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# The Australian Asbestos Network

## Sitemaps
[XML Sitemap](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/sitemap_index.xml): Includes all crawlable and indexable pages.

## Posts
- [Vale Professor Bill Musk](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/vale-professor-bill-musk/): It is with great sorrow that we announce the death of Professor Bill Musk on 3 November 2021. 
- [New Book: Asbestos in Australia](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/new-book-asbestos-in-australia/): The team that created the Australian Asbestos Network website has now compiled a comprehensive account of asbestos in Australia with chapters from prominent experts in the disciplines of history, journalism, medicine, law and public health.
- [Madison Square Garden to reopen after asbestos scare](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/madison-square-garden-to-reopen-after-asbestos-scare/): 4 November 2010: Madison Square Garden will be reopened Friday after an asbestos scare forced the postponement of an National Basketball Association game Tuesday night, according to a statement released by the team.
- [Protests against Canadian asbestos exports](http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s3089045.htm#new_tab): 9 December 2010: Doctors in Canada are accusing their Government of hypocrisy over its approach to asbestos. (audio and transcript)
- [Outrage at Canada’s plan to export asbestos](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-12-09/outrage-at-canadas-plan-to-export-asbestos/2369266#new_tab): 9 December 2010: ... a business leader has asked the government in Quebec to support a new mine, which would send five million tonnes of asbestos to Asia.
- [Student protest halts asbestos factory in India](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12354285#new_tab): 26 February 2011: School children begin inspired protests against asbestos factory in Bihar, India.
- [Japanese workers face threats from asbestos, dioxins in clean-up](http://www.perthnow.com.au/archive/news/japanese-workers-face-threats-from-asbestos-dioxins-in-clean-up/story-e6frg13l-1226046263974#new_tab): 28 April 2011: Japanese workers tackling the Herculean task of clearing millions of tonnes of debris from last month's earthquake and tsunami also face health risks from asbestos and dioxins.
- [Two Italians convicted of negligence for over 2000 asbestos-related deaths](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17016110#new_tab): 13 February 2012: Italian courts have found two men guilty of failing to comply with safety rules.
- [New reforms in UK force sufferers to pay insurance fees before claiming compensation](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dying-asbestos-victims-plead-to-be-let-off-new-745833#new_tab): 28 February 2012: New reforms in UK force sufferers to pay out thousands of pounds in order to just claim for compensation.
- [Mountaineer who had once incredibly survived frostbite, dies of mesothelioma aged 56](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/mountain-climber-lincoln-hall-dies-aged-56/story-e6frg6nf-1226306144928#new_tab): 21 March 2012: Order of Australia medalist, member of first Australian expedition to Mount Everest and best selling author Lincoln Hall dies of mesothelioma after year-long battle. He had been exposed to asbestos as a kid when building cubby houses.
- [UK Court ruling opens way for insurance claims](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17535887#new_tab): 28 March, 2012: In a landmark British case, Supreme Court Judges rule that insurance liability is "triggered" when employees were exposed to asbestos dust (rather than when symptoms of mesothelioma later emerged). Ruling expected to affect thousands of victims of asbestos.
- [U.K. Supreme Court says Insurers should pay asbestos victims.](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-28/u-k-supreme-court-says-insurers-should-pay-asbestos-victims-1-.html#new_tab): 28 March, 2012: UK Supreme Court ruled insurers should cover the claims of workers who fell ill from exposure to asbestos.
- [Why do we ignore science when it comes to toxic chemicals?](http://www.mlive.com/opinion/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/04/why_do_we_ignore_science_when.html#new_tab): April 17, 2012: Guest writer Joe Schwarz writes about antiquated toxic chemical management techniques.
- [Asbestos disease ‘not a thing of the past’, lung experts warn.](http://www.bbc.com/news/health-18456555#new_tab): 22 June, 2012: Asbestos-related deaths in the UK expected to peak around the year 2016. An article by By Dame Helena Shovelton, Chief executive, British Lung Foundation.
- [Indian ports stuck with toxic waste dumped by Europe.](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indian-ports-stuck-with-toxic-waste-dumped-by-Europe/articleshow/15012083.cms?referral=PM#new_tab): 12 July, 2012: Concerns for the 7600 kilometre-long Indian coastline with dumped hazardous products posing threats to hundreds of fragile ecosystems.
- [Calls for Canada to ban asbestos exports to India](http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3548789.htm#new_tab): 19 July 2012: The planned reopening of asbestos mine in Canada prompts calls for Gillard government to advise against asbestos exports to India
- [Marois pledges to cancel $58-million loan to Quebec asbestos mine.](http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/elections/marois-pledges-to-cancel-58-million-loan-to-quebec-asbestos-mine/article4507782/?service=mobile#new_tab): August 31, 2012: Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois says their government would end the controversial asbestos industry in the province by canceling a $58-million loan to Canada’s last asbestos mine and using the funds to diversify the local economy
- [Barbara McQueen Video Presentation. (6 min 27) 12 April, 2012](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_5F20pXysY&feature=youtu.be#new_tab): Added September 26, 2012: Barbara McQueen, widow of Steve McQueen, speaks out against the production and use of asbestos in a video presented at the 2012 Asbestos Awareness Conference.
- [Asbestos History Repeating](http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2011/s3363329.htm#new_tab): November 13, 2011: Asbestos History Repeating. Matt Peacock report on Foreign Correspondent.
- [Baron and Budd Warns about Asbestos Exposure During Hurricane Sandy Recovery](http://baronandbudd.com/news/baron-and-budd-warns-about-asbestos-exposure-during-hurricane-sandy-recovery/#new_tab): 5 November, 2012: Exposure to asbestos a concern in the wake of Hurricane Sandy
- [Investigator: Students gut asbestos-filled building](http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/277343/45/Investigator-Students-gut-asbestos-filled-building#new_tab): January 8, 2013: NBC affiliate reports that students as young as 13 from a small religious school in Cleveland, USA were exposed to asbestos when they volunteered to clean up a contaminated site.
- [Asbestos risk in flood clean-up](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/asbestos-risk-in-flood-clean-up/story-fn3dxity-1225982471827#new_tab): 5 January 2011: The flood clean-up could pose an asbestos risk to homeowners, the Queensland attorney-general says.
- [Flood volunteers given health warnings](http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/01/18/3115947.htm?site=tropic#new_tab): 18 January 2011: Queenslanders are being urged to put their health and well-being first as the flood clean-up continues. (video)
- [Asbestos warnings for Qld flood victims](http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3116998.htm#new_tab): 20 January 2011: ... Yep, that one's asbestos. So the kitchen's asbestos, bedroom's asbestos. The study's asbestos and the dining room is asbestos. (audio and transcript)
- [Flood victims warned of asbestos dangers](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-01-20/flood-victims-warned-of-asbestos-dangers/1912300#new_tab): 20 January 2011: Queensland flood victims may be exposing themselves to unseen dangers like asbestos as they go about cleaning up and repairing their homes
- [Insidious danger in the wake of deluge](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/insidious-danger-in-the-wake-of-deluge/story-fn6bmfwf-1225992944173#new_tab): 23 January 2011: ... the Australian Workers' Union issued a hazard alert for the thousands of workers who have begun the arduous task of rebuilding our devastated communities after the recent deadly floods.
- [Asbestos warning for Yasi wreckage](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/asbestos-warning-for-yasi-wreckage/story-fn3dxity-1226000228959#new_tab): 4 February 2011: Victims of Cyclone Yasi returning to their shattered homes should beware of contact with asbestos, the Asbestos Diseases Foundation (ADFA) of Australia said.
- [Asbestos a hazard in Qld flood clean up](http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/asbestos-a-hazard-in-qld-flood-clean-up/2994582#new_tab): 7 February 2011: Many of the houses damaged and destroyed in the Queensland floods contained asbestos which was, up until the mid 80s, a very popular building material in Queensland.
- [Asbestos fears emerge during cyclone clean-up](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-02-07/asbestos-fears-emerge-during-cyclone-clean-up/1932640#new_tab): 7 February 2011: Authorities are warning people not to dispose of asbestos during north Queensland's cyclone clean-up.
- [Asbestos fears in massive clean-up](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/asbestos-fears-in-massive-clean-up/story-fn59niix-1226001785396#new_tab): 8 February 2011: Asbestos campaigner Barry Robson says the image of people cleaning up the battered debris of their fibro homes in cyclone-battered far north Queensland "strikes terror" into his heart.
- [Asbestos specialists called into cyclone-hit community](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-02-14/asbestos-specialists-called-into-cyclone-hit/1941450#new_tab): 15 February 2011: Cassowary Coast Mayor Bill Shannon says experts are continuing to remove asbestos from cyclone-hit Tully Heads in far north Queensland.
- [Cyclone Yasi victims responsible for asbestos removal](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/breaking-news-old/cyclone-yasi-victims-responsible-for-asbestos-removal/story-fn7il3q4-1226010895537#new_tab): 23 February 2011: Property owners on Queensland's Cassowary Coast, which took the full brunt of Cyclone Yasi, have been told they are responsible for asbestos removal.
- [Flood clean-up uncovers asbestos](http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3159737.htm?site=tropic#new_tab): 9 March 2011: Pieces of asbestos sheeting, a building material now banned, has been found on the streets of Brisbane during the flood clean-up effort. (video)
- [Asbestos found outside homes after flood crisis](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-10/asbestos-found-outside-homes-after-flood-crisis/2664432#new_tab): 10 March 2011: Authorities say they are continuing efforts to remove asbestos debris in flood-affected suburbs at Brisbane and nearby Ipswich.
- [Asbestos scare in wake of Cyclone Carlos](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-04-19/asbestos-scare-in-wake-of-cyclone-carlos/2610132#new_tab): 19 April 2011: A Darwin City Council report says rubbish buried in foreshore land at Nightcliff that was exposed during Cyclone Carlos might have had asbestos in it.
- [Asbestos fears rise after Brisbane floods](http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/asbestos-fears-rise-after-brisbane-floods/story-e6freoof-1226050729256#new_tab): 5 May 2011: Victims of the January floods and volunteers could have been exposed to asbestos after it was discovered in debris from Brisbane and Ipswich.
- [Homes evacuated for storm asbestos clean-up](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-26/homes-evacuated-for-storm-asbestos-clean-up/4539884#new_tab): 25 February 2013: More than 70 residents are affected by evacuations in Kiama on the New South Wales South Coast after suspected tornado damage causes concern over asbestos debris.
- [Kiama asbestos removal continues](http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/kiama-asbestos-removal-continues/story-e6frfku9-1226585557777#new_tab): 26 February 2013: Kiama Council holds meeting regarding asbestos contamination and New South Wales Premier Barry O'Farrell says cabinet is working on declaring Kiama a disaster zone after more than 170 homes suffer storm damage.
- [Asbestos groups signal fight over Sucrogen sale](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/Media+Archive/Court+Cases/Links_LinkRedirector.aspx?id=794#new_tab): 9 November 2010: Asbestos groups say they will fight the Government over its decision to approve the sale of CSR's sugar business, Sucrogen.
- [Asbestos compo scheme ‘taking too long’](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-22/asbestos-compo-scheme-taking-too-long/2346866#new_tab): 22 November 2010: Tasmania is not expected to have a dedicated asbestos disease compensation scheme for some time, angering people living with the effects of asbestos exposure.
- [NSW asbestos victims to get Federal compensation in form of loan](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/government-loans-160m-to-the-new-south-wales-government-for-asbestos-victims/story-fn3dxity-1225966836579#new_tab): 7 December 2010: THE Commonwealth will lend the NSW Government up to $160 million to ensure asbestos victims and their families continue to be compensated.
- [Asbestos claims continue to rise](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-12-10/asbestos-claims-continue-to-rise/2369478#new_tab): 10 December 2010: The latest figures from the New South Wales Dust Diseases Board reveals that payouts for the asbestos caused disease mesothelioma are continuing to increase.
- [Lethal asbestos found in cars](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lethal-asbestos-found-in-cars/story-fn6e0s1g-1225969217966#new_tab): 11 December 2010: A retired mechanic has become the first person to win compensation for deadly lung cancer caused by asbestos dust from car brakes.
- [Asbestos campaigners angry at Hardie court appeal](http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2010/s3096374.htm#new_tab): 17 December 2010: ... The decision has been slammed by those who've championed the cause for asbestos victims. (audio and transcript)
- [Unions back asbestos compo laws](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-03-25/unions-back-asbestos-compo-laws/2643930#new_tab): 25 March 2011: Unions have welcomed draft legislation to compensate people who develop asbestos-related disease after workplace exposure.
- [Farmers go to court over asbestos in quarry](http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/farmer-fights-quarry-on-old-asbestos-site-20110424-1dt2g.html#new_tab): 27 April 2011: A Central West farming family is taking the NSW Government to the Land and Environment Court over its approval of a basalt quarry on an old asbestos site abutting its property.
- [ATO appeals to High Court over James Hardie tax ruling](http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/ato-appeals-james-hardie-tax-ruling/story-fn7j19iv-1226141599642#new_tab): 20 September, 2011: Asbestos sufferers face continued uncertainty over their payments after the tax office today decided to seek leave to appeal to the High Court against a decision to award James Hardie a refund of $240 million.
- [Simon Lowes, 42, awarded $2.07m asbestos compensation against James Hardie](http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/man-42-wins-207m-asbestos-compensation-claim-against-james-hardie/story-e6frg13u-1226177427987#new_tab): 26 October, 2011: A WA father who was exposed to asbestos dumped by James Hardie on an orphanage and children's railway has been awarded $2.07 million compensation by the Western Australian Supreme Court.
- [Hardie directors breached duties: High Court](http://www.smh.com.au/business/hardie-directors-breached-duties-high-court-20120503-1y0cu.html#new_tab): 3 May, 2012: In what is considered a landmark case for duties of company Directors, the High Court of Australia has found seven Directors of the James Hardie group breached duties by approving of misleading statements released to the stock exchange.
- [Union threatens legal stoush over asbestos row.](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-03/union-threatens-legal-stoush-over-asbestos-pay-row/4174160#new_tab): August 3, 2012: The ETU (Electrical Trades Union) is considering taking a wage dispute related to asbestos at a QLD construction site to Federal Court.
- [Asbestos legal action against state govt.](http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/asbestos-legal-action-against-state-govt-20120905-25dk6.html#new_tab): 5 September, 2012: A man who was diagnosed with metastatic mesothelioma believed to have been contracted during renovations at his school in the Great Southern is considering legal action against the state government.
- [Former James Hardie directors bans cut](http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/aap/8563293/former-james-hardie-directors-bans-cut#new_tab): 12 November, 2012: New South Wales Court of Appeal reduces bans on Directors in handing down final verdict in long running James Hardie case
- [Hardie directors’ bans reduced](http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3631035.htm#new_tab): 12 November, 2012: ABC PM story on the remarkable timing of the New South Wales Court of Appeal's decision to reduce bans on James Hardie directors
- [James Hardie win disappoints asbestos campaigners](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-12/james-hardie-win-disappoints-asbestos-campaigners/4367900#new_tab): 12 November, 2012: ABC News speaks to Karen Banton, the wife of late husband Bernie Banton, after news of the New South Wales Court of Appeal's decision in the James Hardie case.
- [$1.3m payout for man with asbestos disease](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-26/payour-for-man-with-asbestos-related-disease/4541342#new_tab): 26 February 2013: Sixty-eight year old New South Wales man awarded $1.3 million in damages by Dust Diseases Tribunal after contracting mesothelioma while working as a bus depot labourer from the 1970s to 1990s.
- [Students moved out amid asbestos concerns](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-01/students-moved-out-amid-asbestos-concerns/2320024#new_tab): 2 November 2011: A Hobart infant school has been temporarily closed because of asbestos concerns.
- [Atherton teachers worried about asbestos in school](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-12/atherton-teachers-worried-about-asbestos-in-school/2334350#new_tab): 12 November 2011: The Queensland Opposition says it wants clear warning labels put on asbestos products found in schools to improve safety.
- [Queensland Premier Anna Bligh denies school asbestos cover-up](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/queensland-premier-anna-bligh-denies-school-asbestos-cover-up/story-fn3dxity-1225953782905#new_tab): 15 November 2010: Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says it's regrettable a school community wasn't told about an asbestos find but denies there's been a cover-up.
- [Atherton school asbestos scare prompts WorkCover call](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-15/atherton-school-asbestos-scare-prompts-workcover/2336788#new_tab): 15 November 2011: Teachers at Atherton State High School, south-west of Cairns, in far north Queensland have given the Education Department one week to respond to their concerns about asbestos removal.
- [Ombudsman disappointed by asbestos response](http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s3068791.htm#new_tab): 17 November 2011: Asbestos was used in a range of building materials for decades and is still found in many homes, schools and hospitals.
- [P and C wasn’t fully informed on asbestos: president](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-22/p-and-c-wasnt-fully-informed-on-asbestos-president/2346548#new_tab): 22 November 2010: The President of the P and C at Pleasant Heights Public School in Wollongong has expressed concerns he wasn't made aware of a WorkCover document detailing asbestos contamination.
- [Brisbane’s asbestos disposal rules a health risk: union](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-23/brisbanes-asbestos-disposal-rules-a-health-risk/2347166#new_tab): 23 November 2010: The Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) says the Brisbane City Council's (BCC) regulations on the disposal of asbestos are causing a health risk.
- [Teachers to strike over asbestos ‘negligence’](http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/teachers-to-strike-over-asbestos-negligence/story-e6freon6-1225959700411#new_tab): 24 November 2010: Angry teachers potentially exposed to asbestos have voted to strike for 24 hours if the Bligh Government does not commit to protect them from future exposure.
- [Primary school asbestos fears](http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/primary-school-asbestos-fears/story-fn6bfmgc-1225960508682#new_tab): 25 November 2010: Students and teachers throughout Victoria have come into contact with asbestos and schools have been cleared due to contamination fears.
- [Asbestos scare after illegal dumping at beach](http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/asbestos-scare-at-beach/story-e6frea83-1225961117889#new_tab): 26 November 2010: Asbestos dumped on a beach is being removed in a major clean-up operation.
- [Hundreds exposed to danger](http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/more-exposed-to-asbestos-danger/story-fn6ck45n-1225962991967#new_tab): 29 November 2011: State schools have recorded a massive spike in asbestos incidents as the Education Department faces more compensation claims from staff who fear they have been exposed.
- [Unveiling the inconvenient truth on asbestos](http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2010/11/30/3080749.htm#new_tab): 30 November 2010: Matt Peacock has been covering the asbestos story for decades and says he just gets cranky when people lie about it. (audio)
- [Asbestos turmoil at Brisbane bayside schools throws amalgamation plans into chaos](http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/asbestos-turmoil-at-brisbane-bayside-schools-throws-amalgamation-plans-into-chaos/story-e6freoof-1225968534149#new_tab): 10 December 2010: One of the State Government's most controversial school initiatives has been thrown into chaos, with hundreds of students set to start classes on a temporary site next year because of an asbestos bungle.
- [Report reveals school asbestos clean-up failure](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-12-17/report-reveals-school-asbestos-clean-up-failure/2377362#new_tab): 17 December 2010: A report into QBuild's handling of asbestos at a north Queensland school has found it failed to follow the appropriate decontamination process.
- [Sick teacher warns over asbestos](http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/sick-teacher-warns-over-asbestos/story-fn6ck45n-1225973145715?nk=8321618c75c29d604b7856bd5240d176#new_tab): 18 December 2010: A former pre-school teacher who has just found out she has terminal mesothelioma wants to warn ex-staff and children from a Brisbane pre-school that they also were exposed to deadly asbestos in 1983.
- [Alliance staff sacked over asbestos](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-01-25/alliance-staff-sacked-over-asbestos/1917550#new_tab): 25 January 2011: Authorities are investigating the inappropriate disposal of asbestos in a remote Northern Territory Aboriginal community, under the Federal Government's Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program.
- [Millions pledged for NSW asbestos mine clean-up](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-01-27/millions-pledged-for-nsw-asbestos-mine-clean-up/1919318#new_tab): 27 January 2011: The New South Wales Government has pledged $6.3 million for remediation work at the Woodsreef asbestos mine, in the state's north west.
- [Teachers at risk from asbestos bungles](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/asbestos-mistakes-teachers-at-risk/story-fn6b3v4f-1225997042537#new_tab): 31 January 2011: Bungled renovations have exposed teachers and education staff to potentially lethal asbestos fibres in schools across the state. In one high school, staff members complained of "chest discomfort and breathing difficulties" after coming into contact with material containing asbestos
- [Surfers’ cry foul on beach asbestos](http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/surfers-cry-foul-on-beach-asbestos/story-e6frf7kx-1226020365890#new_tab): 13 March 2011: Surfers claim deadly asbestos littering Victoria's most famous beach is the result of a Surf Coast Shire cover-up gone wrong.
- [Asbestos threat causes alarm among residents](http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/03/17/3167092.htm?site=tropic#new_tab): 17 March 2011: Locals of the south Perth suburb of Wattleup are outraged at the discovery of asbestos at a waste site where operations have continued by an unlicensed company. (video)
- [Teachers face anxious wait on asbestos](https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/latest/a/9098701/teachers-face-anxious-wait-on-asbestos/#new_tab): 30 March 2011: A teachers' union has called for a full audit of asbestos in government housing after its members were unwittingly exposed to a damaged property containing the potentially deadly fibres.
- [School to get asbestos briefing](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-04-04/school-to-get-asbestos-briefing/2630546#new_tab): 4 April 2011: An Education Queensland (EQ) health adviser will today address staff and students at the Mareeba State High School, west of Cairns in far north Queensland, in the wake of a recent asbestos scare.
- [Illegal attempts to dump asbestos](http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/news/local/news/general/illegal-attempts-to-dump-asbestos/2124958.aspx?src=rss#new_tab): 6 April 2011: ... The illegal disposal of asbestos material could potentially cause health issues for six council employees and the wider community.
- [Asbestos in WA schools fear](http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/asbestos-in-wa-schools-fear/story-e6frg13u-1226047497614?nk=8321618c75c29d604b7856bd5240d176#new_tab): 30 April 2011: One in five state schools in WA needs asbestos removed or stabilised, an Education Department audit has revealed.
- [Tip dumps bulk asbestos](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-05-02/tip-dumps-bulk-asbestos/2700292#new_tab): 2 May 2011: Safe disposal of asbestos in Tasmania has become more difficult.
- [CFA asbestos fear for youths](http://www.heraldsun.com.au/archive/news/cfa-asbestos-fear-for-youths/story-fn7x8me2-1226049417931#new_tab): 4 May 2011: Children as young as 13 may have been exposed to asbestos discovered at a CFA training centre.
- [Death by DIY](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/death-by-diy/story-e6frg8h6-1226169465274#new_tab): 22 October, 2011: THE story of asbestos in Australia unfolds in a sequence of sad, familiar images, starting with grainy film footage from the '50s and '60s of miners filling bags of blue asbestos while their children played in the beautiful, deadly shadow of CSR's Wittenoom Gorge, in northwest West
- [Residents livid over plan to dig up asbestos site.](http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/residents-livid-over-plans-to-dig-up-asbestos-site-20120327-1vwlh.html#new_tab): 28 March, 2012: Residents in Western Sydney are outraged over the plan to build a waste treatment plant on a site that was once used to manufacture asbestos
- [Fundraising walk to highlight asbestos cancers in young Australians](http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2012/s3492448.htm?site&source=rss#new_tab): May 1, 2012: More than two dozen people set out to walk across the desert from Kalgoorlie to Perth this morning to highlight the urgent need for more research into the deadly asbestos cancer mesothelioma.
- [Asbestos scare at kindergarten.](http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/asbestos-scare-at-kindergarten/story-fn6bfkm6-1226344013303#new_tab): May 2, 2012: Concerns for the health of kindergarten children in Port Melbourne after contaminated soil and asbestos was found during demolition.
