Beyond Belief

In Beyond Belief, Roger Cross and Avon Hudson give a long-ignored voice to the veterans of the British atomic bomb tests conducted in Australia during the 1950s and 1960s. Their chilling stories raise many disturbing questions, both about what happened then, and the effects on their lives in the decades that have passed. Successive British and Australian governments denied their understanding of the dangers of ionising radiation in the 1950s. But the government scientists employed to monitor the tests were given protective clothing. The servicemen were left unprotected, given radiation-measuring devices and exposed to a simulated theatre of nuclear war. They trusted their government and the appointed Safety Committee, only to be left with a tragic legacy for their children and grandchildren.

Roger Cross is a senior fellow at the University of Melbourne.

Avon Hudson is a long-time campaigner for a just solution to the human problems caused by the British atomic bomb tests. He served at Maralinga during some of the disastrous Minor Trials, he has intimate first-hand knowledge of the effects of radiation on human health.