. · ·. ·] NUCLEAR [ : ·. :·. ~ .. FUEL CYCLE :• ·-~.. ROYAL · · ~ ~ COMMISSION Oral Submission Date: 4/08/2015 Location: Amata Attendees: Bonnie Russell (NFCRC); Frank Young (Amata community member) Frank Young, D.O.B. 1949 Sworn before Bonnie Russell (Solicitor) Recorded at 12.30pm, 410812015 (with permission to publish transcribed version on website) FY: My name is Frank Young. That's my full name. I come from Watarru which is Victoria, Great Victoria Desert. I'm not sure where I born but probably in Watarru or probably in Maralinga Tjarutja somewhere. BR: So what would you like to tell the Commission? FY: I would like to say that when I was a little boy there were two workers that travelling through our land, which was graded road through our country in South Australia. And there were two men. They send out for collection- take people to missions and they pick us up and took us to Ernabella. Because they wanted to test out bomb which was in Emu ... They test two bombs there. Small ones. BR: Bombs? FY: Yeah. And then they wanted to test that atomic bomb in Maralinga. That's why we moved to Ernabella mission. BR: Do you know how old you were when that happened? FY: Probably about five or six I think. And yeah, so when they test the bomb in Maralinga there were people. There were people living out in the scrub, bush. All that mob that went from my country down that way because of the aboriginal war, aboriginal war was going on in this country and my family were pushed down to where they test the bomb. Not exactly in Maralinga, but the land where they was chased down from this country which they call hill side, sand hill side. And what happened, people were dying in the scrub, in the bush. Because my mother told me her uncles or her brothers, they all went down, and a lot of people wasn't found . Wasn't in Yalata or Ooldea. BR: So they went missing? FY: They went missing, only one person came through, which was my uncle. No not my uncle it was my grandfather, from my area went down with his wife and young girl. They went through Maralinga, they walked in there when the bomb was tested the day before, and the story was that the white fellas caught them and put them in the bag, body bag, tie them up, took them to Yalata, not really Yalata but they call some other name there, which was a new mission. Yeah, they put them in the bag and took them down to Yalata and let them out. They said we're gonna kill these people because they come through the bomb tests. And people cried , you know, my family cried. They all cried and they said 'no, we want them. Leave them here, we'll look after them.' So they did let them out with family. They were happy, but there's more - a lot more was missing and that's why I talk about this, you know, nuclear thing that . .......·. :·.· ·····'!:.:;~f~~; investigating opportunities and risks for south australia . · ·. ·] NUCLEAR [ :·. ·., .- .. FUEL CYCLE ·::·.:-_. ROYAL ···.,, COMMISSION Oral Submission has been kill my people and it was ... And I went to one meeting, Maralinga, not in Maralinga but Oak Valley, and talk about this and said that- ask question about what radioactive do. And they said this already goes down about 100 kilometres out which was people's land that was destroyed. People didn't pick up their food like bush tucker and we did grow up ... they all miss out on all that. And you know I went to that meeting and asked if people were living there that people didn't know about. They said no, it was clear. But it wasn't. My grandfather was still alive in my country. He told me that my - a lot of my people went down there and went to Ooldea. But a lot of people stayed in between Ooldea and Watarru in the bush and they got killed, which - people didn't find them. So that's why I'm going against this nuclear thing, nuclear and saying that we don't want it to happen again. If it's really happening, we should be careful. Look at things carefully and, you know. If it happens. If it doesn't happen, that will be good, because people - we want to save our children. It's really important for our future to, you know, no more poison coming into our land. Because they ignored what I said to them before in the meeting, so I don't want to be. BR: Which meeting was this? FY: The Maralinga Tjarutja meeting -the atomic bomb. BR: This was from earlier? FY: Yeah. So we want people to understand that Anangu people that think carefully in their own country and look after their land and people also. Give them life. And strongly I say no nuclear waste in our land. BR: And is there anything else you want to say or is that all? FY: No that's all. I'm just talking about, you know, radioactive and all that. Because that can happen when people bury it in the ground. That's where the water is. Under the ground - put waste in the ground, something happen, you know, when poison go down the water, people drink. All that stuff and radioactive goes a long way down on the wind. [submission concludes] . .·. : ... -.,.;.:~~~ investigating opportunities and risks for south australia .