Wittenoom
Wittenoom, in the remote northwest of Western Australia, is the location of the blue asbestos mine operated by a subsidiary of CSR, one of Australia’s oldest and most prominent corporations.The mine was located inside a hill near natural water springs and overlooking the spectacular beauty of Wittenoom Gorge.
CSR closed the mine in 1966, after 23 years of operation, and it was never re-opened. Today, more than 40 years on, the mouth of the disused mine is clearly visible in the hillside and the slagheap still stands.
At the other end of the gorge, 12 kilometres away, the town of Wittenoom was built to service the mine. The town lost its lifeblood when the mine closed, and all that is left today is rust and decay.
Slagheap of disused asbestos mine at Wittenoom, 1999
Wittenoom Gorge area
Remnants of Wittenoom, a town where many were doomed as soon as they arrived
Living and working in Wittenoom
Twenty thousand people lived in Wittenoom between 1943 and 1966, when Australian Blue Asbestos, a CSR subsidiary company, operated the mine there.
Most of the workers were Italian immigrants who were keen to make money and get ahead in their new life in Australia. The tunnels of the mine were less than a metre high, and miners often worked in a kneeling or squatting position.
The temperature regularly rose above 40 degrees Celsius in Wittenoom, and in the mine the heat was trapped.
It was even hotter in the mill, a building of corrugated iron with poor ventilation, no windows and air thick with dust.
In Wittenoom asbestos tailings were used to cover roads, pathways and gardens, creating a permanent haze of dust.
Many former residents of Wittenoom have died as a result of their exposure to asbestos dust there.
Children playing with asbestos in a Wittenoom back garden
Typical working conditions in the Wittenoom mine
Photographs on this page courtesy of the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia