Nuclear weapons tests were carried out by the British government at Maralinga and two at the nearby location Emu Field during the Cold War between 1953 and 1963. The film Ground Zero dramatises the aftermath of the nuclear tests in this location, but the film was shot at Coober Pedy and Woomera, rather than in the prohibited area around Maralinga.

The Australian Government conducted a Royal Commission in 1984 to investigate concerns about the safety standards during the nuclear trials, especially with regard to military personnel and Indigenous people in the area being exposed to ionising radiation. The Royal Commission also investigated the burial and clean up of radioactive waste around Maralinga.

Moon Plain, near Coober Pedy, is where Charlie (Aboriginal activist Burnham Burnham) is buried in Ground Zero, and where Harvery Denton's (Colin Friel) vintage Holden is pursued by the helicopter about an hour into the film.

The set for Harvey's apartment was built in South Melbourne where the film production offices were. (Location accurate to suburb.)

Woomera is a shooting location for Ground Zero. It is the probable location of the 'Emu Creek' scenes showing Aborigines suffering and dying from radiation poisoning in isolated military facilities in the desert in the 1950s.