The precedent has significance beyond this Book Review particular book. Departments of State need policy analyses of their activities by scholars Section before the end of the 30-year period of the public access rule. Anyone who has worked in Compiled by John Jenkin* such a department will know that departmen- tal filing systems never provide an integrated view of what a department is doing and Peter Morton, Fire Across The Desert: Woom- whether it is succeeding. The integration of era and the Anglo-Australian Joint Project policy with means and ends is achieved in the 1946-1980. Canberra: AGPS, 1989. 595 pp., minds of a few senior officials only. When they illus., $100. move on, the department loses that knowledge and there are gaps in the corporate memory, In the three decades following the Second with a host of unpleasant consequences -such World War, the most secret scientific research as policies which lose their association with in Australia was that associated with the Joint objectives, and superfluous administration and Project between Australia and Britain. With policy research. Scholars can help in reducing the trials centre at Woomera and the support these problems if they are allowed early access centre at Salisbury, South Australia, the Joint to departmental records and personnel. How- Project sought to develop several new genera- ever, we all know that there are legitimate tions of weapons, from bombs to intercontinen- reasons why departments and governments tal ballistic missiles. Some of these did not might not wish to grant such access. One progress far, but others did, and Australia answer to this significant dilemma is repre- developed a corps of scientists and engineers sented by Fire Across the Desert. Here the well trained in the advanced techniques of Department of Defence - or more particularly rocket propulsion, guidance, ballistics, tracking the Defence Science and Technology Organi- and mathematical modelling, not to mention zation - selected its own scholar, Dr Peter test-range operation and safety standards. Morton, and then ensured that he received Since the end of the Joint Project in 1980, these everything he needed to do his job properly. skills have been in most cases preserved at the With common sense being exercised by the Defence Research Centre, Salisbury. This is scholar and by the Defence Department in the the lasting legacy of the halcyon days when judicious use of the English language to get Britain and Australia were at the forefront of round sensitive areas, a vast amount of class- modern military technology. ified data has been made available to the public, Since those days have barely passed, it is while the Department has also been given extraordinary that a book such as Fire Across valuable insights which will aid future admin- the Desert should have emerged so soon, and istration and policy development. that it is so detailed and explicit in describing Peter Morton's book is informative at many what happened. Given that the events had levels. There is considerable detail on many high security classifications and that most of technical activities, governed overall by the the key personalities are still alive, the odds author's lucid and simple explanations of the against any book emerging at all were very important scientific and engineering principles high indeed. So many organizations, including associated with particular projects. Included is the British, had to vet the work that the slight- a description, over several chapters, of how est prejudice against the book could easily have trials were conducted and recorded; valuable left it locked indefinitely within the Defence in itself and a possible blue print for the pro- Department, on the unchallengeable ground of posed Cape York space port. national security. But it is clear that the Def- The author also places each project in its ence Department and other bodies have exer- political setting at both government and pro- cised their security rights sparingly and in ject-team levels. What he says is interesting sympathy with the objective of publishing and sometimes intriguing, but there is something worthwhile on the Joint Project. In obviously much more to be said concerning the doing this, the Department has set a laudable human relationships, particularly at the pro- precedent which other less security-conscious ject-team level. Science is rarely an objective departments will find hard to emulate. exercise in systematic research, hypothesis and proof. More often it is a battle of ideas, propelled * Dr J.G. Jenkin is a Reader in Physics at La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083 by powerful personalities fighting for scarce resources and political patronage. The scien- Historical Records ofAustralian Science 8, (2) (June 19901 tific justification often comes later. What were Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 8, Number 2 the disputes between the Australian and the gratulated for attempting an evaluation of the British teams, and what were the disputes scientific worth of the Joint Project. In doing amongst the Australians? Morton alludes to this he is laying himself open to criticism by many of these, but is not able to pursue them partisan groups, but his attempt makes the too far because of national sensitivities and the book much more valuable to professional sci- fact that key personalities are still living - in ence administrators. some cases, still occupying important positions. In summary, this book is a valuable addition For example, I suspect that there is consider- to the increasing library of books on Australian ably more to be told about the decision-making science. It is considerably better than many of process concerning the building of the Salis- them, and while it is expensive at $100, it is bury computer, WREDAC. Morton may have excellently presented and has numerous had to be coy about such issues, but the book photographs. acts as a signpost for the next wave of scholars coming after the 30-year public access interval. A.T. Ross, A surprising and happy feature of the book Australian Defence Studies Centre, is the examination of the social setting of the University College, A.D.F.A. Joint Project, particularly at Woomera and its range. Many historians of science, particularly of Australian science, do not consider the social Glynn Barratt, The Russians and Australia. context in which scientific activities occur, an Volume 1 of 'Russia and the South Pacific, argument in favour of encouraging more non- 1696-1840'. Vancouver: University of British scientists to write history of science (Morton Columbia Press, 1988. xiv + 338 pp., illus., holds a Ph.D. in English). Morton covers a wide £27.50 (UK). range of subjects, including the workforce and Glynn Barratt, Southern and Eastern Poly- conditions during the building of Woomera, the nesia. Volume 2 of 'Russia and the South housing and family problems which followed, Pacific, 1696-1840'. Vancouver: University of the social structure of the Woomera village, British Columbia Press, 1988. xx + 302 pp., the transportation system, and the Aborigines 28 plates, £23.15 (UK). on the rocket range. These chapters give a good indication of how the Joint Project impressed itself on many groups and individuals. They Russia has a substantial coastline in the north- do not show so readily how the Joint Project ern Pacific, so much so that Peter the Great was affected by the social setting it helped to asked Captain Vitus Bering, a Dane serving create; for example, by the class system intro- in the Russian Navy, to explore the eastern duced by the mess structure at Woomera. Did shores of the country. Bering's two expeditions this help to produce unified scientific and engi- established that Asia and America are sepa- neering teams, or did it lead to dissention rated by what we now know as the Bering between technicians, experimental officers and Strait. Before long there were Russian settle- scientists, prejudicing the progress of some ments on the Alaskan coast (Novo-Arkhan- projects? gel'sk, now Sitka) as well as on the coast of Histories of science rarely consider whether Siberia (Okhotsch) and Kamchatka (Petropav- the scientific endeavour described can be losk). It was not surprising, therefore, that shown to have been successful. All scientific Russia should take an interest in the further activity is generally regarded as contributing exploration of the Pacific (which they called to world knowledge in some way or another, the Eastern Ocean), and particularly after the and that is its justification. It is tempting to English and French navigators had begun seri- view the Joint Project in the same way, and ous exploration of this vast ocean. hence to close this prominent period of Austra- The first Russian expedition to circumna- lian science with a warm, happy glow. However, vigate the world sailed from Kronshtadt in the the science administrator has a different per- Baltic in 1803. In the next 30 years there were spective. Resources are limited, and there is a 30 voyages from Kronshtadt to the Pacific, and never-ending line of research projects waiting 17 of these sailed around the world. The degree to be approved. It is highly relevant to deter- of Russian activity is illustrated by the fact mine what has been successful in the past and that there were 17 Russian visits to Australia what might lead to success in the future. In between 1807 and 1835, two of these to Hobart the realm of modern defence science, most and the others to Sydney. In the tradition of projects associated with developing new weap- Bougainville and Cook, these ships carried ons do not succeed in achieving their objectives. astronomers, naturalists, and sometimes other Consequently, the present author is to be con- scientists. Botanical and geological specimens Book Review Section were collected, and were later preserved in the North Pacific then south-west to the Indian museums in Russia.