The Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia (ADSA) is Australia’s leading health & advocacy association assisting persons affected by mesothelioma - asbestosis - silicosis - lung cancer. The organisation has played a crucial role in helping Australians affected by asbestos-related diseases since 1979. Our Purpose is to save lives, & Our Values underpin all that we do:
•\tJUSTICE - To ensure access to fair & just compensation •\tEQUALITY - To ensure equitable access to up-to-date medical treatment •\tPROTECTION - To prevent the community & future generations from exposure to asbestos •\tINNOVATION - To develop lifesaving treatments through medical trials •\tLEGACY - To remember the sufferers & their families
ADSA was founded by Robert & Rose Marie Vojakovic over 40 years ago to assist dying workers & their families. They also founded the Asbestos Diseases Advisory Service in 1984 to provide ongoing medical, social, emotional and legal support, as well as screening services.
My step Father was First Post master in Wittenoom. He had been on the Death railway in WW1. He was in Wittenoom for many years but was lucky never to have had any health issues from Wittenoom. He absolutely loved it there.
My late father Dave roberts was a deputy shire president for the shire of Ashburton and late premier Ernie Bridge declared the old mining town of Wittenoom gorge mines and townsite closed down from late 1980.s till now
Lang Hancock, Clayton Utz's Julie Bishop, and decades of conservative governments fought hard against the very honourable Mr Vojakovic. They sent the police to raid his office and home to steal the files of these desperately sick workers so they could not get their compensation. Hancock even said asbestos sheeting (and his mega profits) was more important tthan human life. Well done to premier Peter Dowding for changing the statute of limitations. James Hardie now in Indonesia mining asbestos, and still making their fortune, away from the jurisdiction of Australian courts.
My father Dave Roberts was a deputy shire president for the shire of Ashburton and late premier Ernie Bridge declared the old mining town of Wittenoom gorge mines and townsite closed down from late 1980.s till now and to people don't go into Wittenoom and the townsite 3
Safety standards were a joke. This was the 1950's and beyond. Mesothelioma was known since 1909 and it's links to asbestos was known in the 1940's! CSR couldn't give a shit about the safety of their workers as long as their bank balance was growing. What utter a-holes. Typical that the mining claims were owned by one Lang Hancock.....another a-hole. I'll make no comment on his daughter....as she's still alive, rich and powerful and very thin skinned.
My father Dave Roberts was a deputy shire president for the shire of Ashburton and late premier Ernie Bridge declared the old mining town of Wittenoom gorge mines closed down from late 1980.s till now
thank you so much for sharing this story - my Dad was a lift operator for 7 1/2 months when he was 17 and passed away at 49 1/2 - sorry young to lose a life and we miss him dearly 😢
The things company's do for money at the cost of innocent people trying to earn a living. My uncle died of asbestosis working for a company that made brake linings. Sad sad way to die. May they rest in peace.
Blue Death, should be called blue murder. Rest in peace all the victims of that horrible disease and still more will die yet, sad sad event. I have been there many years ago and have seen the utter mess that was left behind after the company grabbed the money and ran.
The Banjima people have been asking for Wittenoom to be cleaned up for years now. I read a figure recently of estimate $350 million to clean up the tailings, so probably make that $1 billion. Government (State / Federal) will never get off their arse anytime soon being infested with wallopers who have no concept of the term "ownership". Wittenoom will never be safe, regardless of any cleanup operation, but something needs to be done to remove the tailings.
My father was a deputy shire president for the shire of Ashburton and he told the Australian governments to close due to blue asbestos mining town of Wittenoom gorge mines also
My father was a deputy shire president for the shire of Ashburton and he told the western Australian government and he told premier ernie bridge to close the town down due to blue asbestos industry in Wittenoom gorge mines
How was it allowed to happen? The knowledge that the general community have today about the danger of asbestos was not around 60-70 years ago, it is that simple. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it will not allow you to undo what has happened in the past. To me this "how was it allowed to happen" was highlighted in the last few minutes of the documentary when the 2 boys were filmed climbing the tree, as that was acceptable and expected behavior in 1988, but today we have councils removing playground equipment in fear of being sued if kids get injured while playing. People change, society changes, time changes, everything changes but is it always for the better? .... who knows, but in the future, it will be easier to judge today's actions.
