During the darkest days of the Cold War, in the remote wilderness of a South Australian desert, the future of an infant nation is being decided - without its people's knowledge. This is the story of Maralinga. It is also a story of heartbreak brought to the innocent First Australians who had walked their land unhindered for 40,000 years.

During the darkest days of the Cold War, in the remote wilderness of a South Australian desert, the future of an infant nation is being decided - without its people's knowledge. A British airbase in the middle of nowhere; an atomic weapons testing ground; an army of raw youth led by powerful, ambitious men - a cocktail for disaster. Such is Maralinga in the spring of 1956. Maralinga is a story of British Lieutenant Daniel Gardiner, who accepts a twelve-month posting to the wilds of South Australia on a promise of rapid promotion; Harold Dartleigh, deputy director of MI-6 and his undercover operative Gideon Melbray; Australian Army Colonel Nick Stratton and the enigmatic Petraeus Mitchell, bushman and anthropologist. They all find themselves in a violent and unforgiving landscape infected with the unique madness and excitement that only nuclear testing creates. Maralinga is also a story of a love so strong that it draws the adventurous young English journalist Elizabeth Hoffmann halfway around the world in search of the truth. And Maralinga is a story of heartbreak brought to the innocent First Australians who had walked their land unhindered for 40,000 years.

Judy Nunn's books include two adventure novels for children, Eye in the Storm and Eye in the City, and the adult novels The Glitter Game, Centre Stage, Araluen, Kal, Beneath the Southern Cross, Territory, Pacific, Heritage and Floodtide.