Wittenoom

Wittenoom
The souvenir shop in Wittenoom
State :  Australia State : Western Australia Founded : 1950
Coordinates : 22 ° 14 ′  S , 118 ° 20 ′  E Coordinates: 22 ° 14 ′  S , 118 ° 20 ′  E Height : 463  m
Residents : 3 (2019)
Time zone : AWST ( UTC + 8 ) Postal code : 6751 LGA : Shire of Ashburton
Wittenoom

Wittenoom is a ghost town in the Pilbara region of the Australian state of Western Australia . It is located about 1100 kilometers north-northeast of the capital Perth in the Hamersley Range .

Blue asbestos , which was a popular building material at the time, had been mined in the nearby gorges of Wittenoom Gorge and Yampire Gorge since the 1930s . From 1947 onwards, Wittenoom emerged as a workers' settlement and in the 1950s it rose to become the largest city in the Pilbara region. As the mine was not profitable and health concerns about asbestos mining increased, the mine closed in 1966 and the site gradually abandoned since the 1970s.

Today only one resident lives permanently in Wittenoom. However, the place no longer receives any state services such as electricity supply. In June 2007 the city status was revoked by official notice. The city's name was subsequently removed from official maps and street signs, and the Shire of Ashburton is allowed to close roads that lead into contaminated areas.

Surname

Wittenoom was named by Lang Hancock after Frank Wittenoom, his partner at the nearby Mulga Downs Station. The area around Wittenoom was originally settled by Frank Wittenoom's brother, the politician Sir Edward Horne Wittenoom. In the late 1940s there was a call for an official town near the mine, and the mines' ministry suggested the name Wittenoom, with reference to the fact that this was very much wanted by the residents. The name was approved in 1948, but it was not until May 2, 1950 that it was published in the Official Gazette. In 1951 the name was changed to Wittenoom Gorge at the request of the mining company , which was reversed in 1974.

geography

Wittenoom is very remote in the sparsely populated northwestern part of Western Australia. The nearest town is Tom Price , which is 80 kilometers as the crow flies or 130 kilometers by road to the southwest. Wittenoom is on the northern edge of the Hamersley Range, which slopes down to the Fortescue River here . The Wittenoom Gorge extends from the city in a southerly direction into the mountains, the highest point on its east face is Mt. Watkins at 775 meters.

A few kilometers south of Wittenoom, the Karijini National Park extends over 100 kilometers to the south.

Wittenoom has access to the road network via State Route 136. This connects the North West Coastal Highway (junction Nanutarra Roadhouse, 292 kilometers as the crow flies / 375 kilometers by road from Wittenoom) with the Great Northern Highway (Munjina Roadhouse, 40 kilometers) and runs through Wittenoom , which is why the road west of the village is called Nanutarra – Wittenoom Road and east Munjina – Wittenoom Road.

Politically, Wittenoom is part of the Shire of Ashburton LGA . In the case of state elections, Wittenoom is part of the Electoral district of North West Central , and on the federal level is part of the Division of Durack .

climate

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology classifies the area around Wittenoom as grassland with a hot, permanently dry climate.

Wittenoom
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     114   40 26th     105   38 25th     69   37 24     28   33 21st     28   28 16     29   25th 13     14th   24 12     8.1   27 13     3.1   31 17th     4th   35 21st     9.7   38 24     49   40 26th Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: Australian Bureau of Meteorology : Wittenoom Station. Observation period: 1950–2016. Retrieved July 10, 2016.

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Wittenoom Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 39.5 37.8 36.7 33.2 27.8 24.5 24.2 26.9 31.2 35.4 38.1 39.7 O 32.9 Min. Temperature (° C) 26.0 25.3 24.3 21.2 16.2 12.8 11.5 13.2 16.8 20.8 23.6 25.5 O 19.7 Precipitation ( mm ) 114.0 104.5 69.3 28.1 28.0 29.1 14.2 8.1 3.1 4.0 9.7 49.4 Σ 461.5 Rainy days ( d ) 6.7 6.9 4.6 2.6 2.6 2.2 1.6 1.0 0.4 0.7 1.3 3.5 Σ 34.1 Source: Australian Bureau of Meteorology : Wittenoom Station. Observation period: 1950–2016. Retrieved July 10, 2016.

