At Emu Field in October 1953, a terrifying black mist sped across the land after an atomic bomb detonation, bringing death and sickness to Aboriginal populations in its path. Emu Field was difficult and inaccessible. So why did the British go there at all, when they knew that they wouldn’t stay? What happened to the air force crew who flew through the atomic clouds? And why is Emu Field considered the ‘Marie Celeste’ of atomic test sites, abandoned quickly after the expense and effort of setting it up?

The Secret of Emu Field reveals the story of a cataclysmic collision between an ancient Aboriginal land and the post-war Britain of Winston Churchill and his gung-ho scientific advisor Frederick Lindemann.

Elizabeth Tynan is associate professor in the Graduate Research School at James Cook University Townsville. A former science journalist, her book Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story won the Prime Minister’s History Award and the CHASS Australia Book Prize in 2017.

5:30PM for 6PM start at the UNSW Bookshop, Kensington Campus, UNSW, Sydney