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The road you see in the photo to the bottom-right was surveyed and built more than sixty-odd years ago. Straight as a die and, like the Gunbarrel Highway and many others, it’s the legacy of a bushman, master surveyor, road builder, and outback legend by the name of Len Beadell. This point is about halfway between the Maralinga airstrip and the Forward Area, where the British exploded multiple atomic bombs and other top-secret experiments. The rich flora and fauna of the mallee and black-oak woodlands in this area contrast sharply with the blue bush-dotted limestone plains just over the horizon. The Forward Area, where nuclear explosions obliterated vast swathes of bushland.
Robin Matthews has driven this very track many hundreds of times over the years, during his security patrol work, road and pit maintenance, not to mention the atomic bomb test site tours.
His interest in Maralinga’s atomic history began way back when working on the railways. He’d been asked by the then caretaker force, stationed at Maralinga, to repair pieces of machinery on odd occasions. Conversations, stories, and remnant records sparked his long-time interest in the history of the place, piqued by the secrecy cloaking the site.
For a time, Robin had been the Village Caretaker and lived on-site with his wife and family. Back then, their home was the old hospital building. Its railway sleeper-fenced barbeque area festooned with old signage and memorabilia, which Robin and previous residents had collected over time.
Robin performed multiple roles as manager, security patrolman, machinery operator and occasional tour guide for approved visitors to various sites on the Maralinga Test Area, also known as Section 400.
The Maralinga Tjarutja administration began the process of setting up the official tour business in 2014. With the almost immediate success of the tours when they started in 2015, Robin found he had much to do. All the time Robin was involved with Maralinga, he had been collecting information, photographs and anecdotes from veterans that visited or contacted him and wherever else he could find associated history. Other historical items he’d come across while doing his remedial work around the section, once checked and cleared by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), were added to the collection that has been growing around the village and in its museum.
In 2015, Robin stepped away from the Caretaker role and focused on the tours. During the six years of the tour’s operation, he has guided thousands of people around the atomic testing site and its associated infrastructure. Many visitors have no idea of the extent of the operations at Maralinga until they visit, most are surprised, and all are enlightened.
Robin presented to guests as a tour guide who is truly unique in a unique place and has contributed immensly to the growth and success of the tours.
In 2019 Maralinga Tours won the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Tourism category of the SA Tourism Awards, a proud moment for Robin and the Maralinga Tjarutja team. Robin’s generous nature and diamond-in-the-rough exterior belie the care with which he treated his guests and the knowledge he imparted to them. He is genuinely an outback legend with years of experience in the greater region, working at many different jobs, travelling millions of miles and with a passion for the country and the history of Maralinga.
Robin presented to guests as a tour guide who is truly unique in a unique place and has contributed immensely to the growth and success of the tours. In 2020, Robin decided to move on and make some changes in his life. We thank him for his input at Maralinga Village and wish him all the best.