- [Illegal asbestos dumping ‘dangerous’.](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-08/illegal-asbestos-dumping-very-dangerous/3997872#new_tab): May 8, 2012: The Western Australian Government has noted an increase in the illegal dumping of hazardous materials in land around Bridgetown, Manjimup, Pemberton and Northcliffe.
- [Asbestos mesothelioma: The last gasp.](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/the-last-gasp/story-e6frezz0-1226361023603?nk=8321618c75c29d604b7856bd5240d176#new_tab): May 20, 2012: “NSW legal logjam means unless victims lodge compensation in their dying days, their bereaved families are left with nothing.”
- [Deadly asbestos mine takes toll for Wittenoom kids](http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/deadly-asbestos-mine-takes-toll-for-wittenoom-kids-20120904-25bkg.html#ixzz263XhgqSd#new_tab): 4 September, 2012: WA Institute of Medical Research has carried out a study on Wittenoom kids who spent their childhoods exposed to asbestos in the town has found girls up to the age of 15 are more likely to develop mesothelioma, ovarian and brain cancers and have had increased death rates, while
- [Government plans to eliminate asbestos hazard from Australia](http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3582792.htm#new_tab): 4 September, 2012: An ABC PM radio report on the newly created Office of Asbestos Safety
- [Union boss slams ACCC over asbestos advice](http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3598514.htm#new_tab): 26 September, 2012: ABC PM report that a union boss is accusing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission of risking lives by advising home mechanics that they can remove car parts containing asbestos by themselves.
- [Calls for charges over importation of cars with asbestos parts](http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3599320.htm#new_tab): 27 September, 2012: ABC PM report on the feasibility of charging importers of Great Wall and Chery vehicles with importing cars that contained asbestos
- [Asbestos clean-up delayed](http://www.smh.com.au/environment/asbestos-cleanup-delayed-20121019-27wgn.html#new_tab): 20 October, 2012: Large-eared bats causing delays to cleanup at New South Wales' worst derelict asbestos mine north of Tamworth
- [Households unaware of asbestos alert](http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/households-unaware-of-asbestos-alert-20121027-28c84.html#new_tab): 28 October, 2012: Hazard alert issued in Sydney's west, Blue Mountains and the Illawarra areas after workers discovered asbestos residue in electricity meters.
- [Asbestos illness leaves victim baffled](https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/news/a/15375907/asbestos-illness-leaves-victim-baffled/#new_tab): 14 November, 2012: A man who believes he contracted mesothelioma from asbestos exposure during his time as a student at Wagin Juniour High School in the 1970s has called for others who were at the school to join him in mounting a claim for compensation against James Hardie.
- [NSW govt plan to tackle asbestos](http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/nsw-govt-plan-to-tackle-asbestos/story-e6frfku9-1226611661864#new_tab): 3 April, 2013: The Government of New South Wales has released a new plan with four priority areas: research, risk communication, prevention and coordination
- [Asbestos scare linked to another NSW site](http://www.smh.com.au/environment/asbestos-scare-linked-to-another-nsw-site-20130531-2nfxe.html#new_tab): 31 May, 2013: Hawkesbury City Council has received a complaint that Telstra NBN contractors left an open bag of asbestos on a footpath on March 20, 2013.
- [Telstra faces wave of NBN legal claims over absestos](http://www.afr.com/p/technology/telstra_faces_wave_of_nbn_legal_S5sNB4YTN7m4L0C431Xe6K#new_tab): 1 June, 2013: Australian Fincancial Review says three government agencies are investigating allegations that more than 80 truckloads of asbestos contaminated soil have been dumped in Ballarat.
- [Shorten orders summit to tackle asbestos ‘scourge’](http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/shorten-orders-summit-to-tackle-asbestos-scourge/story-fn59niix-1226654818100##new_tab): 1 June, 2013: The federal Government calls for a meeting which will include Telstra, the NBN Co, the national Office of Asbestos Safety, unions and victims groups over concerns around asbestos exposure during NBN works.
- [Asbestos researcher named West Australian](http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/asbestos-researcher-named-west-australian-of-the-year-20130602-2njli.html#new_tab): 2 June, 2013: Professor Bruce Robinson named West Australian of the year for 2013 for a number of achievements including in the field of asbestos cancer research.
- [Discovery offers new hope to asbestos victims](http://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-11-22/discovery-offers-new-hope-to-asbestos-victims/2345774#new_tab): 22 November 2010: The Asbestos Diseases Research Institute says its discovery of a way to predict the growth of mesothelioma tumours will improve the treatment of patients.

## Pages
- [Anna Nowak](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/learn-about-asbestos/anna-nowak/): Professor Anna Nowak is the director of Perth-based National Centre for Asbestos Related Disease. Here she talks about the centre's international research on combining immunotherapy with more traditional cancer therapies, including the DREAM3R clinical trial in Australia and the US.
- [Jenette Creaney](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/learn-about-asbestos/jeanette-creaney/): Professor Jenette Creaney is head of NCARD's Biomarkers and Discovery Unit, which has built up a biobank of clinical samples from respiratory disease patients over 40 years. It contributes to international research into the genetic landscape of cancer.
- [Site Map](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/site-map/)
- [Medical History](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/medical-history/)
- [Research](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/research/)
- [Medical Information](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/medical-information/)
- [Advertising Policy](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/advertising-policy/): The Australian Asbestos Network website does not accept or host any advertisements.
- [Privacy](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/privacy/): Information Automatically Logged Murdoch may make a record of your visit to the AAN website and use a web server to log any of the following information: •    your server address, domain name and Internet Protocol address •    the date and time of the visit to a site •    the pages accessed and documents downloaded •    the previous site visited •    the type of web browser used The data collected is used for the following purposes: •    web server and system administration, including monitoring to prevent security breaches •    revision of website content to better meet users' information needs •    usage statistics for particular websites •    capacity planning Access to web server logs is restricted to authorised system administrators. Cookies A cookie is a small amount of information given to your web browser by our web server. The browser stores the message in a text file and the message is then sent back to the web server each time the browser requests a page from the server. It is possible to disable the acceptance of cookies by your web browser. However, doing so may restrict your ability to access some web pages. Cookies may be used for authentication purposes and to improve security during a user's session online. Cookies may store the following information: •    session (numbered key) •    duration A numbered key is a unique number generated by a web server and is used to track your current session. The session key can be linked back to a user's login identification. Unique identifiers (such as login username and password) are collected when it is necessary to verify a user's identity. Unique identifiers may also be used to access stored information about a user's preferences to enable the dynamic display of a website according to your preferences when you return to that site. Completion of website forms Some pages on the AAN website may request that you provide personal identifying information such as your name, e-mail address, phone number etc. While you do not have to provide this information, failure to do so may mean that we are unable to provide services to you. Where you do provide this information, it is voluntarily submitted by you to Murdoch. The information will only be used for the purposes explained to you when you provide it, and will not be disclosed to others except where disclosure is consistent with the purpose for which it was collected and is otherwise in accordance with applicable privacy law requirements. For more information on how Murdoch may use or disclose personal information, please see Murdoch’s Privacy Policy.   External Links Content hosted on AAN website may contain links to other Internet-accessible sites. Murdoch is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites. Complaints or queries about privacy Any user with a query or complaint relating to the privacy of personal information collected via the AAN website, should contact Gail Phillips at Murdoch.   Google Analytics Currently we are using Google Analytics to analyze the audience of the website and improve our content. No personal information is collected from Google Analytics. For further information on the privacy policy concerning Google Analytics, please go here, http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/analytics/privacyoverview.html "
- [Terms of Use](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/terms-use/): This website is owned and operated by Murdoch University (“Murdoch”) on behalf of the participating organisations in the Australian Asbestos Network (AAN).  Your use of the website is conditional upon these Terms of Use as outlined below.
- [Acknowledgments](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/acknowledgments/): We would like to acknowledge the many people who have supported the Australian Asbestos Network website project.
- [Contributors](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/contributors/): There have been many people who have helped the Australian Asbestos Network team to develop this important community resource. They include:
- [Chris Smyth](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/project-team/chris-smyth/): Chris worked as a journalist for newspapers in Australia and the UK for more than 18 years prior to joining academia to lecture in journalism, media law and ethics in 2000. His research interests include media law, journalists’ rights and labour history.
- [Renae Desai](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/project-team/renae-desai/): Renae Desai lectures in Strategic Communication, Web and Health Communication at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia.
- [Lenore Layman](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/project-team/lenore-layman/): Her publications include ‘Organise! A visual record of the labour movement in Western Australia’, and ‘Rica’s Stories', in addition to numerous articles on aspects of Western Australia’s industrial, labour and health history.
- [Mia Lindgren](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/project-team/mia-lindgren/): Dr. Mia Lindgren teaches broadcast journalism at Monash University in Melbourne at both undergraduate and master levels.
- [Gail Phillips](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/project-team/gail-phillips/): From 1994 to 1996 she managed 720 ABC Perth, the ABCs Perth metropolitan station. She has co-authored two books: Australian Broadcast Journalism (2002, 2006), and Journalism Ethics at Work (2005).
- [Project Background](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/project-background/): Asbestos, the 'magic mineral', was a material so versatile that it was widely used in industrial settings as insulation to contain heat and prevent erosion. It also became a wonder product during Australia’s postwar housing boom, giving us the iconic fibro house and fencing for most of our suburbs. Whether it was being mined, manufactured, or used in homes and workplaces, asbestos was always lethal. What benefitted us in the last century goes on killing us in this one.
- [Archive](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/archives/): Welcome to the Australian Asbestos Network Archive. This comprehensive online resource has been compiled as part of a National Health and Medical Research Council research project.
- [About The Australian Asbestos Network](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/australian-asbestos-network/): The Australian Asbestos Network website is an outcome of a National Health and Medical Research Council research project funded which began in 2006. The project aims to develop an online resource for anyone in the community who wants to find out more about asbestos; its historical legacy, current impacts on Australian society and the ways in which we can all help to minimise its harmful effects on our health and wellbeing.
- [Learn About Asbestos](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/learn-about-asbestos/): In this section we focus on the medical information relating to asbestos-related diseases. The information provided is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between a patient and his/her own physician.
- [Contact us](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/contact-us/): You can contact the team directly using the email addresses provided on their profile pages or by using the details here.
- [Asbestos Today](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-todays/): The important thing is to recognise that asbestos is not a ‘yesterday’ issue. With many of the buildings constructed in the postwar asbestos building boom now coming to the end of their lifespan, renovators need to be aware that they are more than likely than not to come across asbestos in the fabric of your homes. It is important to know how to recognise it and what to do with it when you find it.
- [Project Team & Contributors](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/gallery/): This page is filled with sample content illustrating what various image types look like in 2010. Text is lorem ipsum filler; look at the Readability Test page for sample content that you can actually read.
- [Asbestos History](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/): In this section we explore the history of asbestos, from the earliest years of mining the mineral, through to its manufacture and use as Australia’s main building material in the postwar years. We also look at its health legacy and recount the long and ongoing legal battles as workers have sought compensation from companies who kept them in the dark about the grave risks from asbestos exposure.
- [PROJECT TEAM](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/project-team/): The Australian Asbestos Network website project team is part of a larger group of researchers comprising medical, epidemiological and public health researchers studying the impacts of asbestos on the community. The project benefited from two grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia under the leadership of Emeritus Clinical Professor Bill Musk from the University of Western Australia. The web project team specialise in journalism, history, online communication and public relations and are all active researchers in their respective fields. Click on the links below to read more about the members of the team.
- [The Australian Asbestos Network](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/): The Australian Asbestos Network website has been created by a team of media researchers at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia to give you easy access to information on asbestos-related diseases, health information for work and home, and to tell the history of asbestos in Australia and abroad.
- [Asbestos Stories](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/about/): By clicking on the picture below you will be able to listen to  or read the stories and experiences of people who have been, and in some cases still are, affected by asbestos and its ongoing legacy.

## Slideshows
- [An online resource for everything Asbestos](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/project-background/): The project aims to develop an online resource everything Asbestos; its historical legacy, current impacts on Australian society and the ways in which we can all help to minimise its harmful effects on our health and wellbeing.

