Maralinga by Alan Parkinson

Author:Alan Parkinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ABC Books
Published: 2015-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

I question how the secret meetings satisfied those objectives. The clandestine nature of the extension of GHD’s contract raised suspicions in several minds.

I then left the site and went to Salisbury to witness the ISV final off-site trial, so it was a few days later when I eventually arrived home and found a strange email (dated 5 December 1997), asking me to meet Rawson in his office. The strange part was the start of the message: Situation normal – All operations operating as expected.

I attended the meeting on 9 December 1997 as requested, knowing full well what was about to happen, and while I am sure I did not show anything outwardly, I had a sick feeling in my stomach. Rawson was 15 minutes late, and when he arrived he gave me a letter informing me that my contract was cancelled and my membership of MARTAC was also terminated. In the letter, Rawson asked me to liaise with Perkins regarding ‘finalisation’ of my services; since she was nowhere to be seen, there was no handover.

Rawson and I had a brief discussion, during which I told him that his action was not entirely unexpected, because several people had warned me to watch my back because I was ‘being shafted’. Also, I said, the way I had been excluded from the secret meetings with GHD made what was happening fairly obvious. The only explanation offered by Rawson was that I had shown strong objection to the extension of the GHD contract. He made one telling comment, though: that I had no rapport with Perkins. I offered the obvious response that it takes two to have rapport. And he again referred to my asking him to reconsider his agreement to the special travel arrangements for ARL. I told him he could not expect full cooperation from Geosafe, because he had done all this behind their back, and my closing comment was that what he had done was utterly disgraceful.

This ended a grim period in my life, but the project was entering a worse period. As I walked out of Rawson’s office I again thought my days at Maralinga were ended. And again I was wrong.

While my objection to extension of GHD’s contract might have been a factor in my removal, I believe a far more important factor was my failure to achieve a working relationship with Perkins. Yes, I was removed from the project because I tried to protect the Commonwealth’s interests, but the greater element, in my view, was that I could not get on with Perkins. So the key person on the project was removed and the clerk remained.

Rawson’s action made me the third person, after Charlie Griffiths and Pat Davoren, to be removed from the department’s project team.

When I left Rawson’s office, I told Karen Powell and Paul Lee what had happened. They were devastated. Soon afterwards, Karen transferred to another position, and a few weeks later Paul did the same. Those gestures were very much appreciated. Other people in

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