68 lost babies Traditional Cache
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The Woomera Cemetery contains the gravesites of 68 children, including 22 still-born babies and 34 newborns, who died when they were only hours or days old.
They are the children who never had a chance at life - but even now no one knows why they died.
They were born in the 1950’s and ‘60s when the testing of British nuclear weapons in the South Australian desert was at its peak.
The gravesites are marked by identical plates with stamped names, ages and dates of death. How they were prepared or who supplied the engraved plates is not known. Nor is the identity of the government agency responsible for creating the cemetery publicly available.
Extreme heat is the official explanation for the large number of baby deaths in Woomera in the 1950s and 1960s.
Federal Government departments will not comment on the deaths, citing security and privacy issues, and problems accessing records.
Much of Woomera’s history remains shrouded in secrecy, with former residents forbidden by the Official Secrets Act from talking publicly.
Official publications, sponsored by the Defence Department, have attributed the baby deaths to heatwaves.
One publication said Woomera had “the unique reputation of having the highest birthrate in Australia” by the mid-1960s.
Referring to the baby deaths it said “Hospital records and the Woomera cemetery reveal a number of infant deaths for the years 1951-64”.
In a newspaper interview, one local stated “Many older residents recall that there were four or five infant deaths in 1959 during a summer heatwave - when temperatures soared to 125 degrees Fahrenheit (51.6C).”
Other former residents have stated they recall growing concerns within the township over the numbers of stillborn babies and young children who died.
“We never really knew what was going on but there were a lot of families who seemed to have problems,” said one woman, 62, who now lives in Elizabeth.
“I lost two of my babies and, at the time, we just put it down to natural causes but with all of this information now coming out about the nuclear tests it makes you wonder if radiation had anything to do with it.
“I’ve never believed all of this poppycock about it being the heat. It might explain the deaths in one particular year but what about all the other years when babies still died even when there was air conditioning.”
What do you think caused the abnormally high infant mortality?.
After finding the cache, please take the time to offer a thought for all these little souls that never knew the joy of life.
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