## CTA
- [Featured Stories](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/about/): Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus eleifend tristique dolor, eget consequat est. Ut posuere eget lacus et pretium. Integer consequat orci diam, et lacinia ante rutrum vel. Nullam enim massa, cursus vitae varius ac, bibendum sit amet arcu. Donec id tincidunt justo. Aliquam fringilla at tortor vulputate aliquam. Mauris ultrices ipsum velit, at placerat odio consectetur at. Donec in sagittis est. In bibendum urna eu massa congue tempor. Integer pulvinar convallis lorem ornare mattis. Etiam vestibulum, massa et laoreet ullamcorper, erat sapien tempor augue, a dictum diam enim vitae augue. Suspendisse sed arcu vulputate, fringilla lacus sed, mattis massa. Vestibulum sed diam ac diam egestas faucibus. Pellentesque fringilla malesuada pretium. Nulla volutpat dictum ipsum, vel pharetra lacus dictum sit amet. Nulla facilisi.
- [Learn About Asbestos](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/learn-about-asbestos/): Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus eleifend tristique dolor, eget consequat est. Ut posuere eget lacus et pretium. Integer consequat orci diam, et lacinia ante rutrum vel. Nullam enim massa, cursus vitae varius ac, bibendum sit amet arcu. Donec id tincidunt justo. Aliquam fringilla at tortor vulputate aliquam. Mauris ultrices ipsum velit, at placerat odio consectetur at. Donec in sagittis est. In bibendum urna eu massa congue tempor. Integer pulvinar convallis lorem ornare mattis. Etiam vestibulum, massa et laoreet ullamcorper, erat sapien tempor augue, a dictum diam enim vitae augue. Suspendisse sed arcu vulputate, fringilla lacus sed, mattis massa. Vestibulum sed diam ac diam egestas faucibus. Pellentesque fringilla malesuada pretium. Nulla volutpat dictum ipsum, vel pharetra lacus dictum sit amet. Nulla facilisi.
- [Useful Resources](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/): Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus eleifend tristique dolor, eget consequat est. Ut posuere eget lacus et pretium. Integer consequat orci diam, et lacinia ante rutrum vel. Nullam enim massa, cursus vitae varius ac, bibendum sit amet arcu. Donec id tincidunt justo. Aliquam fringilla at tortor vulputate aliquam. Mauris ultrices ipsum velit, at placerat odio consectetur at. Donec in sagittis est. In bibendum urna eu massa congue tempor. Integer pulvinar convallis lorem ornare mattis. Etiam vestibulum, massa et laoreet ullamcorper, erat sapien tempor augue, a dictum diam enim vitae augue. Suspendisse sed arcu vulputate, fringilla lacus sed, mattis massa. Vestibulum sed diam ac diam egestas faucibus. Pellentesque fringilla malesuada pretium. Nulla volutpat dictum ipsum, vel pharetra lacus dictum sit amet. Nulla facilisi.

## Asbestos Today
- [Asbestos Resources](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources-2/)
- [A renovation experience](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/renovation-experience/): Zoë Croft bought an old fibro house in an inner city suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Aware that many post World War II homes were constructed from materials containing asbestos, Zoë entered the proposition with her eyes wide open.   This was fortunate as, in addition to the external walls of the house, a third of the internal walls were also made from fibro sheeting - a hard-wearing material containing asbestos. These internal walls were mainly located in the “sleep-out” area at the rear of the house. Originally an open verandah, this had been crudely sheeted to create additional living space.   The other internal area containing asbestos was the tiled bathroom, another common place where asbestos is found. As the condition of the internal fibro sheeting was poor, undertaking any renovations first meant it had to be removed.   In this series of audio slideshows, Zoë relays some of the decisions that had to be made and experiences she encountered along the way.   Zoë embarks on her first renovation project Zoë finds a hive of bees living in her asbestos walls Zoë gets quotes for removing asbestos from her new home, including the bathroom Zoë encounters some problems following the removal of the asbestos walls Zoë talks about working with tradespeople and their attitudes towards asbestos Zoë discusses the issues she encountered and some lessons learned
- [Cleaning and maintenance](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/diy-renovators-guide/cleaning-maintenance/): When cleaning and maintaining asbestos materials it is necessary to follow similar precautions as for asbestos removal. Avoid processes that will cause dust, and use wetting to minimise dust release.For example, when cleaning weathered external asbestos like an asbestos cement roof, do not dry scrape, use a high pressure water hose or hard brush to remove debris from the surface.Instead, apply a biocide (diluted with water) to the surface, using a soft bristle/hair brush that does not scour the surface or just applying the solution liberally, over the surface. Allow a contact time of at least 20 minutes then rinse the surface with clean water. In order to minimise further deterioration, lichen growth etc, you may consider sealing or painting the surface.
- [Removing Asbestos](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/diy-renovators-guide/removing-asbestos/): For example, landfills that accept asbestos will only take the material if it is properly wrapped in plastic and sealed. Utmost care should be taken in removing asbestos from the property and transporting it to the dump.
- [Carpet Underlay and Wall Tiles](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/diy-renovators-guide/carpet-underlay-wall-tiles/): While only a small amount of carpeting from that era can be found in our homes now, the public have been alerted to the need to be careful when removing old carpet.
- [Asbestos Cement Products](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/diy-renovators-guide/asbestos-cement-products/): Asbestos cement may be found in many building materials including roofing, fencing, exterior wall cladding, backing material on floor tiles, water pipes, and insulation on domestic heaters and hot water pipes. Visit Safework Australia's website for a more comprehensive list.When intact, these products are considered safe and asbestos cement is generally considered a fairly stable, non friable product. However, weathering, erosion and processes such as cutting, sawing, drilling, sanding or hammering can release deadly asbestos dust particles. This is why it is not recommended to use power tools or high pressure water blasters when working with or cleaning asbestos cement material.
- [Handling Asbestos](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/diy-renovators-guide/handling-asbestos/): It is when asbestos materials are degraded, broken, or otherwise disturbed through handling, that they can pose a hazard. The table below is a rough guide of how to treat asbestos in different stages of disrepair.
- [Asbestos in your home](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/diy-renovators-guide/asbestos-home/): As a rule-of-thumb, if your house was built between 1921 and 1990, it is best to assume that asbestos is present. Asbestos was used in a wide variety of building materials ranging from wall cladding, fencing and piping to carpet underlay, pipe lagging and even household equipment such as ironing boards and toasters.
- [Friable and non friable](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/diy-renovators-guide/friable-non-friable/): Bonded asbestos is where asbestos is mixed with other materials, such as cement. In this form, it is non friable – less likely to break into pieces.
- [Asbestos related diseases](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/diy-renovators-guide/asbestos-related-diseases/): When inhaled, asbestos fibres lodge in the lungs and scar the lung tissue. Over time, this trauma can lead to disease.   When asbestos was mined in Australia, up to the 1960s, miners fell victim relatively quickly to asbestosis because of the large amount of asbestos dust they inhaled during the mining process. However, the damage caused through exposure during the manufacturing process or through handling of asbestos when workers are exposed to less dust takes longer to manifest as disease, and symptoms may not appear until up to 40 years after exposure.   This is why the focus now has to be on minimising exposure to the damaging fibres to prevent disease in future.   Click here for more information on asbestos-related diseases.
- [Types of Asbestos](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/diy-renovators-guide/types-asbestos/): Asbestos was dubbed the ‘magic mineral’ because of its amazing properties as an insulating and fire resistant material. It is composed of silicate fibres finer than human hair which are easily inhaled and can lodge deep in the lungs – leading to disease.
- [DIY Renovators Guide](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/diy-renovators-guide/): There are many guides available with tips on how to handle and dispose of asbestos safely. The following general information is compiled from many of these guides from around Australia. The links throughout provide further information available at both the federal level and on a state-by-state basis. This informaton has been compiled in consultation with the Environmental Hazards Unit at the Health Department of Western Australia.
- [GARDS](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/gards/): GARDS- Gippsland Asbestos Related Diseases Support Inc.
- [WA](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/state-resources/wa/): State Government Agencies   WA Department of Health Environmental Hazards Unit Phone: (08) 9388 4999 Email: ehinfo@health.wa.gov.au Worksafe WA Phone: 1300 307 877 Email: safety@commerce.wa.gov.au   Advocacy Groups Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia Inc National Toll Free: 1800 646 690 Phone : (08) 9344 4077 (Perth Callers)
- [VIC](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/state-resources/vic/): Environmental Protection Authority
- [TAS](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/state-resources/tas/): Department of Health, Tasmania 
- [SA](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/state-resources/sa/): Asbestos.sa.gov.au
- [NT](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/state-resources/nt/):   Government Agencies NT WorkSafe   Asbestos Management NT Department of Construction and Infrastructure
- [NSW](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/state-resources/nsw/): NSW Government
- [QLD](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/state-resources/qld/): State Government Agencies   Queensland Health Workplace Health and Safety Queensland Department of Environment and Sience Advocacy Groups Queensland Asbestos Related Diseases Support Society  
- [ACT](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/state-resources/act/): Government Agencies Asbestos Awareness
- [State Resources](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/state-resources/): This is where you can search through state and territory resources available on information relating to legislation, government policy, advocacy and public health. The resources selected represent a range of the most accurate and up-to-date information available online.   However, the resources listed do not constitute the only resources available on the internet and you should always source further information pertinent to your state, territory and local council jurisdiction.   Australian Capital Territory Queensland New South Wales Northern Territory South Australia Tasmania Victoria Western Australia
- [Federal resources](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-resources/federal-resources/): Asbestos Awareness (Education campaign)
- [Research on Workers](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-work/research-workers/): Australian researchers have been monitoring the incidence of asbestos-related disease amongst workers. They have also been examining workers’ attitudes to asbestos risks; their awareness of, and compliance with, recommended protocols for handling asbestos. Some of their studies are included in the following links.
- [Asbestos at Work](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-work/): Even though asbestos has not been used in building stock in Australia since the 1980s, and its importation was banned altogether in 2003, a large amount of the material remains in older buildings. Construction and maintenance workers are likely to encounter asbestos in the form of asbestos-cement sheet walls, asbestos-cement pipes, asbestos fencing and roofing materials, lagging and asbestos containing electrical switchboards.
- [Asbestos Survey](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-at-home/australian-asbestos-survey/): A team of Perth based researchers at Curtin University and the University of Western Australia have recently completed the world’s first survey to gauge the level of exposure to asbestos among the ordinary population.
- [Public Health Issues](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-at-home/public-health-risks/): The biggest risk to public health from asbestos is ignorance. The more you know about asbestos, the safer you will be.
- [In your house](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-at-home/in-your-house/): From 1921, asbestos was used throughout the Australian building industry. Its use became even more widespread during the post World War II building boom.
- [Asbestos at Home](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-today/asbestos-at-home/): This section provides information about asbestos in the home and useful links to resources available to assist the home renovator in handling asbestos safely.

## Learn About Asbestos
- [Ted Lawrence](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/asbestos-review-program/ted-lawrence/): The research program, which has had various names over the years but was commonly known as the Vitamin A program, was a research project that began in the 1990s – just a decade after Mr Lawrence became aware that the stuff he had worked with as a young bloke was potentially deadly.
- [Perth Chest Clinic](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/asbestos-review-program/perth-chest-clinic/): The Clinic is open four days a week and sees an average of 8 to 10 participants each day.
- [Lynne Defrenne](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/asbestos-review-program/lynne-defrenne/): Meet Lynne Defrenne. She has been the friendly face of the Perth Chest Clinic since 1992 and is well-known to participants of the Asbestos Review Program – a research and support program for people exposed to asbestos.
