The area around Lake Maurice was affected by the nuclear-weapon tests done during the 1950s. Dozens of Aboriginal families were removed from their ancestral lands and settled in towns far to the north (Ernabella), south (Yalata and Ooldea) and west (Cundeelee and Warburton). In the late 1940s, a single officer, Walter MacDougall, was sent to warn people in the area of the coming tests. The fallout from the hydrogen bombs was expected to harm or kill anyone within range. Officially, all were forced to leave their lands and were not allowed within 200 km of ground zero. Given that only one officer and an assistant were assigned to warn the people who lived across this huge area, many of the people were never informed, nor did they leave the area. Planes dropped information leaflets across the area, but the natives could not read the leaflets and were wary or afraid of the aircraft.