From Darwin to Melbourne, the word had got around that Australia's vast, tropical Northern Territory was bursting with uranium. Hundreds of adventurous young men from Australia's overcrowded southern cities, plus many an old gold fossicker from West Australia, were making their way up through the desert by jeeps, horse-drawn wagons, on horseback, even in airplanes. In Darwin, Geiger counters were sold out as fast as they came into the store. One newspaper advertised counters: "Find Uranium and Make Your Fortune."
The excitement had begun at Rum Jungle, 60 miles south of Darwin, where a prospector named Jack White uncovered a three-mile-long...
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