- [International Research](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/international-research/): Provided below are some useful links to international research and information websites.   Cancer Research UK  Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation  Mesothelioma Information Resource Group  The Mesothelioma Library
- [Australian Research Centres](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/australian-research-centres/): In this section we focus on some of the research centres around Australia who are specialising in research into asbestos-related diseases. The links will take you to their websites where you can access further information on the funded research they are undertaking.   For a synopsis of research supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council click here.   NCARD: National Centre for Research of Asbestos Related Diseases>> Centre of Clinical Research Excellence - Pulmonary and Environmental Medicine>> American-Australian Malignant Mesothelioma Consortium>> Asbestos Diseases Research Institute>>
- [A Dictionary of Diseases](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/diseasess/dictionary-diseases/): Malignant mesothelioma frequently results in the accumulation of large amounts of fluid in the chest or abdominal cavities. This tends to cause breathlessness or distension of the abdomen. The cancer cells also tend to invade the normal tissues of the lung and chest wall. In the chest wall this causes chest pain which may be severe.
- [Useful Links](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/clinical-trials-2/useful-links/): Cancer Council Australia - Cancer research and treatment
- [Safety of Trials](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/clinical-trials-2/safety-trials/): What treatment will I get if I decide not to enter the trial?
- [How trials are run](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/clinical-trials-2/trials-run/): Can I tape the meeting or take notes?
- [Trial design](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/clinical-trials-2/trial-design/): Can you tell me why trials are being done?
- [Clinical Trials](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/clinical-trials-2/): Clinical trials are conducted to test new or modified treatments to determine whether they are more effective in treating diseases. Medical researchers around Australia have been engaged in a long and ongoing quest to improve treatments and outcomes for those diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases.
- [Medical History](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/medical-history-2/): Medicine recognises the prime importance of prevention in asbestos-related disease – that human contact with asbestos fibres introduced into the built environment must be eliminated. The risk of disease is minimised only if occupational and public health regulations relating to asbestos are fully observed. Medicine tells society that there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos fibres.
- [The Work Continues](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/wittenoom-cohort-studies/work-continues/): In 2002, the Wittenoom Cohort Study was given a new dimension with the focus moving on to the women who had lived and worked in the town. Researcher Alison Reid joined the team to help track the cohort of women of the town – both workers and residents – who had so far escaped scrutiny. “The impact of crocidolite exposure on the health of miners and millers was well-documented,” she said. “But less was known about the health outcomes of the 2,968 women and girls who lived there.” Dr Reid used the data already collected, plus a search of the WA Marriage Register, to trace the 2552 residents – wives, daughters, teachers and nurses, among them – and the 416 women who worked for CSR, expanding the study to include the incidence of gynaecological cancers.
- [Further Studies 1980s](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/wittenoom-cohort-studies/studies-1980s/): In the mid-1980s Professor Bill Musk and biostatistician Nick de Klerk at the University of Western Australia joined the Wittenoom Cohort Study and were able to expand its depth and scope.
- [The Beginnings 1970s](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/wittenoom-cohort-studies/beginnings-1970s/): But it wasn’t until 1975 that Dr McNulty could pursue answers to important medical questions. As the state’s new Commissioner of Public Health, he wanted to know what the outcomes would be for the workers at Wittenoom; who was most at risk and the length of time between their first exposure to blue asbestos, or crocidolite, and evidence of disease – known as the lag or latency period.
- [Asbestos Review Program](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/asbestos-review-program/): Since 1975, work has been taking place to track down the thousands of people (6500 men and 500 women) who had been employed in the Wittenoom mine over the quarter of a century in which it operated. That was a task in itself given many of the workers had arrived in Wittenoom from other parts of the world in the search for work, particularly Italians and Eastern Europeans.Over the 20 years in which the project has been running in its various forms, 1500 to 2000 people who were either employed in the mine or lived in the asbestos town have been part of the study at any point in time.In the latter years of the program, people exposed to asbestos from other industries, including construction, manufacturing and maritime, have been welcomed into the study.
- [Wittenoom Cohort Studies](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/wittenoom-cohort-studies/): The town of Wittenoom has provided the opportunity for a unique long-term and ongoing epidemiological study of the health of its former workers and residents.   Since it was first started in the 1970s, with the focus on the Wittenoom workers, the study expanded to include residents and most recently the women of Wittenoom. The Wittenoom Cohort studies have so far produced 46 published pieces of research. Not only have they established beyond doubt the dangers of even relatively slight exposure to blue asbestos, but the information continues to inform scientific research into the causes, treatments, and perhaps even a vaccine, for mesothelioma. The studies also contributed to the ban of the use of asbestos in Australia and helped lawyers in the fight for compensation for Wittenoom people.   The beginnings: the 1970s Further studies: the 1980s The work continues: 2000 and beyond
- [Australian Mesothelioma Register](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/australian-mesothelioma-register/): The Australian Mesothelioma Surveillance Program was set up in NSW in 1980 and ran until 1985, to be replaced in 1986 by the Australian Mesothelioma Register.  
- [WA Mesothelioma Register](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/wa-mesothelioma-register/): In the mid-1970s doctors in Perth were seeing the human cost of the asbestos mining industry at Wittenoom in the north of Western Australia. As mine workers increasingly presented with asbestosis or the fatal cancer, mesothelioma, a senior chest physician at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Janet Elder, began keeping a record of their details on a piece of butcher’s paper. That piece of paper was soon joined by several others, stretching across her office wall as cases multiplied.
- [Epidemiological Research](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/epidemiological-research/): While clinical research has focused on treating and curing the deadly asbestos-related diseases, the study of the pattern of the disease in the community has been just as important.
- [Clinical Trials](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/clinical-research/clinical-trials/): Please go to National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases (NCARD) directly for up-to-date information about clinical trials
- [NCARD Studies](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/clinical-research/ncard-studies/): The following projects have been undertaken by researchers affiliated with the National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases.
- [Clinical Research](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/clinical-research/): Clinical research involves research into the care and treatment of patients. In the area of asbestos-related diseases, the focus has been on trying to enhance the early detection of asbestos-related cancers and to experiment with medical interventions which may assist in curing disease or prolonging life.
- [Steve Mutsaers](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/steve-mutsaers/): Associate Professor Steve Mutsaers is the Chief Investigator on the NCARD grant examining transforming growth factor beta signalling in malignant mesothelioma growth and collagen production.
- [Richard Murray](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/richard-murray/): Associate Professor Richard Murray is the Chief Investigator on the NCARD grant examining the effects of asbestos exposure to remote Aboriginal communities, assess the numbers of people who have developed asbestos related diseases and determine if appropriate health program responses are being addressed.  
- [Richard Lake](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/richard-lake/): Associate Professor Richard Lake is the Chief Investigator on the NCARD grant responsible for developing a National Mouse model for Mesothelioma. The primary objective of this project is the establishment of a central resource to maintain and distribute cell lines.
- [Peter Howat](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/peter-howat/): Professor Peter Howat is Director of Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer Control at Curtin University; and a Professor in the Tier One, National Drug Research Institute (NDRI) Research Group.   He is also Co-Director of the WA Centre for Public Health, Co-Director of the WA Centre for Health Promotion Research, and a Board Member of the  Public Health Advocacy Institute of WA.   He was previously Head of the Department of Health Promotion at Curtin University from 1983 to 2005, a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Healthy Aging from 2002 to 2006, and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in NDRI for several years.   In 2001 he was a visiting Research Scientist at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta USA, and prior to that was a visiting Professor at the University of Oregon, the University of Illinois, Rice University, and the University of Texas at Houston.   He has also held appointments at the University of Illinois and the University of Toledo, USA. He completed his undergraduate studies at Canterbury University and Otago University in New Zealand, and his MSc and PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, USA.
- [Paul Zimmerman](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/paul-zimmerman/): Associate Professor Paul Zimmerman is the Chief Investigator on the NCARD grant investigating the early detection of lung cancer and mesothelioma in asbestos workers at highest risk, by early interventional CT scanning.
- [Nick De Klerk](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/nick-de-klerk/): Professor Nick de Klerk is head of biostatistics, bioinformatics and genetic epidemiology at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth. He is also adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia’s School of Population Health where he has worked on the Wittenoom cohort studies since 1983. He has a BSc (Physics) from Imperial College, London and an MSc (Statistics) from Sussex University. He worked for the UK Heart Disease Prevention Project, the Natural History Museum in London and the North West Thames Regional Health Authority before coming to Perth in 1980, He works on a wide range of child health-related projects, as well as supervising students and advising on boards, committees and review panels.
- [Michael Hobbs](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/michael-hobbs/): Professor Michael Hobbs was born in Perth and studied medicine in Adelaide before returning to work at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
- [Lyle Palmer](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/lyle-palmer/): Professor Lyle Palmer is the Executive Director of Health Studies at the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research (OICR) in Toronto. Previously he was the Foundation Chair in Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Western Australia and in this capacity he set up the Laboratory for Genetic Epidemiology at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research.
- [Jenette Creaney](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/jenette-creaney/): Jenette received her PhD in 1995, and has worked in the cancer and immunology fields as a molecular biologist and protein chemist since.
- [Professor Bruce Robinson](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/professor-bruce-robinson/): Professor Bruce Robinson is the Scientific Director of the National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases. Bruce is a respiratory physician at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and conducts teaching and research through the University of Western Australia's School of Medicine and Pharmacology.
- [Bill Musk](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/bill-musk/): Clinical Professor Bill Musk is the Chief Investigator on an NHMRC grant for a long running cohort study of Wittenoom workers and residents to determine the impact of asbestos exposure on health, especially most recently psychosocial health and women's health. The data collected from the study will be used to predict future cases of asbestos-related disease. He has collaborated with Professor Michael Hobbs, Bruce Armstong, Nick de Klerk and Alison Reid since 1975.
- [Professor Anna Nowak](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/professor-anna-nowak/): Dr Anna Nowak is the principal investigator for an NCARD grant which will examine whether imaging with a novel PET scan technique (FLT PET) can predict which patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma will benefit from chemotherapy.
- [Andrew Holloway](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/andrew-holloway/): Dr Andrew Holloway is a senior researcher at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Victoria. Andrew received his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 1997. He is an experienced cancer researcher and is the principal investigator for two NCARD grants.
- [Dr Alison Reid](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/dr-alison-reid/): Dr Alison Reid is a senior research fellow at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research. She was brought up in Perth and has a BSc (Anthropology) from University College, London and an MSc (Medical Demography) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
- [Asbestos Researchers](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/asbestos-researchers/): Below is a list of the dedicated medical researchers, working on a variety of projects focusing on asbestos-related diseases, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
- [National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/national-centre-asbestos-related-diseases/): In a nondescript hub of offices and labs at the QEII Medical Centre in Perth, 30 of the world’s best researchers are unlocking the dark secrets of malignant mesothelioma.
 The disease is a fatal cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, the abdominal cavity or the heart.
- [Asbestos Research](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/asbestos-research/): It is a sad fact that asbestos exposure can result in serious, and frequently fatal, diseases and medical researchers around Australia have been engaged in a long and ongoing quest to improve treatments and outcomes for those diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases.
- [The Carer Perspective](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/carer-perspective-2/): Lorraine Kember cared for her husband Brian when he became ill with mesothelioma and nursed him at home until he died some two years later. She was encouraged to keep a diary as a way of expressing her own feelings as she lived in expectation of her loved one's death.
- [Your First Meeting](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/questions-specialists/first-meeting/): What happens at the first meeting?  
- [Referrals and Treatment](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/questions-gp/referrals-treatment/): Will my GP refer me to a specialist?
- [Diagnosis and Tests](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/questions-gp/diagnosis-tests/): What do the tests involve? Are they invasive?
- [Your Initial Meeting](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/questions-gp/initial-meeting/): At your initial meeting with your GP, they will discuss your work history with you. In order to obtain a detailed and accurate work history you GP will ask you questions about:
- [Other Asbestos Related Diseases](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/diseasess/asbestos-related-diseases/): Malignant mesothelioma frequently results in the accumulation of large amounts of fluid in the chest or abdominal cavities. This tends to cause breathlessness or distension of the abdomen. The cancer cells also tend to invade the normal tissues of the lung and chest wall. In the chest wall this causes chest pain which may be severe.
- [Mesothelioma](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/diseasess/mesothelioma/): It is thought to be caused by the body's reaction to the needle like fibres of asbestos piercing the lining of the lung or abdomen.
- [Lung Cancer](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/diseasess/lung-cancer/): Lung cancer is a malignant tumour found within the lungs. Lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure can take 20 years or more from the time of exposure before the first clinical signs appear.   The types of lung cancer that results from asbestos exposure are the same as those which are caused by smoking. Treatment options are the same: surgery in suitable cases, radiotherapy or chemotherapy.Exposure to asbestos increases the risk of developing lung cancer, especially in people who have smoked cigarettes. The risk of developing lung cancer in people who have been exposed to asbestos is reduced if they stop smoking. Click here to watch Professor Bruce Robinson talk about the diagnosis and treatment of asbestos-related diseases such as lung cancer.
- [Asbestosis](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/diseasess/asbestosis-2/): There is no treatment for asbestosis. Asbestosis tends to progress with the passage of time.
- [Questions for your Specialist](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/questions-specialists/): The following information has been compiled with the assistance of Clinical Professor Bill Musk, a respiratory physician at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth since 1978.
- [Questions for Your GP](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/questions-gp/): The following information has been compiled with the assistance of Dr Greg Deleuil, a general practitioner with extensive experience in lung function testing and a very personal story of mesothelioma. Click here to listen to Greg’s story.
- [Asbestos Diseases](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-about/diseasess/): Medical research into the health impact of asbestos exposure began during the first decades of the 20th century, and as the century progressed it became increasingly clear there was a link between asbestos exposure and asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma.

## Asbestos History
- [East Perth Power Station](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-work-3/east-perth-power-station/): East Perth Power Station
- [Role of Unions](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/battles-2/campaigners/role-unions/): The occupational health and safety environment changed in the early 1970s with Britain’s Robens Report in 1972. It recommended worker participation to end workers’ perceptions that working conditions were beyond their control. Unions became far more knowledgeable and active on occupational health and safety in the new environment and, when all Australians learnt in the mid-1970s of the particularly lethal dangers of asbestos dust, the stage was set for industrial struggles on the issue of asbestos exposure. Protests and strikes concerning asbestos exposure began in the second half of the 1970s and have continued until today.
- [ADS WA](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/battles-2/campaigners/ads-wa-2/): The Society aimed to help all people suffering from asbestos-related diseases not only by providing support, but also by working vigorously for social justice in the form of adequate compensation and damages, and by educating the public on the dangers everyone faced.
- [ADS AUSTRALIA](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/battles-2/campaigners/ads-wa/): In 1982 Robert Vojakovic and his wife Rose Marie began their long involvement with the organisation, changing its name and overseeing its growth from its small beginnings into a nation-wide lobby and support organisation. Under his presidency, the Asbestos Diseases Society has played a vital role in achieving better outcomes for victims of asbestos. It has lobbied state governments for changes to compensation legislation and also fought hard for increased funding for medical research to find both cures and better treatments for asbestos related diseases.   It has won the support of trade unions in its fight, used the press and other media to highlight individual suffering and to demand just recompense, and collected documentation from around the world as well as local archival sources to assist lawyers in making their cases. It has pursued the asbestos insurers to extract more generous compensation settlements. Above all, it has targeted the asbestos industry’s employers (CSR, James Hardie, government departments and agencies, and a multitude of others) with the goal of winning financial compensation for victims. The Society now provides support and assistance for victims from all around Australia.When Robert Vojakovic and his wife Rose Marie began their battle almost thirty years ago they worked a single shift amongst all the other social offerings at the North Perth Migrant Resource Centre for one afternoon a week. Here Robert talks about what motivated him to become involved. Click here to listen>>   The Asbestos Diseases Society’s first case was that of ex-Point Samson worker Frank Crotty. Robert Vojakovic talks about how this case marked the start of a long campaign for justice for victims of asbestos-related diseases. Click here to listen>>
- [The Campaigners](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/battles-2/campaigners/): The unsung heroes in the long battle for justice for the victims of asbestos-related diseases are the grassroots organisations which took up the cause when no one else would listen.
- [The Court Cases](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/battles-2/court-cases/): The history of asbestos in Australia and around the world, is a history of cover up with companies choosing to ignore the dangers for as long as possible. Even when they did acknowledge any liability for occupational disease, monetary settlements ensured workers did not talk publicly about their case.   Historian Lenore Layman describes how this exposed major failings not just in the industry, but also in the governments who bore responsibility for regulation and monitoring. Click here to listen>>   The unions weren’t fully aware of the dimensions of the problem posed by asbestos. As historian Lenore Layman explains, their strategies of either advising members to avoid the workplaces or accepting dirt and danger money, didn’t do enough to minimise the risks for their members. Click here to listen>>   CSR CSR’s attempt to profit from asbestos by mining blue asbestos in Wittenoom was an expensive failure. Like James Hardie, it has had to deal with the deadly legacy of the impact of exposure to the mineral on its workers, but its approach to compensation was quite different. As historian Gideon Haigh explains, in contrast to the drawn out litigation of the James Hardie cases, CSR was rather more willing to settle its cases. Click here to listen>>   Wally Simpson Case In 1984 Peter Gordon, a lawyer practising in Victoria, was involved in the first successful negligence claim for damages brought by a mesothelioma victim. This brought him into contact with Robert Vojakovic of the Perth-based Asbestos Diseases Society. The ADS had 360 former Wittenoom workers on its books who were suffering from asbestos diseases and seeking compensation from the CSR subsidiary Midalco, formerly ABA. The first case concerned former Wittenoom mill worker Wally Simpson who was suffering from asbestosis. But as Peter Gordon explains, this ultimately unsuccessful case turned out to be a gruelling legal battle, which almost ruined law firm. Click here to listen>>   Klaus Rabenault Case After losing the Simpson case Slater & Gordon not only found itself deeply in debt but also faced criticism from both CSR and the WA State Government Insurance Office, which waged a media and public relations campaign against the firm. They accused it of falsely inflating the hopes of asbestos victims by bringing expensive cases that could never be won. However the next case to present itself in 1987 was outside the Western Australian jurisdiction and involved ex-Wittenoom worker and then Victorian resident Klaus Rabenault, now suffering from mesothelioma. As lawyer Peter Gordon explains, this gave Slater & Gordon the opportunity to run a Wittenoom asbestos case before a jury in Melbourne. Click here to listen>>   Heys and Barrow Case The so-called Heys and Barrow case involved two former Wittenoom workers Peter Heys and Tim Barrow who were suffering from mesothelioma. Their cases were unusual as for the first time they were contending that both a company, CSR, and its subsidiary, Australian Blue Asbestos (later Midalco) bore liability for diseases that emerged many years after the worker’s original exposure. According to lawyer Peter Gordon, the success of this case made it a significant legal landmark in occupational health and safety in Australia. Click here to listen>>   James Hardie The mining process was just the first stage of damaging contact with asbestos. The mineral was then manufactured into the myriad materials that helped build the houses and workplaces of postwar Australia. So with the first wave of asbestos-related diseases washing through the mining workforce, a second wave struck the manufacturing and construction workers who made or worked with asbestos products. The company which dominated asbestos manufacturing in Australia was James Hardie Industries. The battles for compensation here have been long and painful with the company to this day fighting to minimise liability.Part of the challenge in trying to establish the case for compensation in relation to asbestos-related disease has been the impenetrable nature of the company structure of James Hardie Industries. According to historian Gideon Haigh, the company most closely identified with asbestos manufacture in Australia has presented a moving target which has made it difficult to uncover a clear line of responsibility. Click here to listen>>   In the 1990s under Chief Executive Keith Bardon, James Hardie shifted its centre of operations to the United States and as a result the company culture changed, becoming more aligned with American workplace customs and practices. As historian Gideon Haigh explains, the Americans had different ways of dealing with the sorts of corporate problems posed by asbestos. Click here to listen>>   As the years passed, the structural and managerial changes had so transformed James Hardie that there were no longer any direct connections with the company’s past – beyond the workers who were continuing to suffer the legacy of their workplace exposure to asbestos so many years ago.  Historian Gideon Haigh recounts how this remoteness of the modern board from the company’s past history impacted on its attitude towards Hardie’s ongoing liabilities. Click here to listen>>   The changes in the company structure and board attitudes flowed through to the company’s approach to its asbestos liabilities. As historian Gideon Haigh explains, in the 1990s James Hardie began to change tack in its approach to litigation over compensation cases, being less inclined to settle and taking a more aggressive stance in court. Click here to listen>>   The main aim of James Hardie in the 1990s was to disguise its connection with asbestos and to minimise as much as possible its exposure to compensation claims. In 2001 the company set up the Medical Research Compensation Fund, which, far from being a vehicle for company largesse, as lawyer Peter Gordon explains. Click here to listen>>   The transformation of the James Hardie company into a global brand changed the nature of what had previously been a family-owned Australian icon. But according to historian Gideon Haigh, because it was now being governed from its new headquarters in the US, it was unaware of how its more aggressive American-style approach to its compensation problems was antagonising the Australian public.There were many factors that came together to create the public relations disaster that James Hardie faced over its approach to its asbestos liabilities. In Gideon Haigh’s view, generational change and an inward looking board influenced the capacity of the board to steer the company confidently through this turbulent period. Click here to listen>>   In the 21st century the scourge of asbestos has moved to a new cohort – the tradespeople or weekend handymen and women who worked with asbestos products in the home in the 1970s and 1980s. As lawyer Peter Gordon notes, this so-called third wave has opened up a new area of compensation litigation and once again pushed James Hardie into the public spotlight. Click here to listen>>   Fighting the Cases The longest running legal battle for compensation for victims of asbestos-related diseases has been with James Hardie. This company had a venerable history in Australia as a manufacturer of asbestos products, which found their way into factories and homes all around the country in the building boom of the middle of the last century. By the 1990s it was becoming clear that former James Hardie workers were in the grips of an epidemic of asbestos-related diseases and as lawyer Peter Gordon recalls the company began to employ a range of strategies to minimise its exposure to what promised to be a compensation nightmare. Click here to listen>>   Greg Combet was involved with asbestos compensation cases from the early 1980s through his work with the Occupational Health Safety Centre in the western suburbs of Sydney. From his perspective within the trade unions, he experienced the frustration of trying to fight for compensation and prove through the courts that exposure to asbestos at work had caused occupational diseases. Click here to listen>>   James Hardie’s complex tactics in its attempts to evade its responsibilities to its workers eventually so tried the patience of the Carr Labor government in New South Wales that it decided to act. In 2004 it set up an inquiry into James Hardie headed by David Jackson QC.The Jackson Inquiry was a landmark in the history of asbestos as it was the first time a state government became so directly involved in the battle for compensation for asbestos workers. The Jackson Inquiry was a forensic investigation of James Hardie’s corporate arrangements and the extent to which the company was trying to minimise its exposure to its liabilities resulting from its many years as a manufacturer and supplier of asbestos products.   Greg Combet, at that time Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, was appointed as the Carr government’s representative in the negotiations which eventually led to a successful settlement. Click here to listen>>   Much information came to light during the Jackson Inquiry which exposed the extent to which the company appeared to be impervious to the plight of its former workers. According to former ACTU Secretary Greg Combet the attitude of the company merely strengthened the resolve of those taking part in the fight for compensation. Click here to listen>>   Bernie Banton case For many, the local hero of the Jackson Inquiry was former James Hardie employee Bernie Banton. Despite suffering from asbestosis, and subsequently mesothelioma, his fighting spirit and determination to see justice done gave him the strength to take a high profile role in the Jackson Inquiry. Greg Combet worked closely with Bernie Banton as secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions which was heavily involved in the fight for compensation for James Hardie workers. He recalls that amongst all the lawyers and negotiators, Bernie Banton captured public attention by reminding people about the real cost in human terms of asbestos-related diseases. Click here to listen>>   If proving company liability has been hard in relation to industrial exposure to asbestos, the difficulties have been compounded in the case of domestic exposure. The Hennell and Moss case illustrated some of the challenges lawyers would face in trying to hold companies accountable when long-ago purchasers of their products subsequently fell ill. Click here to listen>>  
- [Battling James Hardie](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/battles-2/battling-james-hardie/): James Hardie twisted every which way to distance its current operations from its ongoing asbestos liabilities.
