In late 2001, while holidaying in India, I read Roger Cross's splendid book Fallout about CSIRO scientist Hedley Marston's top-secret fallout experiments during British Atomic testing in Australia in 1956. In the aftermath of two of the tests, Marston had measured worrying levels of radioactive iodine in the thyroids of sheep and cattle. Marston's attempt to alert the public about the presence of a dangerous isotope in the fallout - Strontium 90, which causes leukemia and bone cancer - was largely thwarted by both the physicists on the Australian Weapons Test Safety Committee and the government.
The issue of Strontium 90 had a strange resonance. I recalled a newspaper report a few months earlier concerning the secret testing in Australia of tens of thousands of human bones for Strontium 90 in the 1950s.
I contacted Roger Cross and told him my suspicion that the stories could be linked. He agreed that there could be a connection.
Back in Australia, I set about researching the Strontium 90 bone survey in the archives. My suspicions were quickly realised. The Safety Committee scientists - with whom Marston clashed over his claims of Strontium 90 - had instigated the bone survey almost immediately on receiving his report. In the report Marston argued that the proof would be found "in the bones of children". Indeed, documents from the Safety Committee revealed a pre-occupation with the bones of babies, stillborns and infants.
I knew this was a documentary just waiting to be made. Film Australia Executive Producer, Anna Grieve, enthusiastically agreed. In early 2002, with Roger Cross on board as historical consultant, I set about researching the complete story. Interviews with scientists who worked with Marston as well as hundreds of top-secret documents, personal correspondence and Marston's ASIO file helped flesh out the story.
The most exciting find was a tape, unlabelled and possibly never played for 47 years. It turned out to be a telephone conversation, which Marston secretly recorded with the head of the Safety Committee, following his initial discovery of fallout in sheep and cattle. The sound quality was poor, but the character of Marston came through - especially his anger about government assurances that the tests were safe.
While many photographs of Marston were available from CSIRO archives and relatives, precious little was found of Marston on motion picture film. A seven-second shot of the scientist, side-on to camera with a sheep, was not enough on which to base a 52-minute film.
With Hedley Marston dead for almost four decades, it was clear that the only way of telling his story was to dramatise it. An actor would have to be found to play the large and larger-than-life character. Importantly, he would have to look comfortable both in the bush and in a city laboratory.
Luck quickly played a part. Soon after, I saw the film The Dish. Actor Bille Brown, as the down-to-earth, suffer-no-fools Prime Minister, John Gorton, jumped off the screen. He looked and sounded just like Hedley Marston!
A few days later, I met with Bille Brown in Sydney and he immediately agreed to play the part.
In September 2002, and with the pre-sale support of SBS Independent, Silent Storm commenced production as a Film Australia National Interest Program.
Over the coming months we set about recreating the world of Hedley Marston. Miraculously, his corrugated iron-clad field station at Robe, South Australia remained in original condition. The facade of his Adelaide laboratories and office also remained, but the interiors had been completely modernised. After a desperate search, suitable period laboratories and offices were found at the University of Sydney.
A search was also carried out in Australia and Britain for the specialised radiation instrumentation fundamental to Marston's discovery. The hunt was unsuccessful, so we had a replica built using a photograph as a guide.
The most sensitive scenes to portray involved the bone sampling carried out by the Safety Committee. More than 6,000 of a total 20,000 samples of ashed bone survived, but were not available to the media for filming. Dramatisation again was the only option.
For the production, I wanted a "filmic look". I worked with cinematographer Calvin Gardiner and post-production house Engine on a lighting style and colour-grading solution to make digital video look like 35mm film shot in the 1950s.
We also decided to use Super 8 home movie film to bring the audience closer to Marston, who by all accounts was not averse to being the centre of attention. Indeed, in real life he was painted by leading artists Dobell, Murch and Gruner, and feted by industrialists, photographers and the creme of society.
While shooting the early scenes at Marston's Robe Field Station, a local farmer, who with his father helped Marston on his groundbreaking work with sheep, took me aside and said that Bille Brown had not only captured the look and stature of Marston, but the character.
I can't help wonder what Hedley Marston would have made of all the fuss.
- Photo gallery
- Behind the scenes: production story
- See our program detail page for teachers notes, related links and to purchase a video online.
Download a copy of the Silent Storm press kit (Microsoft Word file, 73kb) which includes:
- synopsis
- production story
- filmmaker biographies
- full credit list