Amazing how the government who make the laws can let this happen and then cover it it up by shutting down the town altogether and fining those who “trespass” into the area. Every employee in the mining industry is exposed to to dust containing asbestos in the Pilbara yet you must have a Covid jab first to “protect” you before stepping onto a mine site in said Pilbara
What gets me about this, and it does my head in, is that they speak of this crime as if it was the first crime. This crime has been repeated for about 300 years under Capitalism. Before that, about 600 years under feudalism. Before that, it was happening under the slaves or peasants of ancient Egypt 15,000 bc. It's not what human beings do as a whole! It's what criminals do! The problem is systemic! The problem is that power has always come from the funnelling of currency, from the masses to the very few at the top of a vertical funnel and the peasants and slaves allow it. Nowadays we call this the 'one percent'! Can anyone seriously tell me that 99% of the Earth's human population cannot take out the evil 1% with the flick of a finger? I actually don't blame the 1% of evil criminals that cause this destruction because everyone knows they are evil criminals and that's what evil criminals do! I blame the apathetic 99% for not killing them as soon as they start their shit! KILL THEM or shut up whinging!!! As by the original true definition... - Capitalism means to look after Capital (rich criminals) - Socialism means to look after Society, and, - Communism means to look after Community [These 2 latter ideologies have been exploited by criminal regimes in the PAST! (Stalin, Mao, etc.) This is the fault of criminals! It is NOT the fault of the ideology itself!] In Australia (as around the rest of the world) the general population constantly whinge about not being looked after by the government. So what does the general population do about it? They vote them back in!!! The Liberals are Capitalists! The Nationals are Capitalists! The independents are Capitalists! Labour are Capitalists!!! Between these 4 parties we have a one party system... CAPITALISM!!!! The Greens are Socialist btw! You can see it in their policies! Totally different! You cannot whinge about the crimes committed by Capitalist criminals when you vote them in!!!!!!!!! What's Labour doing right now about mining??? If you vote for a Capitalist party and this tragedy happens... YOU CAUSED IT!!! STOP voting for Capitalist parties and vote for 'grass roots' parties that DEMOCRATISE THE ENTERPRISE!!! WORKERS NEED TO RUN CORPORATIONS... not a handful of criminals at the top, paying minimal wages to the people that actually PRODUCE the product, whilst they sit on their arses, making up the rules that benefit them, at the expense of us and then collect the dividends, that we produced for them, so they can share it out with the top 1% of shareholders, of whom vote themselves in as CEO's in the first place in order to do just that!!!!!!! Vote for a party that will strive for a balance between Co-operatives and business as usual. We the workers need to have a CHOICE!!! Do we work for the 'MAN'... or do we work in a DEMOCRATICALLY run enterprise run by us... called a co-op? Owned by US! With equal pay and equal shares in the profits and equal votes and equal say of where the company should be heading! Btw.... Co-ops have been around longer than slavery! Criminals put a stop to it! I've had my rant... back to listening to Midnight Oil 🤘
I'd be careful here. The NAZI you could say were offering the 'workers' a chance to get rid of the so called controllers of world finance etc. They basically said what German people wanted to hear and that didn't end well. They advocated to outright exterminate the enemy they designated. And indeed did just that. Some of the higher class and educated of the day thought the NAZIS would be tamed into moderate politics once in power. But no they absolutely destroyed all vestiges of decency and morality and then some. But I agree peaceful protestations and fighting for rights has to go on and never ever should he allow government to erode our rights. In the UK where I am there is talk for example of getting rid of our Human Rights Act. It's absolutely something that should absolutely not happen. I hope people push back before it's too late on that for example.
That's always been the problem with communism. It sounds good in theory. It looks good on paper. But humans are greedy and those who rise to powerful positions always become self-serving and corrupt and people with connections to those in power through nepotism or bribery or other methods will cheat the system and go unpunished. Then you end up right back to having different social and economic classes which is why communism has never worked out successfully and never will work. It's just the sad reality of life.
@@derekmarsden8934he will see that as ‘Just a consequence of building a fair society’ while totally ignoring that they have their elites and rich sucking life from workers no different than the society he hates.
A shameful and disgraceful chapter in Australian history. The corporates and their greed knowingly sending people to theiir deaths for the sake of profit. And even worse, the denial of compensation to workers and residents is diabolical.
Was in alot of plaster products too. Can remember my dad buying a repair bag at the hardware store. Stated on the packet, contains asbestos. That was 1980.
Thank you for reposting this- it's a powerful documentary. Such a sad story. Wittenoom was once a happy and thriving town of thousands. In September of 2022 the last resident was finally evicted- 81 year old Lorraine Thomas, who ran the gem shop in Wittenoom for many years. The Hancock family, Blue Asbestos Australia and CSR should have all been charged with criminal negligence, there's no question in my mind of that. RIP to all who lost their lives through asbestosis and mesothelioma, and to the town of Wittenoom itself. My hope is that the site is cleaned up and returned to Indigenous ownership. The government owes that much, IMHO.
Wait until you learn we have coal mines :) Asbestos was banned "quickly" - relatively speaking - because a) it was easy to judge how many deaths it caused, b) it really wasn't an ingrained part of the economy, and c) it could be replaced with other products by the ~80s. But if any combination of those weren't true you can guarantee it would still be used today, just with more regulation.
What's just as bad now. Are these damned fool abandoned places explorers who go there now. To see what's left of the place. Like somehow the asbestos dust just up and left when the people did. And they don't even cover their noses and mouths. One video online shows some damned fool eating a picnic in the middle of a old road dust blowing up all around him. And eating food. Hey jackass what do you think that is just all normal diet. Can't fix stupid.
@@redbullsauberpetronas basically the vaccine prevents most deaths and hospitalizations. Sometimes the vaccine won’t take like if your immune system is shot.
We have a town named Asbestos here in Québec, Canada. The two major asbestos mines still functioning in the province (and in the whole country) were shut down after 130 years in 2011. In 2018, the government finally banned the use and mining of Asbestos in Canada. However, Asbestos is still heavily mined in Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Brazil and Zimbabwe.
A town in the USA , called Libby, in Montana mined a natural mineral but asbestos nearby contaminated it ,, the then tainted , raw material was used to make building products for years , The factory didn't close until 1990 , The U.S , federal government has tried to clean up the town ..
Years ago I worked on a hard waste collection truck , back when you literally hung off the back of the truck , we pulled up in one street , and the guy I was working with said don't take those roof sheets It was corrugated asbestos roof sheets , we never heard of the council fined the people for putting them out , I guess some sort of hazardous waste contracting crew had to remove them , asbestos is evil and the world would have been a better place without it , so much unfair suffering because of it ,and a greedy corporate giant didn't care ..