- [Battling CSR](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/battles-2/battling-csr/): When the common law battles by former Wittenoom workers against CSR began in the 1970s, CSR relied on the ‘corporate veil’ to protect itself: it was Midalco (formerly Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd, a subsidiary of CSR), and a company with no significant assets, the legal cases were made against, not against CSR. Piercing the corporate veil became a battle in itself.
- [The Battles in Australia](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/battles-2/battles-australia/): Public silence was not broken in Australia until the mid-1970s when journalists reported on the lethal dangers. The first workers’ compensation actions by people with asbestos-related disease had already begun by that time but it was not until the sensational story became public that the major battles began.
- [The First Legal Battle](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/battles-2/first-legal-battle/): The first legal battle against the asbestos companies took place in 1929/30 when American workers sued asbestos companies for negligence in failing to maintain safe workplaces, but the big companies settled those claims wihtout them going to trial. Out-of-court settlements were reached in which the plaintiffs’ lawyers were required to agree not to participate in any new legal actions, and so public knowledge of asbestos dangers was suppressed. By the early 1940s this first battle had been largely lost to the companies.
- [The Battles](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/battles-2/): The battle for compensation and justice for the many people who have contracted asbestos-related disease stretches back to the 1930s.
- [The Three Waves](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/health-disaster-2/three-waves/): Asbestos was first used in Australia in the 1880s. Over the next century as it was mined, manufactured, and used extensively around the country, the industry accepted dust exposure as a normal occupational hazard. However asbestos dust was particularly lethal and soon began to take its toll on those exposed to it.
- [CSR Social Support Foundation](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/health-disaster-2/csr-social-support-foundation/): Emeritus Professor Michael Hobbs was one of the pioneers of epidemiological research in Western Australia, the area of study concerned with the pattern of disease in the community.
- [NSW Mesothelioma Register](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/health-disaster-2/nsw-mesothelioma-register/):  
- [Growing Medical Awareness](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/health-disaster-2/growing-medical-awareness/): The timeline tracing the medical history of asbestos-related diseases reveals that while researchers were aware of the dangers from the early 1900s, employers chose to ignore the risk for as long as they could.
- [The Beginning](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/health-disaster-2/beginning/): When the modern asbestos industry began in the 1880s the medical understanding about asbestos-related disease did not exist. Asbestos was thought to be a safe and useful commodity because it prevented the frequent fires which injured and killed many people when wooden buildings burnt.
- [The Health Disaster](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/health-disaster-2/): There can be no doubt that asbestos has been the cause of a health disaster. The lethal mineral has left a legacy of disease in both the workplaces where it was mined and manufactured and in the factories, shops, schools and homes where it was used in building materials and appliances.
- [Asbestos Inside](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-home-3/asbestos-inside/): The third wave of asbestos-related disease – almost entirely mesothelioma – is flowing from the usages described above. It is still a growing wave. First affected were asbestos workers’ families, especially wives who washed their husbands’ work clothing. Wittenoom’s children, who played in the tailings, have been other early victims, often several siblings in one family passing away. Indeed, the town of Wittenoom was so heavily contaminated it was beyond clean-up and has been closed by government order.
- [Asbestos Outside](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-home-3/asbestos-outside/): In addition to using asbestos in house construction, householders also spread the residues from milling and manufacturing as coverings for drives and pathways. Nowhere were these tailings spread more extensively than in Wittenoom in Western Australia. Here the tailings from milling were used extensively to keep down the red dust and to create soft playing areas for children in houses, schools and kindergarten.
- [Building Materials](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-home-3/building-materials/): The development of asbestos cement (fibro) in the 1920s as a house-building material fed the post-war housing boom in Australia. Flat boards provided exterior and interior walling while corrugated boards were used for roofing and fencing. Hardie's Super Six became 'the great Australian roof'.
- [Asbestos at Home](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-home-3/): In the twentieth century asbestos entered all Australia homes in some form or another. Not only were homes built from the ‘magic mineral’, but it was also concealed in numerous domestic products.
- [The Ongoing Hazards](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-work-3/ongoing-hazards/): While the introduction of new asbestos products has ended in countries like Australia the danger of exposure to asbestos fibres has not ended. As the building fabric of workplaces containing asbestos products has aged, it has become more dangerous because the loosened fibres can be released into the atmosphere. Demolition workers face exposure as buildings are torn down, and must work under tightly regulated conditions. Even schools with asbestos cement roofs have become potential danger points.
- [Banning Asbestos](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-work-3/banning-asbestos/): By the mid-1970s there were increasing restrictions on asbestos usage in the USA and western Europe, and a growing number of legal actions against the big asbestos companies. This resulted in the decline of the international asbestos industry in the developed world and a major restructuring of the world asbestos industry.  
- [In the Workplace](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-work-3/workplace/): Many workers were exposed to danger when they used asbestos products in their workplaces. Rail workers, power station workers, plumbers, boilermakers and shipbuilders were among those who worked with asbestos lagging or insulation.
- [James Hardie](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-work-3/james-hardie/): Of all the names linked with the history of asbestos in Australia, that of James Hardie stands out. This was the manufacturing company which dominated the market for asbestos products during the decades following the Second World War.  
- [The Manufacturing Industry](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-work-3/manufacturing-industry/): Workers employed in asbestos manufacturing worked mainly at James Hardie, Wunderlich and Colonial Sugar Refining Company plants located in all capital cities.
- [The Mining Industry](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-work-3/mining-industry/): The first group of workers to be heavily exposed to the danger were asbestos mine, mill, and transport workers who handled raw asbestos fibre in its passage from mine and mill to manufacturing plant.
- [The Early Years](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-work-3/early-years/): In the latter part of the 19th century, a period of rapid industrialisation, the discovery of asbestos in the 1880s presented the industrial economies with what appeared to be a miracle mineral. Its properties as a fire retardant and its flexibility and malleability made it perfectly suited to dealing with some of the hazardous conditions that were emerging in the industrial workplaces at the end of the 19th century.  Historian Lenore Layman explains. Click here to listen>>   While asbestos at first had largely industrial applications, by the beginning of the 20th century its value as a building material began to be recognised. By the 1930s its use in the wider community started to accelerate, but asbestos really took off in the postwar housing boom, stoked by the enthusiastic recommendations of the companies manufacturing asbestos products. Historian Lenore Layman tells more. Click here to listen>>   At first asbestos was associated with poorer housing, but the housing boom in the mid-20th century saw its use accelerate. It now made its way into other building products which were used in the construction of all sorts of public buildings from the mid-1970s and beyond. Historian Lenore Layman explains. Click here to listen>>   With the increasing use of composite materials and product diversification, an ever greater number of products containing asbestos fibre entered Australian workplaces without workers being aware of their asbestos content. As a result, most Australian workers have been exposed to the material. The zenith of the Australian asbestos industry is still recent history: asbestos fibre imports and consumption reached their peak during the years from 1968 to 1977.
- [Asbestos at Work](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-work-3/): Asbestos was built into almost all Australian workplaces in the twentieth century. It was used extensively in manufacturing plants, power generation and all forms of mechanised transport.
- [Asbestos at Baryulgil](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-baryulgil/): Baryulgil was a small chrysotile asbestos mine in northeast New South Wales (near Grafton) which was worked by the Bundjalung/Banjalang people who are the indigenous people of the area.
- [Asbestos in the La Trobe Valley](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-la-trobe-valley/): In the early 1920’s, large-scale electricity production began in Victoria, with the establishment of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) in 1921 and famous soldier, engineer and scholar Sir John Monash named as its head.
- [Closure of Wittenoom](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-wittenoom/closure-wittenoom/): By the 1960s the mounting medical evidence that asbestos posed real health dangers to the miners and their families began to raise questions about the future viability of the Wittenoom mine, even while the mining company CSR and most government authorities continued to turn a blind eye. In these decades of the 1940s-1960s, Australia had almost no experience in mining and milling asbestos fibre, and Western Australia had none. Only a small number of doctors in the State’s Public Health Department, including Dr Eric Saint and Dr Jim McNulty, understood the extent of the danger. Both felt that their words of warning went unheeded, with mine management reluctant to acknowledge the risks and the Mines Department over-confident that it could solve Wittenoom’s dust problems. The WA Public Health Department struggled to obtain more accurate dust measurements in mine and mill. It wasn’t until the end of the 1950s that the Department made regular physical inspections of workers although chest x-rays were taken from the start. In Western Australia the first publicly-recognised diagnosis of asbestosis (recorded in official statistics) was made in 1959, and the first diagnosis of mesothelioma caused by contact with asbestos fibres was reported in 1962.   Closure of Wittenoom mine and mill In December 1966, CSR made the decision to close its Wittenoom works. The decision was made on the basis of economics, rather than safety, because the company considered the venture did not have a profitable future. Thus to the very end the health danger was still not a significant factor in company decision-making. People who lived and worked in Wittenoom in these years stress that  ‘We didn’t know’, ‘No one told us anything’. They had no idea of the danger they lived with, nor of the suffering they would face as families decades later when, after the long latency period characteristic of the disease, mesotheliomas would be diagnosed. After the works closed the town itself stayed open and became a popular tourist site.   Closing down the town After decades of threats to do so, the WA Government finally closed the town of Wittenoom in 2006. It was declared a contaminated site and all government services were withdrawn. In June 2007 Wittenoom was degazetted and removed from the map. But its legacy is ongoing and all former Wittenoom residents live in the shadow of disease and possible death.Wittenoom’s deadly legacy The asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma is uniformly fatal, with an average life expectancy from diagnosis to death of nine months. In Western Australia 1500 people have been diagnosed with this cancer since the first recognised case in the early 1960s. Of those 1500 people around 300 came from Wittenoom. Many of those diagnosed are former Wittenoom children who have died of the disease in mid-life. This number of diagnoses and deaths makes Western Australia (proportionate to population size) one of the world’s mesothelioma hot spots. The stress of living under the constant threat of disease has taken its toll on the former Wittenoom workers and their families.  For Liborio Napolitano the strain of seeing his friends and former Wittenoom colleagues fall victim to asbestos-related diseases one by one increased his dread that he would one day succumb to asbestosis or mesothelioma himself.  His wife Angela describes what it was like for him to live under the shadow of death. Click here to listen>> For ex-miner Josef Schrott, it was in the early 1980s that he began to experience breathlessness and other early symptoms of asbestosis.  While anyone working in the mining industry is aware of the risk of lung disease, asbestos-related diseases are of a different dimension and Mr Schrott laments the fact that he was never made aware of the dangers. Click here to listen>>   For Butch Taylor, it was decades after the family's stint at Wittenoom that tragedy struck.  In 1999 Butch lost his wife to mesothelioma, and then his son Brent was found to have the cancer as well at the age of 31.  For Butch the double loss has left him with a legacy of guilt. Click here to listen>>   Since the closure of the mining town the consequences of CSR’s blunder have spread far beyond Wittenoom. In 1957 it had reached agreement with James Hardie on the purchase of Wittenoom’s blue asbestos for use in Hardie’s asbestos-cement building materials. In this way blue asbestos spread across Australia’s built environment.
- [Looming Health Disaster](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-wittenoom/looming-health-disaster/): Exposure to dust was an accepted part of the mining industry, so even the abnormally bad conditions at Wittenoom were accepted by managers and many workers.
- [Social Life](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-wittenoom/social-life/): There was more to life than work, even in Wittenoom, and the town had an active social life. The population was ethnically diverse and the entertainments on offer often reflected the passions of the different migrant groups. Listen to former workers and residents talk about Wittenoom’s social life.
- [Living Conditions](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-wittenoom/living-conditions/): Living conditions in the town were basic, and in the Single Men’s Quarters they were particularly unsatisfactory.
- [Working at Wittenoom](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-wittenoom/working-wittenoom/): Working conditions, particularly in the very dusty conditions of the mills, were abysmal. The inexperience of the operators in the mining industry meant that what was already an uncongenial environment because of the intense heat, was made even worse by the cramped and dusty conditions underground.
- [Who went there](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-wittenoom/went/): At a time of high unemployment in Western Australia and an acute post-war housing shortage, Wittenoom was an attractive prospect for people looking for work, both Australian-born and recent migrants.
