THE WHENS OF WITTENOOM
Blue Asbestos Through the Ages :Chronology of a Slow Death
by
Isabel D Storey
PUBLISHED BY:
Isabel D Storey on Smashwords
The Whens of Wittenoom
Copyright © 1994 by Isabel D Storey
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NOTE TO THE READER
Some entries within the Chronology are included to provide some context of the times. Mining of any form has always been dangerous. Accidents happen that are not connected to mining. Disasters are always more dramatic the closer we are to the event. That does not diminish the reality but says much about our capacity to cope.
*****
CONTENTS
Diseases Related to Mining in General
Official Records (mostly Shire of Ashburton Council Minutes)
*****
The Whens of Wittenoom
A town is born. A town dies. Not uncommon.
That the cause of the town's being is also the cause of its ceasing to be is less common unless it is a mining town. But this is a town in which people own their own homes. They choose to live there despite the fact the mine closed nearly thirty years ago. Or perhaps because of it in that there were many houses sold for less than people would pay for a old second-hand car.
The town of Wittenoom was created to house workers at the nearby mine and processing plant. Had the material mined been almost any other substance it would have had few problems.
It was an asbestos mining town; mining and milling blue asbestos fibres. The dust created in this process at that time resulted in the full spectrum of asbestos-related diseases and conditions caused by inhaling dust: pleural plaques, asbestosis and lung cancer which affected those employed in the mine and the mill.
The fibres released at that time contributed to Western Australia having the highest rate of deaths from mesothelioma (cancer of the lining of the lung) in the world.
As the name of this particular disease is one found often in the following pages it might be helpful to be able to wrap one's tongue around the word early on
Mee soh thie (as in thief) lee oh mah.
Known in Wittenoom as the Big M.
In compiling the following account many sources have been used.
All information contained in the Chronology has been accessed from other sources. When my opinion intrudes, this is identified by being placed in parentheses. Wherever possible I have gone back to original documents. Where this was not possible and accounts differed, I chose the one seeming more reliable based on accuracy on other points.
All the information contained within the Chronology has been sourced from documents within the Bibliography.
Where I felt that some readers may instantly react against a piece of information, I have included the source with the item.
DISEASES RELATED TO MINING IN GENERAL_
Pneumoconiosis : results from inhaling and retaining excessive dust in the lungs. Anything foreign breathed into the lungs over a long period eventually causes tissue changes. Inorganic dusts that cause the least severe medical problems include :
carbon among coal-workers (anthracosis)
iron among welders, hematite & magnetite miners (siderosis)
These dusts can accumulate to the amounts of about 20 grams (0.7) ounce with only minimal tissue changes.
Inhalation of silica dust (silicosis) is far more serious and is found in mining, sand-blasting and pottery workers. It takes only 5 to 6 grams of dust retained in the lungs to cause symptoms.
Experience in Western Australia has been that workers in asbestos mines are ten times more likely to contract asbestosis than gold miners are to contract silicosis.
The inhalation of aluminium, talc or beryllium (berylliosis) also produces forms of pneumoconiosis.
Pneumoconiosis : as listed above, of which asbestosis is one form. Can be produced by all types of asbestos.
Pleural plaques : may appear as a thickening on the lining of the chest wall, may never be diagnosed in life and may not affect general health in any way. Can be produced by all types of asbestos.
Lung Cancer : Lung cancer has been produced in smoking asbestos workers by all types of asbestos. Non-smokers exposed to asbestos dust for a long period evidence a slightly higher rate of lung cancer than the general non-smoking population. Can be produced by all types of asbestos.
All of the above industrial diseases are known to occur following continued exposure to levels of all forms of asbestos dust which far exceeds that within environments outside mines and factories.
However :
It is caused, not by dust, but by microscopic fibres. Fibre counts are measured in the number of fibres per millilitre or cubic centimetre. That is, the number of fibres found in a thimbleful of air.
Waste material (tailings) containing 5% of asbestos were used as aggregate in cement construction throughout the town, streets were covered with tailings, they were used to keep down the pervasive red dust in household yards, spread across the school playground and used in the construction of the airport.
Fibres remain in Wittenoom. They remain in the remnants of tailings about the town. They are made air-borne every time a surface on which they rest is disturbed by activities such as walking and driving.
The fibres are invisible.
The air in the town is many, many times more clear than when the mine was open. It LOOKS just like anywhere else in a remote region unpolluted by modern industry.
Residents of Wittenoom want to know why they cannot be treated as members of any other small town in Western Australia.
Because mesothelioma, a rare cancer, is now less rare. Within Western Australia the death rate from mesothelioma among men is 42, among women 4.5 deaths per million. This is the highest recorded rate in the world. Mesothelioma affects the lining of the lung (the pleura) and, less frequently, the lining of the abdominal wall (peritoneum). The lining of the pleura is normally about as thick as a cigarette paper. When mesothelioma occurs it becomes markedly thickened and may eventually totally enclose the lung with a malignant growth sometimes several centimetres thick. The tumour is highly malignant and is often accompanied by a chest pain greater than with other lung tumours. Life expectancy after diagnosis is often as little as nine months. The most chilling factor is the length of time it takes to develop. Ranging from fifteen to fifty years, it takes, on average thirty-five years from first exposure to this known carcinogen to death.
It is thought to occur spontaneously in one in a million deaths. This is termed the "background" rate.
There is no argument that exposure to the mineral fibres of blue asbestos (crocidolite) contributes to the death rates from mesothelioma world-wide. That Western Australia is one of two places in the world where these mineral fibres have been commercially mined, milled and despatched can account for some of the high level of occurrence.
There is some question as to the proportion of deaths that can be attributed to exposure to blue asbestos fibres. It is estimated by some that 30%-50% of cases of mesothelioma have no known exposure to blue asbestos fibres. The counterclaim is that it is extremely difficult for anyone in an industrial society not to have been exposed to products containing blue or other forms of asbestos.
The person first to have publicly made the connection between mesothelioma and blue asbestos was Dr. Wagner of South Africa. His more recent studies show that blue asbestos is not the only mineral fibre capable of inducing mesothelioma. He claims the group of minerals to which the blue asbestos fibres belong amphiboles- are also carcinogenic and productive of mesothelioma.
Two things which have been on this Earth since before the advent of Humankind are :
(1) air-borne mineral fibres shed through weathering and (2)the fossils of dinosaurs who also experienced cancers.
Cancer is found among all vertebrate beings. The cancer that is known as mesothelioma is common among cattle with the tumour being found among calves at slaughter.
(Incidentally, tuberculosis was rare in Man compared with its common occurrence in cattle. The incidence of tuberculosis was falling/had fallen when the incidence of mesothelioma started to rise. The first autopsy within which the definite relationship between blue asbestos and mesothelioma was established was performed on a man thought to have died of tuberculosis.)
It is known that there exist families who are particularly prone to developing cancer and families within which cancer is a complete stranger. Most people are likely to fall somewhere between these two extremes. To the present, protecting people from being exposed to carcinogens through legal or social sanctions means that in protecting the susceptible, the resistant are given protection they do not need and may not welcome. Where no legal or social sanction exists, the susceptible exercise their freedom to go to or do that which is only safe for the resistant and for this they may pay the highest price.
Employing people on the basis of their genetic background is something for the not too distant future. It certainly had no place in the selection of employees and families who went to Wittenoom to mine a carcinogenic fibre.
Some in Wittenoom can say "But we have been here for forty years! If it is so bad, how come we are not affected?" They simply chose the right parents, grandparents, great and great great grand-parents. If all were so lucky, Wittenoom would be a thriving city.
Instead it is almost a ghost town.
Those earning an income within Wittenoom, do so from the tourist trade. The account of the number of tourists varies greatly, but it is certainly many thousands every year. If all the tourists were certainly made fully aware of the slight risk there is in visiting Wittenoom and entered the town at their own risk they should be allowed to do so. The risk is slightly higher than that of being murdered in Western Australia.
What is unacceptable (to me, at any rate) is that tourists are not properly informed before arriving at the town and having arrived, any warning, if given, comes too late for any change of mind.
Compensation and damages payable to those who suffer mesothelioma where contact with blue asbestos fibres can be demonstrated or claimed is now a well established process through the Courts.
This is a cost that all West Australians will bear until no-one is ever able to say that they were ever in Wittenoom. The only way that can be guaranteed is when forty or fifty years have passed since there was a place called Wittenoom.
It is not the fear of mesothelioma that is the prime mover behind the closing down of Wittenoom. It is the fear of future litigation based on claims of breathing its air that will guarantee its eventual closure.
Providing the State Government maintains the stand it has taken, during Easter of 1995 most of the remaining buildings will be cast into and covered within a pit in the centre of the race-course.
Before the history of Wittenoom was the history of the use of asbestos. The town of Wittenoom is isolated even within the vastness of Western Australia. But the history of Wittenoom cannot be isolated from other events. Some of these events had no impact on the town; others had a strong impact. Then there are those events which should have had an effect. There are some things, that had they happened as they are thought should have, then Wittenoom may never have come into being.
The mining of asbestos at Wittenoom compressed the time scale within which mineral fibres have been released into the air long before there were lungs to breathe them. Asbestos fibres would have already been in the air before the mine was developed, but at a level so low their impact may never have been realised were it not for the mining of blue asbestos in South Africa and Western Australia.
This could explain the existence of the "background" rate of mesothelioma cases where no known contact with asbestos fibres can be identified.
Three groups of mineral fibres have featured in research on the relationship between mesothelioma and contact with such fibres.
Not all members of these groups appear in fibrous form. Only those members described as often or frequently appearing in fibrous form are mentioned here. It is not necessary that rocks be in the form of asbestos for mineral fibres to be released into the atmosphere.
These are : Amphiboles, Kaolin-Serpentines and Zeolites.
Few of the members of these groups appear in sufficient quantity or quality to be commercially attractive.
(The names listed below have been garnered from the Encyclopaedia of Minerals.2nd Edition. WL Roberts, TJ Campbell, GR Rapp jr. van Nostrand, Reinhold NY, 1990)
The only way to prospect for these mineral fibres is to see them. They are not buried out of sight. It stands to reason if they can be seen by the human eye they are also exposed to the effects of weathering over time. As most of the area within which they occur within Western Australia predates fossils, that is a lot of weather and a lot of time.
AMPHIBOLE GROUP : Fibrous to asbestiform
Actinolite, Anthophyllite, Crossite, Cummingtonite, Dannemorite, Edenite, Ferro-Actinolite, Ferro-Anthophyllite, Ferro-Gedrite, Ferro-Glaucophane, Ferro-Hornblende, Gedrite, Glaucophane, Grunerite (also known as Amosite - brown asbestos), Holmquisite, Kaersutite, Kozulite, Magnesio-Anthophyllite, Magnesio-Cummingtonite, Magnesio-Riebeckite, Riebeckite- also known as crocidolite or blue asbestos, Tremolite, Winchite.
