Ready For The Big Blast. Showing signs of his 1,100 miles' trek, Reuter staff correspondent Lionel Hudson focusses his camera - ready for the big blast when Britain's first atomic weapon was exploded in the Monte Bello Islands off Austrlia. Hudson, his legs covered as protection against the razor-sharp spikes of spinifex, is standing at the observation post on the fringe of the prohibited area. He trekked from Perth to the Rough Range Mountains - one of a small army of Press men who set up a special camera station to record today's explosion, which hearlded Britain's entry into the atomic weapon world. The observation past was 55 miles from the centre of the atomic area, between Roebourne and Onslow. Australia. 03 October 1952.