- [Arrival of CSR](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-wittenoom/arrival-csr/): In 1943 Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd (ABA), a CSR subsidiary, began mining and milling asbestos in Wittenoom. The operation ran until December 1966, first in Wittenoom Gorge and then in Colonial Gorge.
- [Asbestos at Wittenoom](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-history/asbestos-wittenoom/): Wittenoom is situated adjacent to Karijini (formerly Hamersley Range) National Park in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. A site of stunning physical beauty, it is now notorious as a place which produced suffering, disease and death associated with the mining and milling of blue asbestos (crocidolite).

## Asbestos Stories
- [Margaret Smith](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/philippa-brear/margaret-smith/): “Anything we can do to get this out there – there’s not just enough information about this disease. There should be ads for this, like they do for smoking,” says Margaret Smith (pictured right), one of the longest-stand
- [Glenda Gauci](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/philippa-brear/glenda-gauci/): January 2006
- [The Journalists](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/journalists-2/): The first significant public/media exposure of the asbestos danger at Wittenoom & the danger to everyone from blue asbestos came in July 1974 with the Bulletin magazine's cover story written by Tim Hall warning: 'Blue Asbestos: Is there a killer in your house ?’  
- [Duncan and Jessie Fergus](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/duncan-jessie-fergus/): Originally from Scotland, married couple Duncan and Jessie came to Victoria’s Latrobe Valley in 1957, where Duncan began work for the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) as a turbine driver at 29 years of age.
- [Margaret and Graeme Cook](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/margaret-graeme-cook/): Margaret met her husband, Graeme, at her local milk bar the day before her 21st birthday in 1967. There was an instant ‘spark’ between them and from that day on they were inseparable. They were married within the next 12 months and had two children together. Graeme worked as an engineer in the pulp and paper industry from the 1970s and was often in charge of the maintenance of paper and tissue machinery, which contained asbestos insulation in the form of lagging and asbestos cement sheeting. Due to this asbestos exposure Graeme lost his life to mesothelioma in 2010 at 65 years of age. Here, Margaret tells their story. Graeme’s asbestos exposure and awareness The machinery in the powerhouses of the pulp and paper mills that Graeme worked in contained asbestos lagging. With the heat asbestos dust was stirred up in the air. While Graeme was not fully aware of the dangers of asbestos, he always made sure to leave his work overalls on the clothes line outside and shower before he entered the family home after work. He made it clear to Margaret not to wash his clothes or to allow the children near them. Click here to watch on YouTube>> Graeme’s symptoms and incorrect diagnose Two years prior to being diagnosed with mesothelioma, Graeme’s symptom of sudden shortness of breath started to worsen. Margaret remembers doctors testing and looking for the wrong things before discovering the real problem two years later. She tries not to think about it, but feels that if he had been correctly diagnosed earlier on, the outcome might have been different. Click here to watch on YouTube>> Challenges of being a carer As Graeme’s full time carer, Margaret was devoted to his every need but struggled internally with not wanting to treat him like a dependant child. She became very protective of him and just wanted to make him feel better. She describes it as “the best and the worst job that anyone can have”. Click here to watch on YouTube>> The day Graeme passed away When Graeme was first diagnosed with mesothelioma he was given three months to live. Graeme surpassed that expectation and lived for two years. On the 19th of April, 2010, Graeme was due to return home from hospital after treatment when his doctor decided to have him stay one more day to be sure his elbow was okay after a blood clot. While he woke eager to go home, he slowly deteriorated during the morning and passed away with Margaret by his side. Click here to watch on YouTube>>
- [Vicki Hamilton](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/vicki-hamilton/): Vicki Hamilton is the CEO/Secretary of Gippsland Asbestos Related Disease Support Inc. (GARDS), a non-profit, non-government voluntary organisation that supports those affected by asbestos-related disease (ARD) in the Gippsland region of Victoria.
- [Ian and Betty Moore](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/ian-betty-moore/): Ian Moore, born in 1926, has lived in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, most of his life and developed asbestosis from working as an electrician at the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV). First he was an apprentice electrician at the SECV for five years and after a stint driving trucks Ian returned to work at the SECV in 1964. Since his diagnosis in 2002, his disease has progressed to server asbestosis. Betty Moore, who has been married to Ian since 1951, supports and cares for him every day. Here, they share their experiences.
- [Richard Lawson](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/richard-lawson/): One thing that should be mentioned is the conditions at the single men's quarters. The rooms were OK but the food was disgraceful. There was no such thing as health and safety back then and almost everyone who ate there contracted dysentery.
- [Margaret Smith](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/margaret-smith/): “Anything we can do to get this out there – there’s not just enough information about this disease. There should be ads for this, like they do for smoking,” says Margaret Smith (pictured right), one of the longest-standing members of the support group run by the Asbestos Diseases Society of Victoria.
- [Glenda Gauci](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/glenda-gauci/): Glenda’s father, John Gauci, worked on Melbourne’s docks for three decades from the 1950s. Like thousands of waterfront workers around Australia at that time, he loaded and unloaded raw asbestos. On the days he handled it, John would have gone home covered in dust – his clothing saturated with fibres – not realising the danger. The likelihood is that Glenda, as a child, hugged or played with her father when he came home from work, and inhaled the toxic strands from his clothes.
- [Philippa Brear](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/philippa-brear/): I went on to interview another four women for the project. Through Glenda, and my own research, I connected with a group of professionals who worked with asbestos-related disease sufferers, and interviews with them are in the manuscript I submitted for my Master’s. I also met Margaret Smith, who was also a member of Glenda’s support group, run by the Asbestos Diseases Society of Victoria.
- [Sylvia Lovenfosse](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/sylvia-lovenfosse/): These years of study were dogged by personal tragedy as her husband contracted the deadly asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma and she contracted breast cancer at around the same time. Phil’s illness and subsequent death forty years after they were in Wittenoom made her more determined than ever to complete her ambitious project.
- [Lorraine Kember](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/lorraine-kember/): “You’ve got three to nine months, I reckon,” the young doctor told Brian.
- [Fiona Cannon](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/fiona-cannon/): My Dad (pictured with me on the left) passed away in July 2010 from Mesothelioma, he was only 64. The funny thing is my Dad never worked with asbestos, he wasn’t a tradesperson or labourer, he worked in an office!  My Dad was always very healthy, fit and very active - I can’t remember one instance where my Dad was sick.
- [Elizabeth Nicholson](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/elizabeth-nicholson/): Elizabeth Nicholson from Perth was diagnosed with the asbestos cancer mesothelioma in 2008. Elizabeth never worked with asbestos and she is one of an increasing number of people affected by asbestos-related disease who were not exposed in the workplace. In spite of being given only a short time to live at the time, her health has remained relatively stable. Here she talks about the shock of receiving her diagnosis and how she and her family have dealt with the aftermath.
- [Rod Powell](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/rod-powell/): Rod Powell, an electrician and home inventor, spent a year of his life working at Wittenoom when he was 20 years old. He went up there in 1960 having heard that it was a good place to make some quick money. He worked in the mine as well as the mill, and has many colourful stories to tell about both the mine and the lifestyle of the workers.
- [Ross Hook](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/ross-hook/): Ross Hook began his working life as an apprentice mechanical fitter in the Midland Railway Workshops. In the stripping pits of the workshops he worked in clouds of asbestos dust, released as the asbestos lagging (or insulation) was stripped from around the boilers of the locomotives during their maintenance refits. Here he gives an account of what life in the stripping pits was like.
- [Reg Jones](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/reg-jones/): Reg Jones was exposed to asbestos in his work as a plumber. It wasn’t until many decades after this exposure that he fell ill - just as he and his wife Elaine were thinking about retirement, and spending more time together.
- [Liborio Napolitano](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/liborio-napolitano/): Liborio Napolitano was 21 when he went to work at Wittenoom. The money was good and he believed the sacrifice of leaving his fiancée was worth it to invest in their future together. He knew nothing about the health risks from asbestos and it was only years later as he saw his former workmates die one by one from asbestos-related diseases that he began to realise that his own days might be numbered. This cast a cloud over his life until he did indeed fall ill with mesothelioma, succumbing to the disease in November 1994. Before he died he launched a successful court case for compensation, fueled by anger to ensure that his story would be told so that others could learn from his experience. His widow Angela tells his story.
- [Julie Mackay](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/julie-mackay/): Julie Mackay’s parents met during the war and married in 1949. Julie’s father was in the army and in those hard post-war times the family lived with the extended family in a house in Fremantle. Even though Julie’s father was a welder and boilermaker, when he left the army in the early 1950s work was very difficult to find. So in 1953 when a job came up in Wittenoom, it was an attractive proposition, doubly so because it meant the family would have a house to themselves. But life in Wittenoom was quite hard for the young family
- [Josef Schrott](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/josef-schrott/): Josef Schrott was born in Austria in 1933, and in 1949 he left to see the world. His first visit to Australia was in 1952 and his experience of Fremantle led him to decide to apply for permanent residency and make Australia his home. His experience in tunnelling equipped him well for mining work so he decided to give it a go. He worked on the goldfields and then, in order to save money, decided in 1958 to move to Wittenoom. Nothing in his career prepared him for the conditions he encountered there.
- [Jack Carroll](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/jack-carroll/): Jack Carroll was nineteen when he went to work at Wittenoom in 1947. He started working at the mine, but the work was too hard for him so he was transferred to the mill. Even here the working conditions were so atrocious that he left after a total of 17 weeks.
- [Eric Yeldon](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/eric-yeldon/): Robyn Guyton’s parents were among the first settlers at Wittenoom in 1943. Robyn's father Eric Yeldon was employed by Australian Blue Asbestos as the original administrator of the mine and had the job of preparing the site for the mining operation.
- [Greg Deleuil](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/greg-deleuil/): Dr Greg Deleuil is an unusual GP. He joined the Army reserve as a civilian doctor and often found himself treating the army divers. Through this experience he gained expertise in diving medicine and became skilled at lung function testing. Just down the road from his surgery in North Perth was the headquarters of the Asbestos Diseases Society and he soon came to the attention of its director Robert Vojakovic. The ADS started referring to him people affected by asbestos-related diseases, beginning a relationship that has now lasted for over a quarter of a century.
- [Ted Grant](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/ted-grant/): Ted Grant first went to Wittenoom with his family at the age of twelve - he says his father went up there 'to make a better life for us'. The family left Wittenoom after nine months because of his father’s concern about the unhealthy environment, and moved to Roebourne. However this meant that Ted found himself working in the school holidays at Point Samson, loading bags of asbestos that came from Wittenoom onto the ships. So, son followed father into a job which involved exposure to the deadly material. On the day his father died of mesothelioma, Ted found that he himself was a victim of the incurable disease.
- [Doreen Lyons](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/doreen-lyons/): Victor and Doreen Lyons lived in Wittenoom from 1947 to 1951. As some of the first people to move to Wittenoom, they lived in the mine settlement in Wittenoom Gorge near the mine in what seemed to be an idyllic setting. Doreen’s husband subsequently died of mesothelioma. Here Doreen describes life in the early days of Wittenoom
- [Margaret Page](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/margaret-page/): Margaret's family had been living in Collie, in the south west of Western Australia, but when jobs were hard to find after the war, her father went to work at Wittenoom. The family soon joined him and, like so many Wittenoom settlers, Margaret fell in love with the place. Asbestos was everywhere and one by one she has seen her siblings fall victim to asbestos-related diseases. She herself was diagnosed with mesothelioma at the age of 69 in 2007 and passed away a year later. The family accepted the rather basic conditions as what was to be expected in a developing mining town, but no one ever told them the dust that surrounded them was dangerous and deadly.
- [Ellen Barns](https://www.australianasbestosnetwork.org.au/asbestos-stories/ellen-barns/): Ellen Barns was the inspiration for this website. We spoke to her about our idea for a website which could create a community for patients, carers and the general public and she was excited by the idea and happy to help us. Unfortunately, within a year, she had succumbed to mesothelioma but she continued to be the person we had in the forefront of our minds as we worked to make the website a reality. Here her husband Ian Barns tells the story of their experience of asbestos-related disease.