Crocidolite (blue asbestos) is found (not necessarily mined) in Canada, Greenland, Scotland, Portugal, France, Austria, USSR (as was), Corsica, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, Korea, Madagascar, South Australia (Robertstown) and Western Australia.
The Hamersley Range deposit was noted as containing large deposits of crocidolite which is distributed throughout the length of the Hamersley Ranges. Believed to extend from Willi Wolli Springs north-west to Millstream Station. The three most important deposits noted were Wittenoom, Yampire and Dale Gorges. At Wittenoom it occurred in cliff faces 150-200 feet above the bottom of the gorge. At Yampire Gorge it was noted as occurring below riebeckite rock. The seams at Dales Gorge had been worked prior to 1929.
Actinolite and Tremolite
(From "Asbestos Mineralogy", FD Pooley, Chapter 1 of book "Asbestos-Related Malignancy" Eds. K.Antman & J Aisner 1987, Grune & Stratton.)
"Although tremolite, actinolite and anthophyllite are not mined commercially as forms of asbestos, it is not because they are rare minerals. They are the most common of amphibole asbestos minerals and found in a wide range of geological environments. Being so widely distributed and thus having formed in a variety of ways ranging from a very fine fibrous texture to what are mineralogically termed massive with no apparent fibrous appearance.
Not being mined commercially they are given virtually no consideration when the epidemiology and aetiology of asbestos related diseases are considered."
Commercial production of tremolite and actinolite in Australia is from the Orange and Gundagai districts of New South Wales.
In the 1948 publication "Minerals of Western Australia" published by the Department of Mines, it is stated that actinolite and tremolite are very similar and at times it is difficult to distinguish between the two. tremolite is used as an industrial talc. Over time, in some places, these fibres have been incorporated into the soil.
The first confirmed contamination in agriculture was in Bulgaria. Pleural plaques were found in people working tobacco fields. The soil in these fields contained tremolite and anthophyllite. Further contaminations have been found to cause pleural plaques among agricultural workers in Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Austria.(Wagner,1986)
[According to the Graham Report (p.27) "communities built around natural sources of tremolite have also experienced incidence of the disease (mesothelioma) through non-occupational exposure."]
Although few of the amphibole group are found in commercial quantities, they are found in some mining areas in association with the search for and mining of other minerals. Such an example is winchite which has been found in a manganese mine in India. Examples in Western Australia of finding amphiboles while mining some other mineral are :
Crocidolite at Yandi, Paraburdoo and Tom Price (iron ore mines); actinolite at Yandi (iron), Jandakot and Munglinup (vermiculite), Kambalda (nickel), Paddington and Marvel Loch (gold); tremolite at Leinster and Windarra (nickel), Marvel Loch (gold).
KAOLIN-SERPENTINE GROUP - fibrous members_ Antigorite, clinochrysotile, fraipontite, kaolinite, orthochrysotile, parachrysotile, pecoraite.
A map issued by the Department of Minerals and Energy, Western Australia in its booklet "Asbestos Management in Mining" shows the geographic distribution and the probability of encountering asbestos materials.
In a note it states : "Like most primary rock-forming minerals, asbestos (if present in the rocks) degrades to a suit of harmless secondary minerals such as talc, chlorite, clay, iron oxides and hydroxides and various silica species."
At least two of these secondary minerals has been identified as a carcinogen in a list of 2000 Cancer Causing Agents (book of that name.)
Contact with these fibres while mining for other materials are exampled by the existence of chrysotile (white asbestos) at Jandakot and Munglinup (vermiculite); Widgi and Mt Keith (nickel and gold).
Also, pecoraite is found amid the nickel sulphide deposits in Nullagine, Western Australia.
Chrysotile has been commercially mined at Mt Zeehan in Tasmania and at Baryulgil and Barraba in New South Wales.
To the end of 1961, the total Australian production of chrysotile was 22,814 tons of which 12,026 came from New South Wales and 9960 tons from Western Australia.
Asbestos Mines Pty Ltd produces chrysotile on a commercial scale in the Copmanhurst district of New South Wales at a rate of 1000 per annum.
A few hundred tons were obtained from a deposit near Zeehan, Tasmania during 1941-44.
TOTAL Australian production to the end of 1961 was 94,627 tons of asbestos from all sources.
From "Asbestos Mineralogy", FD Pooley :
Deposits of chrysotile are found world-wide in any geological area in which serpentine has formed. Therefore it is very common and may be present in certain environments not as a result of direct industrial introduction, but as part of a natural background of mineral dust produced by weathering and erosion of serpentine rock masses."
ZEOLITE GROUP - fibrous members
Brewsterite, erionite, gobbinsite, gonnardite, laumontite, mesolite, mordenite, natrolite, perlialite, scolecite, glauconite.
Erionite was implicated in the world's worst concentration of mesothelioma cases which occurred in Turkey. In the American West, early ranch houses were built of erionite blocks quarried locally. A few hundred tons per annum of erionite rich material is cut into facing stone for local use near Rome, Oregon, USA.
Zeolitic rocks have been used to construct dwellings in Kurdzali, Bulgaria; Tokaj, Hungary and near almost every large deposit of zeolite in Europe and Japan.
Glauconite was located in Western Australia at Gin-Gin, Quindalup, Donnybrook, Dandaragan and Moora. Deposits were much sought after for use in filtration of water systems. It was commercially extracted at Gin-Gin.
Asbestos fibres (anthophyllite) used in making pottery in what is now Finland. Apparently added as a reinforcement.
# 1000 BC
Cyprus Amiandos Chrysotile Mine Miningwhite asbestos for three thousand years. Tremolite/actinolite fibres present.
# 445-425 BC
Asbestos cloth used as a cremation shroud said to be described by Herodotus.
Asbestos used in making lamp wicks. Described by both Strabo and Plutarch, "asbesta" was used to manufacture wicks for the lamps of the Vestal Virgins in ancient Rome; maintaining a light without consuming the wick.
Pliny mentioned that the wick weavers wore masks to protect themselves against the dust and noted that such workers could sicken and die.
# 1530's
Paracelsus stated that "miner's disease" (silicosis) resulted from inhaling metal vapours and was not a punishment for sin administered by mountain spirits.
# 1720 - 1710
Asbestos discovered in the Ural Mountains, Russia.
# 1808
Asbestos worked on a commercial scale in Italy.
# 1815
Blue asbestos found near the Orange River, South Africa.
# 1831
Blue asbestos named crocidolite meaning "a stone with a woolly appearance."
# 1861
The Hamersley Range, Western Australia, discovered by FT Gregory.
# 1870
Mesothelioma reported from this year. May have been earlier, unreported or unrecognised cases.
# 1871
First asbestos packing used industrially for steam glands.
# 1877 - 1880
High grade spinning asbestos fibre available from Canada
# 1878
Chrysotile mining in Danville, Quebec, Canada.
# 1878
Asbestos paper for heat insulation manufactured in the US
# 1880
First Australian asbestos fibre produced at Jones Creek, near Gundagai.
# 1882 - December, 12
Mining Disaster - Creswick, VIC
Twenty-two drowned or suffocated in gold-mine.
A fund was opened to assist dependants of victims. More than $50,000 raised. Doled out in a niggardly way. The original capital remained intact up to 1950 and then used to endow clinics in the area.
# 1885
The Colonial Sugar Refinery (CSR) was founded.
# 1886 onwards
More than 70 patents were taken out in the US for products that could have been used instead of asbestos. Most were registered or purchased by Johns Manville and other corporations. (Blue Murder)
# 1887 - March 23
Mining Disaster - Bulli, NSW
Eighty-one died.
# 1889
Several small asbestos mines in Tasmania.
# 1892
James Hardie company founded by Andrew Reid.
# 1892 and thereabouts
Seeking alluvial gold, Bayley and Ford and other miners/prospectors disembarked at Roebourne and either walked or rode horseback inland to the Ashburton Gold Fields. As the crow flies this is a third of the distance greater than the distance between Roebourne and Wittenoom. (This item included as a measure of desperation or desire.)
# 1895 - July 18
Mining Disaster, Broken Hill, NSW
Nine men killed.
# 1896
European countries begin the use of asbestos cement roofing.
# 1896
Actinolite was noted at Jarman Island, WA
Actinolite noted at Williams; Wongan Hills, WA Chrysotile (white asbestos) noted at Soanesville - then described as the "Tambourah District", WA
# 1898
In the UK, the Lady Inspectors of Factories commented on the 'evil effects' of the dust to which the workers were exposed. A few years later one of them reported :"Of all the injurious, dusty processes of which I have ... received complaints, none, I believe, surpass in injuriousness to the workers ..asbestos manufacture."
# 1898 - March 21st
Mining Disaster - Dudley, NSW
Fifteen men killed after explosion strong enough to hurl pit-head equipment for a quarter of a mile.
# 1899
First exports of white asbestos to UK from Soanesville, WA
# 1899
33 year old asbestos worker is seen by Dr HM Murray at Charing Cross Hospital, London.
Johns Manville corporation founded in USA. Proceeds to become world's largest manufacturer of asbestos products and owner of asbestos mining operations.
# 1902 - July, 31
Mining Disaster - Mount Kembla, NSW
Ninety-five lives lost in this explosion.
A memorial service is held on this date each year respecting this greatest loss of life ever recorded in Australian mining history.
# 1903
US begins using asbestos cement roofing.
# 1903
Actinolite was noted at Payne's Find; Ravensthorpe, WA
# 1903
Further exports of white asbestos fibre from Soanesville, WA
# 1903
James Hardie begins to import French asbestos products into Australia.
# 1904 - October 14th
Mining Disaster, Charters Towers, QLD
Seven men lost their lives in fire in gold-workings.
# 1904 - May 25th
Mining Disaster - East Coolgardie, WA
Two gigs, falling to the bottom of the shaft of the Greater Boulder gold-mine, killed five men.
# 1905
Herbert Soames formed a company to work the white asbestos at Soanesville, WA
# 1906
British Government responds to public outcry and establishes a Parliamentary Commission to investigate the asbestos industry.
Scientifically proven death from asbestos of a 33 year old man working in carding room of asbestos textile plant. Man claimed he was last survivor of 10 people who had been working in the carding room when he started at the factory 14 years before (age 19). Dr H Montague Murray referred to the presence of "spitules of asbestos" in sections of the lungs.
# 1906
Actinolite noted at Bullfinch; Burtville;, Menzies;WA
Tremolite noted at Burtville, WA
# 1906
British Parliamentary Commission confirms first cases of asbestos deaths in factories; recommends better ventilation and other safety measures.
# 1907
Amosite (grunerite) discovered in central Transvaal.
So named from the initials of the Asbestos Mines of South Africa (ite).
# 1907
Actinolite noted at Lawlers, WA
Tremolite noted at Lake Carnegie; Lawlers, WA
# 1908
Actinolite noted at Kunanalling, WA
Chrysotile (white asbestos) noted at Wymans Well - shows asbestos to be distributed over a large area and there"can be little doubt in the matter of quantity". WA
# 1909
Actinolite was noted at Mt Gascoyne; Roebourne; Northam, WA
South African mines begin production.
# 1910
Actinolite noted at Kalgoorlie, WA
# 1911
Grunerite (Amosite) noted at Tuckanarra, WA
# 1911
Royal Commission into working conditions in gold mines in Australia reveals widespread lung disease. Ventilation laws introduced.
# 1912 - October 12
Mining Disaster - Mount Lyell, TAS
Forty-two miners suffocated.
# 1913
Asbestos cement pipes first manufactured in Italy.
# 1913
Actinolite noted at Southern Cross, WA
Tremolite noted at Spargoville; Kalgoorlie; Southern Cross, WA
# 1914
Amphiboles noted at the South Cornwall tin mine at Greenbushes, WA
Actinolite noted at Ora Banda, WA
Tremolite noted at Marvel Loch; Mungari, WA
# 1915
Grunerite (Amosite) noted at Warriedar, WA
Actinolite noted at Marvel Loch; Nevoria; Parker's Range, WA
# 1916
Turner Brothers (Turner & Newell) established in UK as producers of asbestos products.
# 1916
Actinolite noted at Garden Gully; Meekatharra; Mt Magnet; Lennonville; Yaloginda, WA
# 1917
Actinolite noted at Toodyay; Wellington Mills; Westonia; Boogardie; Broad Arrow; Bulong; Dunnsville; Edwards Find; Eucalyptus; Leonora; Linden; Cuming; Mt Howe; Pyke's Hollow; Sandstone; Toomey Hills; Widgiemooltha; Yundamindere, WA Tremolite was noted at Westonia, WA
Chrysotile (white asbestos) found at Bulong. Crocidolite was noted in Hamersley Ranges, WA
# 1917
Canadian insurance companies withdraw cover from asbestos workers.
# 1918
Statistician, Mr. Hoffman, with Prudential Insurance Company in the US produced an actuarial study of the deaths of workers employed in the asbestos industry in one of the companies for which Prudential carried liability insurance. Nine of the thirteen workers his company had insured had died before reaching the age 45.
Within a few years two major insurance companies responded by increasing their premiums on asbestos workers by 50% and a number of other companies were refusing to insure asbestos workers at all.
# 1918
Chrysotile (white asbestos) was noted at Balkuling and at Ninghanboun Hills where "short and very narrow veins are seen at rare intervals in the antigorite-talc serpentine rock at the east end of these hills."
Analysis of chrysotile (white asbestos) samples from Murrin showed the "least weathered specimens were of good commercial quality, consisting of easily separated fibres, which were of evenly fine diameter, soft, flexible and strong."
# 1920
Actinolite noted at Mt Burgess; Comet Vale on Lake View lease, WA
# 1921
Actinolite noted at Golden Ridge; Goongarrie, Chrysotile (white asbestos) noted at Bullock Well; Nunyerrie Creek; Roebourne; Sherlock; Strelley River (outcrop visible from a distance of about 150 yards), WA
# 1921 - September 19
Mining Disaster
Mount Mulligan, QLD
Seventy-five men were killed during an explosion.
# 1921 - December 6
Mining Disaster
Kalgoorlie, WA
Six men killed and seventh severely injured when cage fell down shaft of the Golden Horseshoe mine.
# 1922
Tremolite noted at Melville, WA
# 1923 - September 1
Mining Disaster Cessnock, NSW
Twenty men died including the manager. 500 men on the morning shift had left half an hour before the explosion.
# 1923
Grunerite (Amosite) found in the Mugs Luck gold mine, WA
Tremolite noted at Jutson's Rock; Feysville, WA
# 1924
Asbestos reported in Yampire Gorge
# 1924
First case of asbestosis reported in the medical press by
WE Cooke, UK.
# 1924
Actinolite reported at Upper Mary River; Braeside-Gregory Ranges; Wubin; Balgarrie; Coolgardie (on a lease known as "Asbestos Queen" which was worked in 1922)
# 1925
Actinolite noted at Rothsay; Mt Shenton; Murrin;
Tremolite noted at Payne's Find; Rothsay; Laverton;
Mt Monger; Pyke Hill, WA
# 1926
Actinolite noted at Woolleen Station; ten miles north of Yalgoo, WA Tremolite noted at Duck Creek; Irregully Gully, WA
# 1927
First successful claim for compensation lodged by a sick asbestos worker to the Massachusetts Industrial Accidents Board. Over the following three years several hundred further claims filed.
# 1927
Asbestosis given its name and detailed descriptions in the British medical literature complete with photomicrographs of asbestos bodies mentioned as "curious bodies."
# 1927
Tremolite noted at Coolgardie, WA
# 1928
Actinolite noted at Cue, WA
# 1928
Chrysotile (white asbestos) mining at Bullock Well; Eginbah and Lionel - over 700 acres held under mineral lease.
# 1928
Australian and General Asbestos Coy possessed 186 acres of leases producing in this year 191 tons of concentrates valued at $17,000 (8,500 Pounds)
# 1928
HE Seiler publishes results of a study of autopsy reports involving asbestosis in the "British Journal of Medicine."
# 1929 - prior to
Seams of crocidolite (blue asbestos) had been worked at Dales Gorge, Hamersley Range, WA
# 1929
Metropolitan Life Insurance company in the US finds that half the men working at Johns Manville and Raybestos plants for more than three years develop lung disease.
# 1929
Actinolite noted at Split Rock Station; Wodgina, Yandil Station between the homestead and Gum Creek on the rabbitproof fence; Abbotts; Big Bell; Norseman, WA
# 1929 - April 4
Mining Disaster
Derby, TAS Following a cloudburst, 75,000,000 gallons of water flooded into homes and mine-shafts. Fourteen killed.
# 1929
Johns Manville Corporation, the world's largest asbestos miner/manufacturer, served with writs claiming $US50,000 for each of 11 employees suffering from asbestos related disease.
# 1929 - to end of
White asbestos production at Soanesville, WA was officially recorded as being 182 tons with a value of $24,200
Comprehensive study published in England. A Home Office doctor - Merewether, and a ventilation engineer -Price, examined workers and workplaces in the asbestos industry. 363 men and women were examined and details taken of their histories of occupational exposure. 35% had asbestosis. It was found that the disease could develop after as little as six months exposure. After twenty years in the industry four out of five workers could expect to develop blue lips and shortness of breath, crackling lungs and a hacking cough.
# 1931 - February 20
Mining Disaster
Wonthaggi, VIC
Four men killed in an explosion.
# 1931
Actinolite noted at Bolgart, WA
Chrysotile (white asbestos) noted at Meilga Station, WA
# 1933
Actinolite was noted at Dowerin; Kundip; Ninghanboun Hills, WA
# 1934
Wood and Gloyne reviewed 100 cases of asbestosis and out-lined the circumstances in which it was found to exist .occurring in a factory in which few precautions have been taken to protect the workers from a danger, the gravity of which was not realised. Happily these conditions are now a thing of the past ......
# 1934
Actinolite noted at Jarrahdale; Jimperding, WA
Tremolite noted at Jimperding, WA
# 1934
White asbestos mined at Meilga Station marketed in London for $260 (130 Pounds) a ton.
# 1935
Gloyne in UK mentioned possibility that mesothelioma tumours in asbestos workers might be due to their work.
# 1935
Actinolite was noted at McPhee's Range, WA
# 1935
Inspector of Factories and Shops in Western Australia reports on the effect of asbestos dust on the lungs of workers in the James Hardie factory in Perth, WA.
# 1936
Lang Hancock 'discovers' the Wittenoom blue asbestos (crocidolite) deposits and later begins pick and shovel mining.
# 1937 - February 15
Mining Disaster
Wonthaggi, VIC
Thirteen men killed in shaft explosion.
# 1937
Tremolite noted at Mt Palmer, WA
# 1937-1938
Demand for long blue asbestos fibres in 1937-38 creates a small boom in the Hamersley Range area. Many prospectors were engaged in the production of hand cobbed long fibre.
# 1938 May 31
Miner's Right No 8597 granted to Australian Blue Asbestos Mines No Liability by W.A. Department of Mines.
# 1938 August 16
Australian Blue Asbestos Mines No Liability surrenders Prospecting Lease conditional on its application for a mineral claim to be granted.
# 1938 August 31
Letter from Australian Blue Asbestos Mines NL to the Under-Secretary for Mines, Mines Dept., Perth
Along the lines of :
First, thanks for the copy of the Inspector's Report. We will respect the restriction you mention.We are attempting to get the Commonwealth Government to let us have 10,000 pounds ($20,000) to develop our Blue Asbestos deposits in the Hamersley Ranges.To be doubly sure, suggest your Department include this amount in the financial schedule of the State's requirements from the Commonwealth.We have the fibre, we have markets, we need continuity of supply to finalise contracts, we need to install a suitable plant, we are strapped for cash.If you can butter-up your Minister, we can keep the sweet talk going at a Federal level.
# 1938 - September 6
Under-Secretary for Mines, Perth to GH Carlisle, Secretary for Australian Blue Asbestos Mines No Liability.
Along the lines of ..
Got your letter and note that you are in contact with Canberra. They aren't giving us any money at all for mining so we can't include your wish-list in a grant. Good luck.
# 1938 - September 15
Letter to the Prime Minister (JA Lyons) Canberra from Australian Blue Asbestos Mines No Liability
Along the lines of ..
We have the mining rights (208 acres) over blue asbestos in the Hamersley Ranges. The deposits have been favourably reported upon by the State Mining Engineer and the Company's Consultant,Mr NS Stuckey.Although the shareholders and directors have kicked in as much as we can we are still short of ten thousand pounds. We would like a loan against any security you want.
# 1938 - September 15
Letter to Under-secretary for Mines from Australian Blue Asbestos Mines No Liability.
Along the lines of ..
Here is the copy of our letter to the Prime Minister which we agreed to give you during an interview with your Minister. Now we would like a copy of the letter you are sending to the Federal Government before our Chairman,
Mr Urquhart leaves for Canberra.
# 1938 - September 22
Mineral Claim 171H granted to Australian Blue Asbestos Mines No Liability. 96 shares. 24 acres. Wittenoom Gorge.
# 1938 September 26
Letter from the Prime Minister of Australia to the Premier of Western Australia
Along the lines of ..
We have heard from them. We have no money to spare for this. Although Mining is a State function the Commonwealth has done its bit by giving Western Australia One Hundred and Six Thousand Four Hundred Pounds over the last three years. We can't extend that any more. In case you hadn't noticed, we have to build up the Defence Forces.If it is all it is cracked up to be they could try the bank or raise the capital on the market.
# 1938
Textbook by AJ Lanza - SILICOSIS AND ASBESTOSIS
remained in print for 20 years and became standard reference at university medical schools in Australia and around the world on dust caused lung diseases - pneumoconiosis
# 1938
Dr Nordman, Germany, identified 6 cancer deaths among asbestos workers and referred to it as "an occupational cancer."
# 1938
US adopts a "safe" dust limit of 176 particles of asbestos per cubic centimetre in the workplace.
# 1938
CSR sent a senior executive, Malcolm George King, around world to study asbestos mining beginning a relationship with the Johns Manville Corporation that was to last for 20 years. He looked at mines in Canada and in South Africa; inspected factories in New Jersey and Europe.
# 1938
Us threshold level 5 million particles of asbestos per cubic foot of air, 176 fibres per cubic centimetre. Exposure to levels not much more than 1% of this old legal limit will at least double the risk of cancer over a normal working life-time.
# 1939
Department of Mines
Reinstates West Pilbara Goldfields as an area within which prospecting is being done. Most applications are for the search of asbestos.
# 1938
German researchers identify six cancer deaths among asbestos textile workers. Later animal studies confirm asbestos dust kills mice.
# 1939
Six mines working at Bullock Well, Eginbah and Lionel - 55 miles from Marble Bar. Produced 1,000 tons of concentrates between 1917 and 1940. Inefficient dressing plant not capable of treating quantity of material available.
# 1939 - May 10
Letter from Australian Blue Asbestos Mines No Liability to Under Secretary for Mines, Perth
Requesting further Exemption from Labour
Busy raising capital so we can work the lease.
(Under the Western Australian Mining Act of 1904, holders of Mining Leases were required to demonstrate X amount of money spent or X number persons working a lease or risk forfeiture of the lease.)
# 1939 to end of
West Australian Department of Mines
Releases tenements for the mining of asbestos to LG Hancock and associated persons/companies.
Wittenoom Gorge 864 acres
Yampire Gorge1304.5 acres
Bee Gorge 159 acres
Marramba 12 acres
Dales Gorge 249 acres
TOTAL
2588.5 acres
Hancock begins mining at Wittenoom.
# 1940's - early
Hancock goes to CSR in Sydney.
# 1940
364 tons of asbestos produced by Hancock and other miners.
# 1941
CSR purchased asbestos factory at Alexandria in Sydney.
# 1941 to end of
West Australian Department of Mines
Released tenements for mining asbestos
120 acres Marramba to Hancock
# 1942
Study published by H Holleb and A Angirst on asbestosis and lung cancer among asbestos insulation workers.
# 1942 - October 13
Summons issued to ASBESTOS MOLYBDENUM AND TUNGSTEN LIMITED to appear in Warden's Courtin answer to a complaint from ISLWYN WALTERS.
The Complaint :
that the Defendant did not efficiently work Mineral Claims 163H, 167H 169H on the 2nd 3rd and 5th days of October 1942 and that the said Lease be forfeited and the Complainant be given the prior right for applying for the ground.
Three separate plaints. Grounds for each plaint being Noncompliance with labour conditions.
Warden's Court on the 23 October.
Hearing adjourned to the 30th by consent of both parties.
Decision 6.11.42 Leases were not worked with the provisions of the Mining Act and Regulations on the days complained of and no serious attempt to work them has been made since the present company entered into possession. The claims are declared forfeited but no prior right of application is granted.
# 1942 - December
CSR obtains option to purchase asbestos mineral claim from LG Hancock's West Australian Asbestos Company.
# 1942 to end of
West Australian Department of Mines
Released tenements for mining asbestos
Bee Gorge 410 acres to Hancock
# 1943
Mines Department memo described the Hamersley deposit which included Wittenoom as "one of the finest in the world."
# 1943 - January 6
CSR Board ratified applications for mineral claims for asbestos at Wittenoom.
CSR Board agreed to appoint CSR Staff Officers as directors of West Australian Asbestos Company. Powell, Worledge, Elmslie, Tucker, Layton
# 1943 - March 24
CSR sanctioned the formation of Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd as a company to be registered under the Companies Act of Western Australia.
# 1943 - April 6
ABA registered as a company in Western Australia
# 1943 - April 10
Only occasion on which directors of ABA met in Perth.
An allotment of 9800 deferred shares went to Lang Hancock in return for the transfer of asbestos mineral claims.
Only deferred shares held voting rights.
# 1943
Yampire Mine Opens. (Production to 1946 estimated at 15,000 tons ore for about 300 tons asbestos fibre.)
# 1943
Saranac laboratory in New York confirms link between asbestos and cancer.
# 1943
Wedler in Germany, was the first to express a definite opinion that mesothelioma is due to exposure to asbestos.
# 1943
CSR opened small white asbestos mine in Tasmania. Closed as results were "disappointing" Report on mine stated that asbestos dust is a health hazard and discussed methods of eliminating it.
# 1943
Department of Defence (Navy)recognises in its dealings with various unions that there is a health risk in handling asbestos.
# 1943 end of
West Australian Department of Mines
Released tenements for mining asbestos
Wittenoom Gorge 1684 acres to Hancock Yampire Gorge 320 acres to Hancock
Yampire Gorge 48 acres to Australian Blue Asbestos ABA/CSR
# 1944
Chrysotile mine opens at Baryulgil, New South Wales. Work-force mainly Aboriginal.
Tailings used to fill holes in driveways and occasional building project.
Local Shire used tailings to repair most nearby roads.
Children play in tailings.
(James Hardie + Wunderlich = Asbestos Mines Pty Ltd)
# 1944 - September 11
Name Change .
Lessee name changed from General Construction Company Limited to West Australian Blue Asbestos Fibres Company Limited. General Construction Company Limited acquired the
96/96th shares in Mineral Claim on July 5 from Har?e Blaxell Halvorsen.
# 1944 end of
West Australian Department of Mines
Released tenements for mining asbestos
Marramba 363.5 acres to Hancock
# 1945 - March 28
Application lodged for tenement 66
Wittenoom Gorge 12 acres
leased to West Australian Blue Asbestos Fibres
# 1945
MG King of CSR visits Johns Manville, US
# 1945 - August 6
Assistant State Mining Engineer - Department of Mines
"The plant is equipped with a carefully designed dust collection system. Dust escapes at certain points, but these are minor matters and can be corrected. The collection of dust at the final discharge is not satisfactory. This is to receive further attention."
# 1945 - October 25
District Inspector's Report - Department of Mines
"The problem to be faced in the future development of the asbestos industry in this State is purely a mining one. The metallurgical requirements of the undertaking are comparatively simple, since the separation of the fibre is an entirely mechanical process, and since the deposits are so large and regular the geological aspect is also relatively simple."
by the end of 1945 :
"The solution of the dust problem resolves itself into the willingness of the Management to accept the responsibility of seeing to it that the various machines release as little dust as possible into the atmosphere.Anyone constructing a dry treatment plant of any description must realise that dust control is the major principle around which the rest of the plant is designed."
# 1946 prior to
Quote letter from Life Insurance Federation of Australia Inc
"Prior to 1946 and probably up until 1980, life insurers would have provided cover under whole of life and endowment policies on standard terms for miners.
Up until 1980 there would have been no differentiation between asbestos miners and other mines (such as coal or minerals)
Life insurers would have loaded all underground and explosive mines in the range of $2 to $5 per $1000 of the insured amount. The reason for this loading would have been stated at the time the policy was taken out (but not necessarily in the policy document.) The policy document would have stated the amount of the loading."
(Which means that the friendly neighbourhood insurance agent could/would not have told any potential customer of the known health risks of asbestosis and lung cancer among asbestos workers.)
# 1946 In this year :
# Woomera guided missile range established as a joint venture with Britain.
# The film "The Overlanders" was released.
# Aborigines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia formed co-operative settlements.
# Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA) established.
# 1946
Known to be 235 known asbestos death in Britain. France 16 workers dead of 'pulmonary fibrosis' at one factory alone. Italy - 30 dead in the mining and milling industry.
# 1946 March - 10
Disaster - Hobart, TAS
Plane crash killed 25.
# 1946
Wittenoom Mine opens (production to 1956 was 590,000 tons of ore from which about 20,000 tons of asbestos fibre was recovered.
Yampire Mine closes.
Establishment of residential Settlement of sixteen houses in Wittenoom Gorge about 1 kilometre from the Wittenoom Mine and Mill.
# 1946
The major dust problem at Wittenoom was first pointed out by an Inspector Adams of the Department of Mines. He described the dust conditions as "terrific."
# 1946 - September 17
Inspector of Mines (CF Adams), Department of Mines
Suggests "a slow current of air distributed over a large area" would solve the continuing dust problem and ended by stating that "when this is carried out, and it can be done easily and cheaply, the dust nuisance will disappear."
# 1946
Wittenoom mine manager writes to head office about first known asbestosis case - a man named Dignam.
# 1946
Letter posted 1946 written by Joe Broadhurst, manager ABA wrote "When examined by the travelling laboratory some months ago, Dignam showed signs of asbestosis, and it is probably advisable to get him away from the dust, if at all practicable."
# 1946 - March 25
Australian Workers Union first argues for the inclusion of a dust allowance in the award. The claim was not allowed.
# 1947 - In this year :
# Immigration programme commenced. First displaced persons arrived in Australia.
# QANTAS nationalised
# Introduction of the 40 hour week.
# Population of Australia - 7,579,358
# 1947
CSR executives industry trip overseas
# 1947
Building of town of Wittenoom at the entrance to Wittenoom Gorge commences because of lack of suitable area for expansion at the Settlement. Town is 10 kilometres from the Wittenoom mine and mill. Homes constructed by the State Housing Commission. Houses were fitted with air-coolers constructed at the Engineering Workshop. A large drum revolved through a tray of water in a system of evaporative air-cooling. The drum was packed with material to transport and hold the water. The packing consisted of tailings from the mine. It is likely that asbestos fibres were being "weathered" directly into homes through these air coolers.
# 1948 - in this year :
# The Holden car introduced.
# Nationality and Citizenship Act created the status of "Australian Citizen."
# 1948 - January 14
Transfer of Mineral Claim
The whole of 96/96ths transferred from West Australian Blue Asbestos Fibres Company Limited to The Colonial Sugar Refining Company Limited.
# 1948 - April 6
Wittenoom Police Station opened as a two officer station.
# 1948 - May 13
Australian Workers Union asks for inspection at Wittenoom. A diesel engine was stopped because of diesel emissions in the mine. Subsequently found air filter on the engine was clogged with dust.
