Bomb-tests man dies in Aust.

Press, 3 May 1984, Page 10

Bomb-tests man dies in Aust.

NZPA-AAP Adelaide The man whose allegations sparked renewed controversy over atomic tests at Maralinga, South Australia — John Phillip Burke — died in Adelaide on Tuesday night of stomach cancer. The Federal Government was to have interviewed Mr Burke about his allegations that four Aboriginals had

died because of tests in 1963. The South Australian Premier, Mr John Bannon, said that the 63-year-old former Royal Air Force technician had died after lapsing into a coma earlier in the day. Mr Burke ended more than 20 years of silence at the week-end when he spoke about the alleged British atomic tests in South Aus-

tralia’s mid-north — tests he believed had directly contributed to his cancer. He revealed details of previously unknown alleged tests, despite the risk of breaking the British Official Secrets Act. He said that he had reported the finding of four dead Aboriginals, whom he believed had died from radiation sickness, to the

Commonwealth Police. He had also asserted that radioactive equipment still buried at Maralinga posed a threat to Aboriginals who would be allowed to return to the area under land rights legislation passed in the state Parliament recently. The equipment, which he said was buried two metres underground, included Land-Rovers, trucks, cranes, and forklifts.