Silent Storm (2004)

Silent Storm (2004)

Synopsis:
Did fallout from nuclear testing contaminate Australia's milk supply?

From 1957 to 1978, scientists secretly removed bone samples from over 21,000 dead Australians as they searched for evidence of the deadly poison, Strontium 90 - a by-product of nuclear testing. Silent Storm reveals the story behind this astonishing case of officially sanctioned 'body-snatching'. Set against a backdrop of the Cold War, the saga follows celebrated scientist, Hedley Marston, as he attempts to blow the whistle on radioactive contamination and challenge official claims that British atomic tests posed no threat to the Australian people. Marston's findings are not only disputed, he is targeted as 'a scientist of counter-espionage interest'. Now, questions are being raised about the health repercussions for generations of Australians.

Comments:
Silent Storm was partly based on Roger Cross's 2001 book Fallout - Hedley Marston and the British Bomb Tests in Australia. But writer/director Peter Butt (Who Killed Dr Bogle & Mrs Chandler) also independently researched hundreds of previously classified documents, private letters and ASIO files as well as linking the 'body snatching' episode in the film to the Marston story.

As Butt comments,

"Hedley Marston really was one of Australia's first whistleblowers. I think it's rare for a scientist to come out and whistle blow on an issue that impacts upon the public in such a way. I don't think it would happen again in the same way. It was the McCarthy era in America, we had the Petrov Affair, scientists had dossiers on them, everyone was watching everyone else. Back then there wasn't even such a word. I'm not saying they (whistleblowers) are not brave today, but Hedley was very brave at the time."

Just before Silent Storm's television release it was revealed in the Bulletin magazine (September 1, 2004) and followed in the European press that Tony Blair had lived in Adelaide during the period of the British Tests in Australia. Blair was three when the British detonated their third atomic device in the Maralinga desert region on 11 October, 1956 and an unanticipated wind change blew the radioactive cloud toward Adelaide.

British medical researcher and toxicologist Dick van Steenis told the Bulletin that the death of Mr Blair's mother from thyroid cancer could have been caused by the family's exposure to the radioactive fallout. He said:

"Adelaide in South Australia was plastered with radioactive fallout from 11 to 16 October, 1956. As a youngster in Adelaide drinking local milk, Tony Blair is very likely to be at risk of bone cancer himself."

Blair's mother, Hazel Blair, died 19 years after the blast following a long battle with thyroid cancer.

Silent Storm screened at many International Festivals and was nominated for four AFI awards. It was winner of Earth Vision Grand Prize (Best Film) at the Tokyo Global Environmental Film Festival and the International Gold Panda Awards for Documentary at the Sichuan TV Festival.

Credits:
Anna Grieve - Executive Producer
Peter Butt, Rob McAuley - Producers
Peter Butt - Writer/ Director

Original Length:
52 mins

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