# 1948
Dr Eric Saint arrives in WA as Government Medical Officer for North West (age 29) straight out from UK
As recalled by the then Professor Saint in giving evidence in Court :
A: I arrived in 1948 and I think within a few days had gone to Marble Bar, Robe and Wittenoom.
Q: When you went to Wittenoom were you taken or did you go to the mill and mine?
A: I presented myself. I presented my compliments to the manager at the mine which was at the top of the gorge.
Q: Can you tell us who the manager was?
A: His name was Broadhurst and he seemed to be the local manager and I think, from my knowledge of the other function areas - my memory does not serve me too well - there was a Mr Allen who was an important figure and I think they offered me the courtesy of showing me the operation. I saw the mine itself, saw how the ore was extracted and then taken down to what was commonly known as the mill where, my understanding of the situation was that, there was an attempt to separate the asbestos fibre from the surrounding rock and filter it out until it came out finally in bags at the other end as the
pure particle.
Q: Professor, can you remember now what your reaction from the medical point of view was when you observed the conditions in the mine and mill at Wittenoom?
A: I was extremely perturbed, not to say rather horrified, by what I had seen. I knew that asbestos was a rather dangerous particle and in this very still air, both in the mine and to a much greater extent in the mill, there was dust everywhere. Although I had no mechanical means of measuring the pollution, it was rather obvious that there was a heavy contamination of the air containing asbestos particles. This would be injurious in my mind to those who were exposed for any length of time.
Q: What are you able to say as to whether the men who were required to work, say, an eight hour shift were being exposed to a risk of injury of lung disease?
A: Very much so: it caused me great anxiety. I very quickly wrote to my superior, the Commissioner of Public Health.
Q: Did you speak to anyone connected with the mine?
A: Yes, I did. I would not be able to recall whether it was at that first visit or a second visit but I made myself quite clear to the management, to Mr Broadhurst, and conveyed my extreme anxiety about the risks which some of the workers were being exposed to. I expressed the view that current knowledge was that asbestos was an extremely dangerous, injurious and noxious fibre, and if people were exposed to that kind of concentration, I thought that the incubation period would be short with this noxious fibre and those who were exposed for periods of six months or longer sooner or later would contract and develop asbestosis which has the characteristics I have described to you earlier.
# 1948 - June 6
Dr Eric Saint, Government Medical Officer, wrote to the head of the Public Health Department warning of the dust levels in the Wittenoom mine and mill, the lack of extractors and warned about the dangers of asbestos and asbestosis.
# 1948
Dr Eric Saint tells Wittenoom mine management that asbestos is extremely dangerous and that men exposed would contract chest disease inside six months. He writes to the Public Health Department in Perth that the mine will produce the greatest crop of asbestosis the world has ever seen.
# 1948
Mr L G Hancock removed as managing agent for ABA.
# 1948 - September 2
Disaster - Quirindi, NSW
Air-crash killed thirteen.
# 1948 - September 28
Disaster - Lord Howe Island Air crash killed 7.
# 1948
120 employees at Wittenoom 70 in mill
50 underground
# 1948
Over the following three years dust levels at the mine and mill are regularly monitored at six to eight times 'safe' levels. Further warnings are given to mine management. No improvement in conditions is noted.
# 1948
13,000 tons ore mined.
850.16 short tons asbestos produced of which
783 domestic use
10 to Europe
50 to America.
# 1949 - in this year:
# Some Aborigines receive the right to vote in Commonwealth elections.
# Uranium discovered at Rum Jungle
# Snowy Mountains hydroelectric and irrigation project launched.
# Liberal-Country Party Government took office led by RG Menzies.
# 1949 - March 10
Disaster - Coolangatta, QLD
Air crash killed 21.
# 1949 February
Dr Saint tells new mother, Mrs Lyons, to "get out of this place before it kills you." She and her husband thought that he meant the heat.
# 1949 February 15
Lang Hancock commences correspondence relating to the production of white asbestos (chrysotile) from his NUNYERRY ASBESTOS MINE at Coolawanyah via Roebourne.
# Writing about the deposits at Sherlock, Nunyerry, Lionel,Strelley and Soamsville he describes them as scattered, relatively small and as remaining undeveloped for all the while they have been known.
Hancock claimed to be the first to mine and successfully treat Blue Asbestos both physically and economically.
(A South African eyebrow or two could be justifiably raised.)
At Nunyerry, Hancock claims to be the first to satisfactorily treat white asbestos.
(Canadians?)
Hancock claims to have successfully persuaded Hardies that blue fibre was usable.
Negotiating with persons in England for capital for Nunyerry. Claims to have got some which the UK Government blocked as it was sourced from "an enemy alien country.
The English seem particularly well informed as to the limited quantity in each deposit.
(Perhaps they read books.)
Wants leases left under option to him while they raise money.
Suggests that following discussions with James Hardie, the Government will find itself under pressure from some of its own departments to develop some of the deposits in the North and that some of this pressure will be considerable.
Plans include a semi-portable treatment plant which can be shifted from deposit to deposit after each is worked out.
Above in letter signed by Lang Hancock, dated 15.02.49 and sent to the Undersecretary for Mines.
# 1949 March 8
Nunyerry Asbestos Mine (EA Wright) to Under Secretary of Mines. Someone has applied for ground in the Sherlock area. Would the Minister refuse it or at least hold it over indefinitely?
# 1949 April 1
State Mining Engineer to District Inspector of Mines, Cue
Item 3. "Although we know that, in the past, endeavours to produce milled fibre from these areas have all failed rather miserably, there are many stories told which indicate that past operators have been incompetent, lazy, drunken or dishonest, or all four, and, in addition there has been ruthless and aggressive action by overseas competitors with big interests elsewhere, who resented competition of any sort and had ways and means of exterminating it. I feel that the present position of the world market, however, has disposed of the latter danger and that there would be no sabotage from this quarter today.
Item 5. Mr Hancock's letter suggests to me that he proposed to deplete the mines of all visible and easily accessible fibre and then abandon them in a much worse condition than they are today. I feel, that, from my personal knowledge of Hancock, we should have to include some very strict provisions as to development, exploration and mining methods in the agreement which would have to be very carefully policed."
# 1949 - May 16
State Mining Engineer to UnderSecretary for Mines
Hancock's letter a "feeler". Mr Hancock has proved himself as a contriver of plants, but no plant, however good, is of much value without the ore to feed it.
# 1949 May 30
Letter from Nunyerry signed by Hancock to the Premier, WA
"I think you will admit that I was the person primarily responsible for setting the Blue Asbestos industry going and I feel sure I can do the same for the White deposits with your earnest co-operation."All of these mines had been worked before and failed, until I took over Nunyerry, where I was able to design a treatment plant and evolve a system of mining which has proved successful."
" I would be grateful therefore if you would grant me a reservation of the areas around Nunyerry, Sherlock, Lionel, Soansville and Strelley for a period of twelve months in order to give me a chance to bring my negotiations with one of the several large overseas firms, with whom I am in contact, to a fruitful conclusion."
# 1949 - July 6
Letter from Nunyerry Asbestos Mine signed by EA Wright to Under Secretary for Mines
Asking that the areas be reserved for them for six months while they raise capital. When they can raise the capital, obtain the mineral rights, erect a plant they intend selling the mine to a London firm.
"You will readily appreciate how much easier it will be for us to bring our negotiations to a conclusion if we are able to state definitely that the deposits will be available if the negotiations are successful."
# 1949 - July 2
Disaster - Guildford, WA
Air crash killed 18.
# 1949 - July 15
Australian Workers Union argued at an arbitration hearing for the payment of a dust allowance. It was not until 1957 the Award was amended to include a dust allowance because of 'excessive' dust nuisance. Mill workersawarded an extra sixpence (5c.)per hour.
# 1949 - November
The Occupational Health Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council suggested that consideration should be given to the Industrial Hygiene Unit at Sydney University undertaking a field investigation at Wittenoom.
# 1949
18,000 tons ore mined
1,107.26 short tons asbestos produced of which
748 for domestic production
200 exported to America.
# 1949 - 1910
During this period mesothelioma was recorded 0.07% of 69,042 autopsies.
The State Mining Engineer warning Wittenoom management
"that insufficient attention had been paid to safety regulations and ventilation in the past and that we expect reasonable compliance with them in the future, otherwise we will be forced to take corrective action."
# 1950
CSR employee, Allan Osborne, arrives.
During his period of employment here, he made eight overseas fact-finding trips in the hope of finding and being able to introduce new methods into the mining and processing operation at Wittenoom. He found that the methods used at Wittenoom were superior to those found in South Africa and Rhodesia. According to his recollection, head office in Sydney were always ready to grant money for dust collection.
# 1950 - File 37/50 - State Archives
Inspector of Mines (J Boyland) Department of Mines
Dust extractors installed resulted "in a general improvement in condition all round."
# 1950 - in this year :
# Australian forces sent to Korea.
# Frank Hardy's book, "Power Without Glory" published.
# RAAF operated against Communists in Malaya.
# 1950
Disaster - nr York, WA
Air crash killed 29.
# 1950 May 5
Wittenoom gazetted and declared as a township. (Archives)
# 1950
21,000 tons ore mined
1,155.59 short tons asbestos produced of which
758 domestic production
90 to Europe
274 to America
# 1951 - in this year :
# Myxomatosis introduced to combat rabbits.
# 50 years of Federation - Jubilee celebrations
# Western Australians rejected a proposal to introduce prohibition of liquor.
# Boom prices for Australian wool.
# 1951 - August 17
Wittenoom now has 150 houses and a population over 500.
# 1951 - September
Workforce at Wittenoom consisted of :
97 underground and bench work
34 mill operations
62 tradesmen
82 townsite work
193 in mine and mill. 82 in townsite Total 275
# 1951 - October 27
A new power plant and power house installed at Wittenoom Mine. Electric locos are in operation and the mechanisation of mining is complete. Over 260 men employed in the operation.
# 1951
WA has adopted a 'safe' dust limit of 176 particles per cc. Wittenoom readings continually off the scale at 1000 particles. Mines and Health Departments take no action apart from issuing further warnings.
(Public Health Department had no authority over the mine site. Health Inspections at the mine and mill were conducted by officers of the Mines Department.)
# 1951
Commissioner for Public Health writes to the Under Secretary for Mines that. "The hazard from asbestos is considerably greater than that from silica ... we have reason to believe that attention to this aspect of mining operations at Wittenoom has been inadequate in the past."
# 1951
Article by SR Gloyne in Lancet on lung cancer among
asbestosis sufferers.
# 1951 - 1948
134 displaced persons from Europe were allocated to work a two year contract at Wittenoom on arrival in Australia.
