uranium. During the Korean War, the South Australian government heralded a mining boom when it signed a seven-year contract to supply uranium from Radium Hill to the British and American markets. £5 million was spent at Radium Hill building a new mine and town. High wages and good living conditions soon attracted the 600 miners required for the mine. Many were young Europeans who had recently migrated to start a new life in Australia.

Reporter and Arthur Baillie walk along a path touring the town which is barren and desolate, contrasting sharply with archival photographs showing the town in its prime.
Arthur Baillie, barman from Radium Hill This is one of the main streets in the town site where most of the married, uh, miners and their wives lived. They planted some 7,000 trees around this area. It was a credit to them, and, uh, it’s sad to see the place die like it did. I think a lot of people thought this town might have gone on for a long time, but it wasn’t to be. And so this is how it is now.