Giles Weather Station has had a marked effect on the Rawlinson Natives, increasing the number of wants they are unable to satisfy. Unless employment is made available soon, it could be said that the Weapons Research Establishment has not accepted the responsibility incurred in establishing a weather station in the Reserves.
MacDougall’s report on one of his endless trips around the soaks and camps of the Woomera area provides a cameo of life in that harsh environment. During his patrol of July 1955 he followed up a message he had received that ‘two women and an old fella’ were at a water hole called Warrapin. He discovered two old women but no man.
They were very frightened and had not tasted white man’s food. They liked oatmeal, rice, damper, tea and sugar. They were very doubtful about anything from a tin. Their possessions consisted of the following: 1 digging stick each, 2 wooden dishes, each full of grass seed, 1 upper mill stone, 1 piece of iron rod, sharpened at one end, and one white dingo.
MacDougall concluded that the bigger group had left the two old women behind ‘to fend for themselves for the rest of their lives’. He gleaned this from talking to the women and to the man who had found them, Frank the native guide. MacDougall and Frank talked the women into accompanying them to the Cundeelee Mission, run by the Australian Evangelical Mission, 40 kilometres north of Zanthus, ‘where they could be cared for in their old age’, but when it came time to go the women decided that they couldn’t leave their land. MacDougall left blankets, flour, rice, tea and sugar with them and went on his way. He had tried to get them to go to Cundeelee even though he did not think much of the place: ‘I was not favourably impressed by Cundeelee Mission. The Missionaries by their attitude suggested that they believed that the world owed the natives a free and easy living, an attitude that suggested that the natives should be given everything they want’. Cundeelee Mission, which had been under the control of the evangelical mission since 1950, held a sandalwood licence, and Aboriginal people were paid £26 per tonne of wood they harvested. Some handicrafts were made there too, in a sort of cottage industry. Part of the self-imposed role of the mission was to entice ‘bush natives’ away from their traditional lifestyles and evangelise them into its particular brand of Christianity.
In June 1956, plans were in hand to test for fallout throughout the Maralinga lands. The AWTSC, headed at that time by Professor Martin, recommended that fallout monitoring kits, essentially comprising sticky paper to catch any swirling particles, be set up around the areas known to be inhabited by Aboriginal people. As the fallout from the Maralinga tests was likely to be to the northeast of the site, the AWTSC recommended that the sticky papers be placed at Ingomar Homestead, Mabel Creek Homestead, a shed halfway between Mabel Creek and Mt Willoughby, Mt Willoughby itself, Welbourne Hills, Granite Downs, Echo Hill and Ernabella. The sticky papers were to be changed daily during each test period, plus a few days before and after.
As the date for the opening of the new Maralinga range approached, MacDougall was busier than ever. In mid-1956, he undertook a patrol of a large area that encompassed not just the weapons range but also a new area set aside for the South West Mining Company. In his report, he mused about what was going on:
They, still in the Stone Age – hunters and gatherers with a code of laws and social customs effective only whilst they are segregated, and with harsh penalties applied – cannot continue to exist unchanged within our civilisation with its amazingly rapid scientific development, but they are human beings and must be considered as such.
MacDougall set out his estimate of how many Aboriginal people lived in the area affected by the tests. As at November 1955, there were 1000 people and their numbers were increasing. Research-based calculations suggested, he said, that the numbers were expected to double in 20 years. He broke these numbers down into various areas, thus: Everard Park 200, Musgrave Ranges 350, Warburton Ranges 350 and Rawlinson Ranges 100.
The detrimental effect of the opening up of this area depends upon the policy decided upon and the extent to which the policy is effectively policed. The policy of controlled contacts as provided for at present has been hopelessly broken down. Segregation is now impossible.
MacDougall made the point that while around 1000 Aboriginal people lived in the area, only 50 per cent of them lived off the land: ‘One thousand natives will be more or less affected by the establishment of the Range in this area. None of these were completely uninfluenced by contacts that have been made, although some have never seen white men’. He was greatly opposed to giving Aborigines handouts and scathing of Europeans who thought otherwise.
Because of the complete inability of many of the personnel to understand the different way of life of the aborigines, it makes it difficult for them to understand that their normal notions and reactions are detrimental to the welfare of the aborigines; e.g. ‘I know that that man is hungry because I have seen him sit there all day and he has had nothing to eat. I cannot harm him by giving him something to eat’. To explain that the man would not be sitting down all day looking hungry unless he knew that he would be freely given better food and water than he or his ancestors ever had before, makes no impression.
In this letter, MacDougall recommended that the problem of the Aborigines in the area ‘be treated as one of great national importance’. He also advocated for a move that took more than a decade to eventuate: ‘that steps be taken to unify [Indigenous] policies, laws and regulations throughout the Commonwealth’.
Beale took a sanguine approach to the Indigenous issue when planning for the British atomic weapons testing project to descend on the Australian desert. The government was perfectly happy with William Penney’s advice that X300, now named Maralinga, was the place to establish a permanent test site. In a top-secret Cabinet briefing document, Beale falsely claimed that if Maralinga was chosen they could revoke the existing Aboriginal reserve at Ooldea without difficulty as Aborigines had not used the area for some years.
Robert Macaulay, MacDougall’s colleague, was only 23 and fresh out of the University of Sydney when he was appointed as the second native patrol officer. He had no experience in the out-back and in fact had rarely been outside Sydney. Initially based at Giles, his job was to ward off Aboriginal people and report on their whereabouts to the test authorities. He was woefully ill equipped, not only in life experience but also in gear – he had no car or radio when he started. He eventually borrowed a car and made his first trip south to the Ernabella Mission on 12 September 1956, two days after the first Buffalo shot was scheduled. He did not have a radio, though, so he was largely out of contact with his masters.
In the event, Buffalo was delayed until 27 September, but even so preparing the local Aborigines for the first Maralinga major trial was impossible due to the short time and huge distances. On the day of that test, Macaulay sent a cable from Giles to Woomera, saying:
Unable to satisfy myself no natives south of mentioned line. Have not been there. Unable to penetrate without own vehicle and radio. Hear none Mt. Harriot area. Regret unable to signal daily. Unaware I could use the flying doctor system. Shall remain Giles until vehicle and instructions arrive.
Even though there were now two men, MacDougall and Macaulay, the task was getting more difficult. As doctor and activist Charles Duguid said in a 1957 speech, ‘It is an utter impossibility for two men efficiently to patrol such an area, particularly as tribal aborigines are always on the move and can keep out of sight if they wish’. And so it proved to be – the territory they were expected to cover was so vast that it was not humanly possible. They did what they could, but it was not enough. Duguid’s warnings were stern: