Elizabeth Tynan, "Nuclear Archipelago: Secrets, Power and the Biggest Atomic Blast in Australia" (NewSouth, 2026)

Nuclear Archipelago: Secrets, Power and the Biggest Atomic Blast in Australia

(NewSouth, 2026) tells the shocking story of the two British atomic

weapons test series held at Western Australia's Monte Bello Islands in

1952 and 1956. Operation Hurricane and Operation Mosaic took place at a

rugged archipelago 100 kilometres off the Pilbara coast, and each of the

three bombs sent fallout over vast distances across the country. One of

the tests, Mosaic G2 in June 1956, the largest nuclear weapon test ever

held in Australia, sparked panic at the time that it had been a nuclear

accident. In both the Mosaic tests, the crew of a British ship was

deliberately positioned in the path of fallout. The biodiverse natural

environment of the islands was left contaminated and has never been

cleaned up.