Peter Goers: Kimba wanted a nuclear dump, but now doesn’t want to be known for it

Sixty per cent of the community voted for a nuclear dump. There are now rivers of gold in this Eyre Peninsula town, but how do you put lipstick on a pig?

Not long ago in a galaxy far away (Eyre Peninsula), a thousand people were living happily ever after in Kimba. That little burg was remarkable for only two things – the sign that indicated that Kimba is halfway across Australia and the sad Big Galah that had seen better days.

Then, in round figures, 60 per cent of eligible Kimbans voted for the town to have a nuclear dump and 40 per cent voted against it. Kimba was promised lots of jobs (though the number is moot) and an inducement package of $40m (and rising) to have this controversial and possibly dangerous dump forever. The local Aboriginal people – the Barngarla – were denied a vote and in a separate poll, voted unanimously against the nuclear intrusion.

Highly volatile nuclear waste will be trundled in truck convoys all through SA yet the 99.999 per cent of South Australians who don’t live in Kimba were given no say and indeed mocked by the determined proponents of the dump. Concerns that a nuclear dump in pristine and important agricultural area could be devastating for all time were downplayed.

There are now rivers of gold in Kimba because of the dump. I know of a contractor whose quadrupled quote was accepted with no hesitation. The Big Galah was swiftly spruced up and in the financial bonanza may yet become a golden and graven idol.

Mark Baldock and Andrew Baldock nominated their family’s Kimba property for the Nuclear waste dump site. Picture: Kelly Barnes / The Australian

The Big Galah overlooking a country town divided by the dump. Picture: Alamy

Tragically, Kimba is a country town divided by the dump. Neighbours no longer talk to neighbours and family members are at war with one another.

Kimba was well-warned that it would become known as the nuclear dump town for thirty pieces of silver. Guess what? That’s exactly what happened. Now Kimba wants to pay possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars to a marketing firm to re-establish Kimba despite the dump it wanted. Longtime mayor Dean Johnson, a leading booster of the dump, wants to promote “the enormous amount of tourist attractions in our community” which is “a wonderful place to come and visit”.

Kimba wanted the dump but now doesn’t want to be known for it. It now wants to put lipstick on a pig.

The mayor recommends his “really friendly and welcoming town”. It wasn’t thus for a friend of mine who had her tyres slashed outside the pub but that’s hardly a crime wave. My two visits to Kimba have been pleasant and I stayed in an old post office which is now an hotel room illuminated all night by a massive VB beer sign.

What can you expect to enjoy in dear little Kimba, apart from the nuclear dump? It has silo art of a little girl in a wheat field, there’s a playground, netball courts, an oval, a park with barbecue and toilets, a camping site, an op shop, a craft shop, a cafe and a quaint museum recommended by Cosi. Wow! I could be describing a thousand other SA towns. It lacks the actual and marvellous tourist attractions and good spirit of nearby Wudinna which will have no nuclear dump.

The Edward John Eyre sculptures that overlook the town of Kimba at White's Knob lookout. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Kimba does have a ghastly, rusty sculpture of the explorer Edward John Eyre and an anonymous Aboriginal companion. Unfortunately, after his visit to Kimba, Eyre became the monstrously brutal governor of Jamaica and executed 439 natives and had another 600 flogged after an uprising.

And Kimba will have the nuclear dump it so desperately wanted. Why is Kimba suddenly ashamed of it? Kimbans and their boosters guaranteed the nuclear dump would be completely safe for hundreds of years and the nuclear waste transported on SA roads would also be completely safe yet an errant, toxic and tiny radiated capsule recently fell off the back of a truck in Western Australia. Oops.

Kimba wanted the dump and should happily promote it as the town’s great, unique point of interest. Let’s have signs at the town limits reading “Welcome To Kimba – What a dump!” Townspeople can stage regular parades to welcome nuclear waste arriving in their town and wave yellow and black flags. The famous nuclear dump can be sketched on to the silo art among the waving wheat. With nuclear waste glowing among the wheat, Kimba will reap more than it sows.