Shield, Pilbara region, northwest Australia NCM1966-142 Nottingham Castle Museum, Nottingham UK
This is a shield of a type commonly found in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is narrow and elongated, tapering towards each end with a handle cut into the rear. Across the shield are transverse bands of colour, some faded, including bands of red ochre pigment. Aboriginal men used and, in some areas, still use shields similar to these.
While shields like this from the northwest of Australia are not uncommon in collections, this one has a particular history. It is one of two similar shields in the collection of Nottingham Castle Museum in England. Nottingham is adjacent to Sherwood Forest, the home of the legendary warrior Robin Hood, who is said to have robbed the rich to give to the poor. This shield has associations of power imbalances of another kind: it illustrates how the welfare of Aboriginal people in the 1950s was disregarded at the time of British atomic nuclear testing in Australia.
The shield was collected in about 1952 by Rear Admiral David Torlesse (1902-1995). He had served in the first and second world war and was the British naval admiral in charge of ‘Operation Hurricane’, which was the name given to the first British testing of an atomic bomb. Torlesse made a preliminary surveillance trip to Australia in early 1952 and then commanded the task force that supported ‘Operation Hurricane’. The fleet sailed from Chatham Dockyards in Kent, then around the Cape of Good Hope before sailing up the Western Australia coast. The bomb was detonated from HMS Plym on 3 October 1952 on the Montebello Islands. After the bombing, Torlesse flew in a sea plane to Onslow where a local schoolboy presented him with a boomerang signed by the townspeople. He thanked them for their cooperation and for keeping his trip quiet. Thirty-nine scientists were landed there and then flown back to the UK via Perth where a civic reception was held for him at Fremantle. When back in England he was made a Companion of the Order of Bath.
The British conducted two more tests on the Montebello Islands in 1956. People living as far away as at Mt Isa in Queensland reported fallout from this test. A group of newspaper men filmed the first test from Karratha sheep station. The Islands, a place of rich biodiversity on the land and adjacent seas, remain contaminated by these tests. These islands off the northwest coast of Western Australia were inhabited by Aboriginal people prior to about 5000 BP before the sea level rose but were uninhabited at the time of the tests. A Royal Commission into atomic testing in Australia found in 1983-84 (p.261):
“The presence of Aborigines on the mainland near Monte Bello Islands and their extra vulnerability to the effect of fallout was not recognised by either [Atomic Weapons Research Establishment – UK] or the Safety Committee” and… (5.4.14 – p.122): There was a failure at the Hurricane trial to consider the distinctive lifestyles of Aboriginal people. As no record was made of any contamination of the mainland it is impossible to determine whether Aborigines were exposed to any significant short or long-term hazards.
Australian servicemen serving on HMAS Murchison nearby the test were affected by the fallout and have suffered long term health problems. Continued British nuclear testing in other parts of the western desert in the 1950s and 1960s caused problems for Aborigines living there, even though patrol officers had attempted to remove them prior to the tests.
It is unclear if, but perhaps unlikely, Torlesse had any dealings with Aboriginal people. The chair of the Canadian Defence Board, Dr O M Solandt, who also witnessed the tests was given a ‘nulla nulla’ and a spear by a policeman in Onslow (The West Australian, 8 October 1952). The shields and an unsigned boomerang Torlesse acquired which are now in Nottingham are reminders of his brief visit to Western Australia and the absence of shielding both Aboriginal people and naval servicemen to nuclear fallout.
Shield images courtesy Nottingham Castle Museum
Image P00131.057 and caption courtesy of The Australian War Memorial: ONSLOW, WA. OCTOBER 1952. BRITISH ATOMIC TESTS ON THE MONTE BELLO ISLANDS, WA. NAVAL PERSONNEL FROM HMAS AUSTRALIA AND PENGUIN SPEAK WITH SOME ABORIGINALS WHO WERE CAMPED NEAR THE RACECOURSE DURING THE ASHBURTON DISTRICT ANNUAL RACE MEETING. THE RACE MEETING WAS HELD ABOUT THE TIME THE ATOMIC TEST EXPLOSION WAS EXPECTED, MUCH TO THE DESPAIR OF SECURITY OFFICERS WHO WERE TRYING TO KEEP A CHECK ON EVERYONE.
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C40298