# 1951
42,536 tons ore mined
1,566.86 short tons asbestos produced of which
707 domestic market
258 Europe
20 Asia
292 America
# 1952 - in this year :
# Construction began on first Australian oil refineries at Kwinana (WA) and Kurnell (NSW).
# First atomic bombs exploded in Monte Bello Islands (off North West coast of WA) by Britain.
# Marjorie Jackson and Shirley Strickland won the first Olympic Gold Medals for Australian women at Helsinki.
# Jimmy Carruthers wins World Bantamweight boxing title, becoming the first Australian to do so.
# 1952
Overseas trip by CSR executives to Johns Manville, the
world's largest asbestos company, which became
Wittenoom's biggest overseas customer.
# 1952
South African medical researcher, Christopher Wagner of Johannesburg - does autopsy on shower attendant at a Witwatersrand mine thought to have died of tuberculosis. Mesothelioma. Within a few weeks biopsies of the lungs of people living in the west Kimberley turned up another 12 cases. All lived in the blue asbestos mountains near northern SA border with Botswana.
# 1952 - December 31
Inspector of Mines (J Boyland), Department of Mines
On this date he noted that "the dust is now controlled by extractor fans and cyclones placed in the roof."
Earlier in the year, Boyland had requested that the mill building be totally enclosed resulting in a great improvement in dust control."
# 1952
98,972 tons ore mined
3,290.73 short tons asbestos produced of which
1,593 domestic market
820 Europe
2 Asia
272 America
# 1953 - in this year:
# Oil discovered at Rough Range, Exmouth Gulf, WA
# Armistice signed in Korea.
# Automatic wage adjustments abandoned by Arbitration
Commission.
# 1953
58 persons required at the mill each working day - of these 28 are on Day Shift,23 on Afternoon Shift,7 on Night Shift. Crushing Section : 16 persons Treatment Section: 7 persons
# 1953
Start of Colonial Mine (Production to 1966 estimated at 2.66 million tons of ore for about 130,000 tons of asbestos fibre.) Access roads to new mine started. Audits of mine cut in early 1954.
# 1953 - August 19
Mines Inspector reports the installation of dust collectors should prevent "... much of the dust which is exhausted to atmosphere and drifts down and back into the (Wittenoom) mill ... the worst feature of the mill is the cloud of dust which arises from the mill and then either drifts down to the ground or blows down the gorge" (towards the Settlement)
# 1953 - December - 1954
A series of reports by Mines Inspectors indicating excessive dust in mill.
# 1953
Workforce of 200+ persons in mine and mill
# 1953 - December 8
Assistant State Mining Engineer, (K Lloyd) Dept. of Mines
Reports -
"Mill operation, at the time of our visit, was very dusty being brought about by the installation of new plant and the removal of dust curtains. The mill staff advises that the dust will only be a temporary nuisance and should be well under control within a week or two."
# 1954 - in this year:
# Queen Elizabeth ll. visited Australia.
# Petrov's granted political asylum.
# Uranium discovered at Mary Kathleen, QLD
# Population of Australia 8,986,530
# 1954
Population of Wittenoom 543
# 1954 - August 7
Production at Wittenoom Mine was increased to over 10,000 tons of ore a month. (Power house completed, output 1800 kilowatts)
# 1954 - October 13
Mining Disaster - Collinsville, QLD
Seven men killed by inrush of gas in State coal-mine.
# 1954 - December 31 File 31/54 State Archives
Inspector of Mines (AW Ibbotson) Department of Mines
Describes conditions at Wittenoom as "disgraceful" with "severe dust concentration polluting the entire plant."
He states that "the most effective remedy would be to exhaust large volumes of air through the roof of the mill building."
To quote Lenore Layman :
"What is significant, however, are the common strands in the attitudes of Mines Department officials: (1) that the problem was capable of a simple solution that they could identify; and (2) that conditions, though bad at the time, were about to improve."
(This is what CSR/ABA Board in Sydney, were being told at that time.)
# 1954 - end of
World Production of All Asbestos
1,667,000 short tons of which
972,000 North America
428,000 Europe
221,000 Africa
5,000 Australia
# 1955 - in this year:
# End of six o'clock closing for hotel bars in NSW.
# Australian ground troops sent to Malaya.
# the one-millionth post-World War ll. immigrant arrived.
# Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric scheme generates power.
# 1955
Dr Richard Doll in the UK produces the most comprehensive survey to date linking asbestos dust with lung disease.
# 1955 April 10
Disaster - Forbes, NSW
Air crash killed 5.
# 1955 - October
The State Government requests the Federal Government to subsidise the Wittenoom (asbestos) Mine at the rate of Five Pounds ($10.00) a short ton. Wittenoom asbestos uncompetitive compared to supplies from South Africa.
# 1955 ish
Australians used more asbestos-cement products than any other group of persons in the world.
As a country, Australia ranked fourth in total world consumption of asbestos - cement products.
# 1955 - end of
World Production of All Asbestos
1,951,000 short tons of which
1,109,000 North America 523,000 Europe
260,000 Africa
6,000 Australia
# 1956 - in this year:
# Television broadcasting began.
# Olympic Games held in Melbourne.
# Poker machines legalised in NSW clubs.
# "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll" by Ray Lawler first performed.
# 1956 June 8
Public Health Inspection under the Health Act 1911-55
Single men's room at the Mines Area were in a filthy condition and in some instances the ceilings were falling down.
The Baker was smoking in the Bakehouse. Bread not wrapped.
Compound - most of the buildings have been overgrown with Chinese Lantern creeper, which is a harbourage for vermin. A great number of huts are badly knocked about and are dirty. There are 4 WC's and 3 urinals without water. In one sector the septic tank is defective and so full that excrete is being forced out the cleaning eye onto the ground.
# 1956
Dr Heuper of the US Department of Health published
monograph connecting asbestosis with cancer and suggesting the existence of danger from environmental exposure.
# 1956 - June 8
Housing
There are 152 State Housing Commission homes in the town.
Sixteen of these have never been occupied and have neither water nor light laid on. One hundred are at present occupied, leaving another thirty-six unoccupied. A number of the unoccupied houses are in a very poor condition, having been badly knocked about by previous tenants and children at play.
# 1956
Production - 7400 tons comprises 80% of Australia's total asbestos production. 6,800 tons were exported with an average value of $105 per ton f.o.b.
(OR)
# 1956 - end of
World Production of All Asbestos
1,977,000 short tons of which
1,055,000 North America
561,000 Europe
287,000 Africa
15,000 Australia
# 1957 - in this year:
# Design contest for Sydney Opera House won by Joern Utzon of Denmark.
# National Service trainees selected by ballot.
# Australia-Japan Trade Agreement signed.
# 1957 - June 24
Disaster - Horn Island, QLD
Air crash killed 6.
# 1957
Mill workers awarded an extra sixpence (5c.) per hour for working in 'excessive' dust conditions by a mining Board of Reference.
# 1957 - December 13
Letter from Wittenoom Gorge Hospital Board accompanying a report of water analysis from various sources in Wittenoom. Testing followed recent epidemic of gastro-enteritis which had afflicted young and old.
"The water situation at present can be described as precarious and as far as I know nothing definite has been done to improve it..... The water smells badly and I have advised everybody to continue boiling it before using it for domestic purposes."
# 1957 end of
World Production All Asbestos
2,071,000 short tons of which
1,090,000 North America
570,000 Europe
322,000 Africa
15,000 Australia
# 1958 - in this year:
# Nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights, NSW, opened.
# Dictation test replaced by Entry Permit as a way of controlling immigration.
# First round the world service by QANTAS
# Principle of equal pay for equalwork adopted by NSW
Labor Government.
# 1958
Closure of the Wittenoom mine. Wittenoom Mill continues to treat ore from the Colonial Mine (12,222 tons of asbestos fibre was produced in 1957).
# 1958
Installation of dust reducing equipment in the Wittenoom Mill. Dust allowance is reduced to threepence per hour for mill workers.
# 1958 - March 25
Unannounced visit by Assistant Mines Inspector to investigate the dust problem at the Wittenoom Mill.
# 1958 - June 13
Colonial Mill opens. Wittenoom Gorge Mill still operating. Production target 25,000 tons.
# 1958 to end of
West Australian Department of Mines
Released tenements for mining asbestos
Wittenoom Gorge 1348 acres to Australian Blue Asbestos
# 1958 end of
World Production All Asbestos
2,049,000 short tons of which
969,000 North America 626,000 Europe
330,000 South Africa 16,000 Australia
# 1959 - in this year:
# Uniform divorce law adopted for Australia
# Jack Brabham became first Australian to win world Grand Prix.
# Three weeks annual holiday proclaimed in NSW.
# 1959 - February
C Sleggs reports presence of mesothelioma in South African crocidolite workers. Published as Johannesburg Pneumoconiosis Conference Proceedings, 1960
# 1959 - April 10
Commonwealth Government purchases Wittenoom site used by Post Office and Commonwealth Bank Agency.
# 1959
WA Health Department official Dr James McNulty discovers six cases of lung damage among Wittenoom workers. He warns the mine manager and writes the first of a series of
warnings.
# 1959
Dr. McNulty told CSR managers to stop allowing tailings to be dumped around the town
# 1959
Investigation by Public Health Department of WA of the occurrence of silicosis and asbestosis in miners employed at Wittenoom.
# 1959
SGIC changes insurance policy to unlimited liabilityinstead of previous $2000 per head [workers]
# 1959
Annual Report of the Public Health Department expresses concern about numbers of Wittenoom men affected by asbestosis and their relatively young age and the extremely
short dust exposures.
# 1959
Ore from original shaft exhausted and a new mine dug into the hillside a kilometre or so away.
# 1959
Dr J McNulty visits Wittenoom - dirtiest mine and mill he had ever seen. X-rays. Six with damaged lungs in first survey. (From workforce of approx 200)
# 1959 - December 13
A prospector named Joseph Sawyer was referred to the chest clinic at Kalgoorlie for an X-ray.
# 1959 to end of
West Australian Department of Mines
Released tenements for mining asbestos
Vivash Gorge 884 acres to Hancock
# 1959 - end of
World Production All Asbestos
2,262,000 short tons of which
1,095,000 North America 692,000 Europe
329,000 Africa 18,000 Australia
# 1950's
Mesothelioma recorded in 0.24% of 69,302 autopsies.
# First Festival of Arts held in Adelaide.
# New Zealand horses, Hi Jinx, Howsie and Ilumquh, took out first three places in Centenary Melbourne Cup.
# Social Service Benefits first provided to Aborigines.
# 1960 - January
X-ray survey by the Public Health Department indicates considerable silicosis/asbestosis in the Wittenoom workforce. Immediate dust repression requested.
# 1960
Closure of Wittenoom Mill. All milling now conducted at Colonial Mill.
