 Oliphant secured the services of fellow Australian physicist Harrie Massey , who had been working for the Admiralty on magnetic mines , along with James Stayers and Stanley Duke , who had worked with him on the cavity magnetron . This initial group set out for Berkeley in a B @-@ 24 Liberator bomber in November 1943 . Oliphant became Lawrence 's de facto deputy , and was in charge of the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory when Lawrence was absent . Although based in Berkeley , he often visited Oak Ridge , Tennessee , where the separation plant was , and was an occasional visitor to Los Alamos . He made efforts to involve Australian scientists in the project , and had Sir David Rivett , the head of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research , release Eric Burhop to work on the Manhattan Project . He briefed Stanley Bruce , the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom , on the project , and urged the Australian government to secure Australian uranium deposits . 
