And now the story of the discovery of members of the Martu dialect tribe near the Great Sandy Desert in 1964 has been made into a documentary.

Contact premiered at the Sydney Film Festival last month.

It details the first contact made between a Weapons Research Establishment patrol searching the area before launching rocket tests and the small Martu group who had never before set eyes on white people.

Witness to the clash of cultures was local man, Terry Long, who was the district patrol officer for the Native Welfare Department at the time.

It was Mr Long’s job to ensure the Percival Lakes region was clear of human life before testing started on the Blue Streak rocket at Woomera.

“We started doing air sweeps at first,” Mr Long said.

“But when we noticed a track leading from Lake Percival we decided to go out and do the patrol on foot.

“We were there for weeks and [the Martu people] were watching us the whole time.”

Mr Long said the discovery of tracks in the desert forced the cancellation of the rocket firing.

A little while later, nine women and 11 children were found.

“It was extraordinary,” Mr Long said.

“These were people who had never seen a white man before.

“They were terrified.”

Mr Long said the group appeared hungry but were wary of food offered to them.

“They were starving and frightened,” he said.

“They had not a stitch of clothing and no metal tools.” The group was taken to a nearby community but Mr Long was adamant they were not taken by force. “They jumped on the vehicles and wouldn’t get out,” he said. Mr Long said he felt “privileged” to have been a part of the discovery of the Martu people.

“It was a complete clash of cultures,” he said.

“Here were these people who had no idea white people even existed and they were suddenly part of a space exploration program.

It was very exciting.”

Since this incident, Mr Long has written his autobiography.

Memoirs of a Minor Transgressor details his meeting with the Martu people as well as his time as a tea planter in India, a shark fisherman and a yacht builder.

The book is available through online bookseller Amazon.