# 1960 - January 7
Letter from LG Hancock to ABA, Sydney
"We have more than a little support for the belief that we may be in to buy ABA from you ie. in the event of your being willing to sell. We therefore make the suggestion that you consider some such arrangement as the following (a) you grant us an option over ABA on the understanding that if we fail to provide a buyer (b) we grant you an option over the whole of our titles, applications and reserves for asbestos. In short you either make a satisfactory sale or end up with the lot."
# 1960 - January 13
Letter from Assistant General Manager, ABA to Minister for Mines, Perth.
Along the lines of ..
Concerned nothing been done to prevent pegging of claims which prevent ABA expansion. Can't understand why the Government should be hesitating in preventing other people pegging claims close to ABA's main development at Wittenoom.
Had been told a Ministerial Reserve existed over the area.
Entitled to hold about 13,000 acres. Should be given preference in pegging this area.
Requests that no other party be given concessions which do not apply to ABA to which they are not entitled under the Mining Act, nor should reserves be held for others if similar reserves areas are not permitted for ABA.
Wishes to advise of visit from Deputy Managing Director of Rio Tinto Mining Co in regard to problems of pegging leases near Wittenoom. Rio Tinto has an option on leases that have been pegged by LG Hancock.
# 1960
Mines Inspector Boyland to ABA
"Inspections and tests made at your mine have proved that dust prevalent in your mining and milling sections threatens or tends to threaten the bodily injury of persons in or about your mine... Medical examinations of workers who either are employed or have been employed on your properties at Wittenoom have shown that a dangerous dust menace is present ... I request that immediate and complete work and methods be undertaken and continued to eradicate the dust menace on and in your mining tenements ... If the request is not immediately and satisfactorily attended to, I will have no alternative other then to declare the mine and mill as unsafe."
# 1960
After first case in 1952, South African doctor, Dr JC Wagner reports 33 cases of a previously thought to be rare cancer.
Overwhelming evidence pointed to exposure to blue asbestos as the cause. Report published that year in British Journal of Industrial Medicine and circulated around the world.
Most of the victims not actually asbestos workers. Included a woman who had lived for five years in a village where there was an asbestos mill; several men who had never been down a mine and whose only exposure was to use it to insulate steam locomotives.
The victims had been exposed for as short a period as three months and were now dying as a consequence some 40 years or more later.
# 1960
Commissioner for Public Health annual report to Parliament stated asbestos work at Wittenoom was now known to be 30 times more dangerous than gold-mining; after four years exposure at the mine or mill one Wittenoom worker in eight was coming down with lung disease, compared with only one in 100 goldminers after 10 years underground.
# 1960 - June 10
Disaster - Mackay, QLD
Air crash killed 29
# 1960 - June 24
Mr Ozzie Allen wrote to general superintendent of Australian Blue Asbestos in Perth and the Managing Director, ABA in Sydney enclosing copy of an article from the British Medical Journal of 20 April 1960.
The article had been given to Mr Allen by Dr Gordon Oxer, general practitioner in Wittenoom.
Commenting on asbestos and asbestosis, the article states :
# The disease usually makes its appearance rather suddenly over the course of a few months, often after a long initial exposure to asbestos dust inhalation. It has been suggested that the asbestos lies dormant as an asbestos body which has to ripen over many years before it can break down and liberate its toxic contents. Carcinoma of the lung is a serious and well recognised complication in asbestosis. Its frequency in asbestosis is difficult to determine for it is not a common condition in the general population. Moreover, exposure to asbestos may have occurred many years before the cancer develops. Nevertheless, the paper by Doll makes it fairly clear that the patient with asbestosis has a risk about 10 times that of the general population of getting carcinoma of the lung. Another hazard is mesothelioma of the pleura. This rather rare tumour may draw attention to the fact that a patient has worked in asbestos dust. Finally, in women who work with asbestos there is a high incidence of cancer of the ovary.
# 1960 - July 14
WA Mines Department received a reply from the South African Acting Government Mining Engineer indicating methods of airborne dust measurement and dustcontrol and were informed of the problems of asbestosis and silicosis in South African asbestos industry.
# 1960 - October 25
Joe Sawyer was again referred to the chest clinic for examination. He looked ill and wasted and had early finger clubbing. His sputum contained asbestos bodies. A pleural biopsy produced a thickened, white, rubbery specimen which was reported to be a malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Diagnosed by Dr J McNulty of the Public Health Department.
# 1960 - October 26
Dr J McNulty informs Mines Department of results of chest x-rays taken in September 1960. Out of 199 workers, 25 indicate early stages of asbestosis/silicosis, and 19 show advanced development. Evidence shows increasing severity with increased duration of exposure.
# 1960
State Shipping Service concession to ABA
Point Samson - Fremantle
$37,450 = $6.25 per ton
# 1960 to end of
West Australian Department of Mines Released tenements for mining asbestos
Wittenoom Gorge 7035 acres Australian Blue Asbestos
# 1960 - end of
World Production All Asbestos
2,431,000 short tons of which
1,163,000 North America
768,000 Europe
343,000 Africa
16,000 Australia
# 1961 - in this year:
# Huge iron ore deposits discovered in Pilbara, WA.
(Until the construction of the towns of Tom Price and Parabudoo by mining companies, Wittenoom was the nearest town to these deposits.)
# First commercially proven oil-field at Moonie, QLD.
# Off-course betting set up in Victoria and Western
Australia.
# Population of Australia now 10,548,267 and for the first time includes the Aboriginal population.
# 1961Mr Frank Sheehan, Clerk of Tablelands Shire Council, inquired of Dr Oxer as to the dangers of asbestos tailings being used for roads, driveways and children's playgrounds. Dr Oxer, CSR/Public Health Medical Officer and General Practitioner located in Wittenoom, sought Public Health Department advice and wrote to Mr Sheehan advising of the danger of such practises. (Two years after Dr McNulty told CSR managers to stop dumping tailings around the town.)
# 1961
Britain reduces maximum exposure of dockyard workers from 176 to 5 particles per cubic centimetre.
# 1961 - May
Production of asbestos fibre to increase from 260 tons per week to 500 tons per week.
# 1961 - May 12
Disaster - Longreach, QLD
Air crash killed 5.
# 1961 - June
Joe Sawyer died.
# 1961 October 2-10
Letter to CSR consultant physician Dr H Maynard Rennie - from Dr McNulty included results of medical examinations carried out on workers at the site drew attention to the significant number of men seriously affected at early ages and short exposures.
"Dust extracted from the mill finds its way into the main underground air intake..."
Dr J McNulty requests a meeting between the management of Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd and representatives of the
Public Health Department and the Mines Department to discuss the problems of asbestosis in the workforce and high dust levels. Agreement at the meeting, that attempts would be made to improve the ventilation in the mine and mill and to institute a system of improved fibre and dust counting.
# 1961 - November 30
Disaster - Botany Bay, NSW
Air crash killed 15
# 1961 - 1965
More than 100 cases of lung disease among Wittenoom workers and ex-workers - more than for all the other mines in Western Australia.
# 1961
State Shipping Service concession to ABA
Point Samson - Fremantle
$43,950 = $6.25 per ton
# 1961 to end of
West Australian Department of Mines
Released tenements for mining asbestos
Wittenoom Gorge 4150 acres to Australian Blue Asbestos Yampire Gorge 1060 acres to Hancock
Bee Gorge 2786 acres to Hancock Range Creek 617 acres to Hancock
# 1961 - end of
World Production All Asbestos 2,768,000 short tons of which 1,227,000 North America
993,000 Europe
390,000 Africa
17,000 Australia
# 1962 - in this year:
# Aboriginals gain right to vote in all Commonwealth elections.
# Commonwealth Games held in Perth.
# Australian military advisers sent to South Vietnam.
# Rod Laver the first Australian to win the "Grand Slam", taking out the French, Wimbledon, American and Australian Championships in tennis.
# 1962
Health Department X-ray screening detects 57 persons with damaged lungs from workforce of approximately 200
# 1962 July 5
Based on application for exemption from labour requirements
479 employees at Wittenoom.
# 1962 - October 17
Shire Clerk's response to the Public Health Department
following Health Inspection :
"3. The toilets. The proportion of uncleared toilet bowls is no greater than in any place where some two hundred persons live in community.
# 1962 - October 23 - 13:30 hours
Major collapse in the Colonial Mine.
# 1962 - November 2
Application for exemption from labour requirements states that 445 men are employed on Mineral Claims.
# 1962 - December 15
Medical Journal of Australia
Dr J McNulty of the Public Health Department publishes an account of the first victim of mesothelioma from Wittenoom mill in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Discussion :
"There appears to be a relationship between exposure to blue asbestos and the development of pleural mesothelioma in this case. Pleural mesotheliomas are very rare tumours and details are known of only three cases in Western Australia. Asbestosis has, regrettably, become less rare, but there are less than forty known cases in the State."
# 1962 - December 18
Statutory Declaration signed by the Company Secretary of
ABA in the presence of Mr OA Allan JP states that 352 men were employed on Mineral Claims on this day.
# Between 1943 and 1966 ABA employed 6502 men in total.
The employment records still exist and are being used to follow up people known to have been exposed to asbestos fibres while employed at Wittenoom.
# From the analysis given by Lenore Layman in her paper,
"The Blue Asbestos Industry at Wittenoom in Western Australia: A Short History," the following has been extracted :
# Of the 6502 men employed, 2861 worked for less than three months. 975 worked between three and six months, 1430 worked for more than one year. during 23 years
# 1962
State Shipping Service concession to ABA
Point Samson - Fremantle
$43,522 - $6.24 per ton until 31 October. $9.25 Nov - Dec
# 1962 - end of
Asbestos contributed only 0.9% of the total value of Australian mineral production in this year.
# 1962 - end of
Australia imported 39,105 short tons of asbestos, mostly chrysotile from Canada and amosite from South Africa. This was more than double the domestic production.
# 1962 - end of
World Production All Asbestos
3,043,000 short tons of which
1,269,000 North America
1,209,000 Europe
399,000 Africa
18,000 Australia
# 1963 - in this year:
# Bauxite mining begins at Weipa, QLD.
# Margaret Court the first Australian to win the Women's
Singles Championships at Wimbledon.
# American naval base constructed at North West Cape, WA.
# 1963 - January 9
Statutory Declaration on behalf of ABA 352 men employed on December 18, 1962 concentrated on Mineral Claims 13-16,
53-4, 107
# 1963/62
Treasury Assistance to ABA for Diamond Drilling $30,000
# 1963 - October 9
Long Wall Stoping suggested as a way of increasing efficiency of mining operation.
