Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Valerie Doyle pointing out the photographs of members of her family who lived in Wittenoom, Western Australia, and who have since died from asbestos-related diseases. The toll begins with her mother and stepfather, who died in 1975 and 1970 respectively, and continues with her husband in 1978 and her brother-in-law in 1979. She comments that three sisters were widowed within 14 months. The clip closes with more photographs of the family in Wittenoom and the statement that they were never warned of dangers from the asbestos dust.

Educational value points

• The clip reveals the personal tragedies at the heart of Australia’s worst industrial disaster – the exposure of workers and their families to lethal levels of asbestos dust at Wittenoom Gorge mine and mill and at the nearby township. Valerie Doyle and her family are among the nearly 20,000 people exposed to blue asbestos dust since mining began in 1938. It is estimated that the deaths of 25 per cent of these people will be due to asbestosis, mesothelioma and related diseases.

• Wittenoom Gorge was operated by Colonial Sugar Refining (CSR) between 1943 and 1966, and despite evidence that the inhalation of asbestos dust was dangerous the company made inadequate attempts to protect its workers in the poorly ventilated mine and mill, and their families in the town. Damning reports were produced in 1959 and 1961 but the company took no action and failed to inform the workers or family members of the dangers.

• The use of photographs showing the consequences for just one family is a highly effective way of bringing home the tragedy of Wittenoom. The effect is doubled by Doyle’s unemotional recounting of one death after another, perhaps reflecting her stoic acceptance of the scale of the tragedy and its ongoing threat to herself and surviving members of her family.

• In the face of what it knew about the dangers of asbestos dust, CSR not only allowed its mine and mill to remain poorly ventilated but also allowed its waste dumps, filled with loose fibrous material, to remain open to the elements and to be used by townspeople. Dust from these dumps blew across the town. Residents used asbestos waste instead of gravel or sand in driveways and yards. Public authorities used it in the school grounds, golf course and airport.

• Asbestosis, a form of lung fibrosis, and mesothelioma, cancer of the lungs or abdomen, are the diseases that have decimated Doyle’s family, and both are caused by asbestos dust. Mesothelioma is a rare cancer. The first case in Australia was diagnosed in a worker employed at the Wittenoom Gorge mine in 1962. It can take a long time – up to 40 years after exposure – to develop. CSR has generally accepted its liability and since 1989 has provided compensation.

• Asbestos is the name given to a group of fibrous naturally occurring silicate minerals, including chrysotile (white asbestos, the least dangerous), amosite (brown asbestos) and crocidolite (blue asbestos, the most dangerous). When asbestos is disturbed it forms a dust made up of tiny fibres, easily breathed in. Asbestos was acclaimed as a wonder mineral from the 1950s for its inertness and heat resistance, and Wittenoom was Australia’s most profitable asbestos mine.