Hindsight

It was once regarded as the 'magic mineral' but the deadly legacy of asbestos continues to mount. Australia now has the highest rates of the fatal asbestos cancer mesothelioma in the world.

Asbestos played a vital role in Australia's post-war building boom and the 'fibro shack' has earned its place in history as an Australian icon. Asbestos was pervasive; half the houses built in NSW between 1945 and 1954 were built with asbestos cement (that's over 70 000 houses in NSW alone!). Despite mounting health warnings and public awareness of the dangers, over 700 000 tonnes of asbestos was used in Australia in its peak in the 1970s.

While the infamous Wittenoom mine in Western Australia closed in 1966, asbestos mining continued in NSW at Baryugil until 1979 and at Woodsreef until 1983.

Despite well-documented knowledge about its dangers, asbestos use wasn't banned in Australia until the end of 2003. By then, the human toll from asbestos-related diseases had grown rapidly. Asbestos exposure can lead to asbestosis, lung cancer and the deadly cancer mesothelioma. Medical researchers predict the total number of mesothelioma cases will reach 18,000 by 2020. By then, 50 000 Australians will have either died or contracted asbestos-related diseases as a result of their asbestos exposure at home or at work.

Deadly Dust takes us back to the blue dust of Wittenoom, through the drawn-out legal fight for compensation with building materials giant James Hardie to the stories of asbestos victims. It is a story of corporate greed and lives destroyed.

Video

Wittenoom: A Town Is Born [Government of Western Australia, 1951. Dur 9:55]
Watch in Windows Media [59.73MB] | Download as MP4 [36.25MB]

Guests

Rolf Harris
Former Wittenoom worker

Lenore Layman
Adjunct Associate Professor at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia

Robert Vojakovic
President, Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia

Peter Gordon
Lawyer, Slater & Gordon

Margaret Page
Spent time in Wittenoom as a child

Ted Grant
Spent time in Wittenoom as a child

Angela Napolitano
Wife of former Wittenoom worker

Greg Combet
Former Secretary of the ACTU

Gideon Haigh
Author, "Asbestos house: the secret history of James Hardie Industries"

Bernie Banton
The late asbestos campaigner

Sylvia Lovenfosse
Former Wittenoom resident

Further Information

Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia

The National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases (NCARD)

Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia

Workers Health Centre

Mesothelioma Information Resource Group (US)

Publications

Title: That disreputable firm...the inside story of Slater & Gordon
Author: Michael Cannon
Publisher: Melbourne University Press, 1998

Title: Asbestos: its human cost
Author: Jock McCulloch
Publisher: University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1986

Title: Asbestos - Work as a Health Hazard
Author: Matthew Peacock
Publisher: The Australian Broadcasting Commission with Hodder & Stoughton, Sydney, 1978

Title: Liborio: my great love
Author: Angela Napolitano
Angela Napolitano, PO Box 384, Tuart Hill, WA 6939, 2006

Title: Shattered Lives, the human face of the asbestos tragedy
Author: Miriam Miller
Publisher: Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia, 2008

Title: Asbestos House - the secret history of James Hardie Industries
Author: Gideon Haigh
Publisher: Scribe Publications, Carlton North, Victoria, 2006

Title: Blue Murder; two thousand doomed to die - the shocking truth about Wittenoom's deadly dust
Author: Ben Hills
Publisher: Sun books, MacMillan, Melbourne, 1989

Title: Climbing out of the big black asbestos hole
Author: Elizabeth Thurbon
Publisher: Elizabeth Thurbon, Canberra, 2004

Title: The fibro frontier: a different history of Australian architecture
Author: Charles Pickett
Publisher: Doubleday, Sydney, 1997

Presenter

Mia Lindgren

Producer

Mia Lindgren