# 1963
State Shipping Service concession to ABA
Point Samson - Fremantle
$25,225 = $9.25 per ton
# 1963 - to end
World Production All Asbestos
3,205,000 short tons of which 1,343,000 North America 1,311,000 Europe
383,000 Africa
13,000 Australia
# 1964 - in this year:
# Resumption of compulsory National Service training.
# Australia won six gold medals at Olympic Games, Tokyo
# 1964/63
Treasury Assistance to ABA for Diamond Drilling $60,000
# 1964
Request made by Public Health Department for an expert from NSW (Gersh Major) to measure and report on the dust concentrations in the mine and mill.
# 1964
State Shipping Service concession to ABA
Point Samson - Fremantle
Point Samson - Eastern States ports
$15,040 = $9.25 per ton
# 1964 - to end
World Production All Asbestos
3,541,000 short tons of which
1,522,000 North America
1,422,000 Europe
413,000 Africa
14,000 Australia
# 1965/64
Two groups of Lebanese workers, the first a group of single men and the second men with families, contracted to work in Wittenoom for two years departed soon after arrival.
# 1965 - in this year:
# Gas and oil discovered in Bass Strait.
# Australian infantry battalion sent to South Vietnam.
# Australia's first woman judge, Miss Roma Mitchell, QC,appointed.
# Economic sanctions imposed on Rhodesia.
# 1965 - January
Work on the Temporary Reserve to begin.
# 1965
Local Council warned that the tonnes of asbestos tailings being spread around Wittenoom could even threaten tourists.
# 1965 - October 20
In reply to the Shire's Secretary that the Shire had not been officially informed of the views of the Public Health Department, the Commissioner, Dr Davidson replied that "your Council has always contained members associated with the management of the mine, I cannot accept a suggestion that the Council as a whole is ignorant of the Health Department's attitude in this matter."
As summed up by Lenore Layman in her paper, "to assume that information detrimental to the company and supplied to management would be disseminated on even a limited scale can be considered naive."
# 1965/64
Treasury Assistance to ABA for Diamond Drilling $60,000
# 1965 - July 25
Continued Mines Inspector reports indicating dusty conditions in the mine and mill.
# 1965
Public Health Inspection of the town (LL) included the remark
"I seldom see such squalor, even among the dozen or so Native Reserves that I visit."
# 1965 - October 8
Letter signed by Mr. Broadhurst, typed on CSR Building Materials , Sydney headed paper to Mr CCourt, Minister for the North West.
Along the lines of ..
Protesting shipping freight increases. Low output and high costs of production at Wittenoom due to severe shortage of labour and high rates of pay. Recruiting overseas. No position to absorb higher freight costs.
# 1965 - October 18
Letter to C Court from ABA
pointing out the instability of the labour force and the shortage of suitable applicants having an adverse effect on production at Wittenoom.
# 1965 - October
School enrolments
Corpus Christ - 26 boys and 27 girls
State School - 80
# 1965 - November
Mr Alan Walker, engineer, visited Wittenoom at the request of CSR. His conclusions were that the dust conditions were incredible and shocking, stating it was a result of poor design and very poor maintenance, obvious even to a layman.
# 1965
State Shipping Service concessions to ABA
Point Samson - Fremantle
Point Samson - Eastern States ports
$37,009 - $9.25 per ton until 30 Sept. $11.25 from Oct.
# 1965 to end of
West Australian Department of Mines
Released tenements for mining asbestos
Windell Junction 272 Australian Blue Asbestos
# 1965 - 1939
Total acreage approved for mining of asbestos in West
Pilbara Goldfield
23698 acres of which
Australian Blue Asbestos 12853
Hancock 10833
W.A. Blue Asbestos Fibres 12
Wittenoom Gorge 15093
Yampire Gorge 2732.5 Bee Gorge 3355 Marramba 495.5
Vivash Gorge 884 Range Creek 617 Windell Junction 272 Dales Gorge 249
# 1965 - end of
World Production All Asbestos
3,109,000 short tons of which 1,506,000 North America
936,000 Europe
471,000 Africa
12,000 Australia
# 1966 - in this year
# Decimal currency introduced.
# Sir Robert Menzies retired.
# White Immigration policy relaxed.
# Japan replaces Britain as Australia's best customer.
# Australia's military commitment to South Vietnam trebled.
# Population, including Aborigines, 11,599,498.
# 1966 - April 15
Letter signed by Mr Broadhurst, typed on CSR Building Materials headed paper to Mr C Court, Minister for N West.
(One of ABA's accountants had applied for and was successful in obtaining employment in the position of Secretary to the Wittenoom Hospital Board.)
"As you know, life has been difficult for us because of the "blackbirding" activities of Iron Ore companies and we would be pleased if you would assist us by asking the various Government Departments not to offer employment to ABA Pty Ltd staff and personnel without first getting the approval of the General Manager at Wittenoom."
# 1966
TAXATION ACT Amendment
which barred parent companies from claiming as a deduction those losses made by a subsidiary company WHERE THAT SUBSIDIARY COMPANY WAS NOT WHOLLY OWNED by the parent company.
# 1966 - June 24
Letter signed by Mr Broadhurst, typed on CSR Building Materials headed paper to Mr C Court, Minister for North West
along the lines of ..
Extra freight costs while Point Samson jetty being repaired. Can't cope with extra losses. Suggest the Government carry the whole of the additional cost of $14 per ton while jetty closed.
# 1966 - October/1965
Treasury Assistance to ABA for Diamond Drilling $60,000
# 1966
Mr Gersch Major from the Occupational Health Unit of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine commences air sampling program at the Colonial Mill and Mine using long running thermal precipitators. "Typically a hand bagger was exposed to respirable dust concentration of 3000 particles per cc of which 100 were fibres longer than 5 microns and 500 fibres were less than 5 microns.
# 1966
More than a 100 workers with damaged lungs [from workforce of approx 200].
# 1966 - August
Inspection of Mine, etc
Report by LN KUYPER, Cape Asbestos (SA) Pty Ltd
along the lines of ... Given lots of changes - then
"At this stage the mine should be able to earn a profit of about $135,000 per year for four to five years but only if the electronic ore sorter works and is installed
. If James Hardie were to purchase the ABA company, or participate in the Eastern Creek Venture, they would want to make some alterations or addition to the mill to bring the fibre up to their requirements.
Selling price of main grades in Australia itself is already an average of $10 per ton higher than what the landed cost of South African fibre would be, so to this extent the mine is already being subsidised by Australian consumers - principally, Hardies.
Conclusions .. The current working picture makes any idea of purchase or participation unattractive. I cannot recommend that James Hardie Co Pty Ltd interest themselves in Wittenoom in any way.
# 1966 - December 1
Closure of the Colonial Mine, the last operating mine at Wittenoom, due to the economics of mining.
Total production 1943 - 1966 was 161,000 tons of
crocidolite fibre.
# 1966 - December
Of the workers employed at the time the mine was closed.
60 workers collectively owed $5,500 in hire purchase debts. Debt deterred many from leaving town. Airline tickets had to be purchased at the Company store.
# 1966 - December 5 (State Archives 14/58 1003 159)
Memo from the Education Dept to the Public Health Dept
re : Wittenoom Primary School
'The following copy of a letter received from the headmaster of the above school, which is self explanatory, is forwarded for your comments.
"Prior to this year loads of asbestos tailings (the waste from the Wittenoom Gorge mine - in appearance similar to blue metal mixed with dusty fibre) have been dumped in the area of the playground for the purpose of providing a smoother, softer surface over the rocky ground. This year a Public Health Department order condemned the tailings, used in an unbound form, as a health hazard, and no further loads of tailings are to be distributed in the town for that reason.
Dr McNulty of the Public Health Department has been making a study of the social aspects of contact with asbestos tailings and I would like to suggest that he be contacted for suggestions as to what could be done to overcome the danger to the children's health.
Approximately one quarter of an acre of ground is covered with tailings to a depth of up to three inches in places. In addition a small mound of tailings is located twenty yards from the main school building."'
# 1966
State Shipping Service concession to ABA
Point Samson - Fremantle
Point Samson - Eastern States ports
$31,768 = 11.25 per ton to 30 Sept. $12.25 Oct-Dec 31.
# 1966 - December
Total Population 900
Houses 201 SHC - town 186 Settlement 15
Pupils
State 88 Convent 40
# 1966 - December 21
Letter from C Court, Minister for North West to Keith Brown, Assistant General Manager, CSR, Sydney.
Discusses Hancock and Wright and rumours thereof then puts in a word for the Methodist Church - investment in manse - cost about $3000 to relocate building - gather no objection to helping - can I tell them up to $5000 - might work out cheaper if you have a low-loader handy. Off to South Africa.
# 1966 - end of
World Production All Asbestos
4,161,000 short tons of which
1,615,000 North America
1,833,000 Europe
491,000 Africa
13,000 Australia
# 1967 January
It was suggested that the asbestos mine at Wittenoom may be re-opened. This action was opposed by Dr D D Letham, Physician in Charge, Occupational Health, Dr J McNulty, Physician Occupational Health and Dr P F Maguire, Mines Medical Officer. Dr Letham's comments on the health hazards were reported in the West Australian of 8 December, 1966.
# 1967 - January
Iron Ore (Hanwright) Agreement Act 1967-68
Hancock and Wright obtain rights to prospect for iron ore in Temporary Reserves 2428H and 2435H.
# 1967 - January 9
Telegram from Cape Town sent by C Court, Minister for NW to Department of Industrial Development
FOR PREMIER UNDERSTAND HANCOCK WITTENOOM PROPOSAL SUBJECT GOVERNMENT APPROVAL INCLUDES POINT SAMSON ASSETS STOP FROM MEMORY THE MAIN ASSET IS SHEDS AT PORT ON GOVERNMENT LEASE HOLD STOP THESE VALUABLE IN HANDLING AND STORING AND COULD BE VITAL IN OUR EFFORTS TO GET INLAND FREIGHT REQUIREMENTS OF MOUNT NEWMAN HANDLE THROUGH SAMSON AND THUS HELP ROEBOURNE STOP IMPORTANT THESE OPERATIONS BE PROTECTED AND AVOID HANCOCK HOLDING NEWMAN TO RANSOM REGARDS COURT
# 1967 - January 25
Formation of Wittenoom Tourist Authority. Of ten nominations the following eight were elected ; Sheehan, Johnson, McGuire, Oxer, Golding, Frigula, McKenna, Rowe.
Not elected were Soter, Swift.
Permanent residents in Wittenoom in 1994 - Soter, Swift.
# 1967 - March 24
Letter from ABA to C Court as Minister for North West advising that sale of assets to Hancock and Wright were finalised on 23.03.67.
# 1967 - April 6
Population 180
42 school children - 2 teachers 55 Wage earning residents
# 1967 - October
Population 300+
62 school children
60 State Housing Commission homes occupied.