history

Discovery of asbestos deposits

In 1917, the Mines Department first recorded occurrences of blue asbestos in the Hamersley Ranges. In the early 1930s, Langley Hancock discovered Wittenoom Gorge on the land of Mulga Downs Station. In 1937, Hancock showed samples of crocidolite fibers that he had collected in the gorge to Islwyn "Izzy" Walters and Walter "Len" Leonard, who at the time were mining and processing white asbestos ( chrysotile ) in Nunyerrie and Lionel (near Nullagine ) . When Hancock learned that his fibers were worth £ 70 a ton, he immediately secured the best claims in the Wittenoom Gorge. Leo Snell, a kangaroo hunter from Mulga Downs Station, staked a claim in the Yampire Gorge where there was more blue asbestos. Walters and Leonard acquired Yampire Gorge from Snell, relocated their processing plant there and began mining. When Leonard telegraphed to London that “two miles of asbestos were in sight” in Yampire Gorge, he received the reply that he should take some vacation. Only a photo could convince the doubters of this incredible discovery.

Walters and Leonard cleared the path into Yampire Gorge by blasting away the largest boulders and pulling them out of the way with carts of camels. This made access easier, but it still took them seven hours by truck to travel the 15 miles (15 miles) between the deposit and the processing plant. By 1940, 22 men had been hired and around 375 tons of rock were mined, which was transported by mule teams to the coast at Point Samson (part of Karratha City ). Communication with England was difficult during World War II. In 1943 the Colonial Sugar Company took over both the Wittenoom and the Yampire Gorge through its subsidiary Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd. Lang Hancock, whose farm estate had grown into a small town, said in 1958, "Izzy Walters is the man who stuck to the idea and created the market that made today's Wittenoom possible." His partner Len Leonard stated, "Without [Walters'] sheer courage and hard work there would be no Wittenoom today. "

boom

Blue asbestos (crocidolite) from Wittenoom

Until World War II, Australia imported asbestos mainly from South Africa and Canada . The Australian asbestos market was valued at $ 1 million a year before the war and had export potential. Hancock had promising discussions with British people who wanted to use asbestos as a filter in gas masks . His partners Walters and Leonard negotiated with Johns Manville in the USA. When the Second World War broke out, asbestos was in great demand as a material for tanks, planes, warships, helmets and gas masks. In 1943 the mine was sold to a subsidiary of CSR Limited, Australian Blue Asbestos Pty Ltd (ABA), where Hancock remained as manager until 1948.

In 1946 the Yampire Gorge Mine was closed and the Wittenoom Gorge Mine was opened. By 1956, around 590,000 tons of ore had been mined, from which 20,000 tons of asbestos were extracted. In 1947 the city of Wittenoom was built to supply the mine. It was built ten kilometers from the mine and processing plant, as there was no longer enough space at the site of the original mining settlement. In 1951 the place had 150 houses and over 500 inhabitants.

In 1948, as the parent company of ABA, CSR took over the asbestos project in Wittenoom. From 1950 to the early 1960s, Wittenoom was Australia's sole supplier of asbestos, producing 161,000 tonnes from 1943 to 1966. In an internal report recommending the closure of the mine, one of CSR's directors admitted that “no thorough investigation of the deposits was made in Wittenoom ”. Most of the years CSR has been mining asbestos the company has made losses. From 1956–1961 some profit was made by working double shifts. When the mine closed, it was in debt of approximately $ 2.5 million.

Health concerns

Overburden from the mine near Wittenoom

In 1944, mine inspector Adams reported a dust problem in Wittenoom and pointed out that the amount of dust had to be reduced. The Assistant State Mining Engineer from Western Australia reported on the dangers posed by the dust generated in the Wittenoom. The first case of asbestosis in Wittenoom occurred in 1946, but this was not conclusively diagnosed until much later. In 1948, Dr. Eric Saint, a medical government employee, chief of the Department of Health of Western Australia. He warned of the amount of dust in the mine and the processing plant, the lack of suction systems, the dangers of asbestos and the risk of asbestosis. He saw the mine on the way to producing the world's largest case of asbestosis. As a result, he advised mine management that asbestos was extremely dangerous and that workers exposed to it would develop breast disease within six months.

Dr. Jim McNulty, a member of the Western Australia Department of Health, did an eyewitness account of working conditions when he visited Wittenoom for a clinical examination in 1959:

“It was generally dirty and dusty, there were clumps of asbestos all over the floor and one's clothing was rapidly soiled by contact with any surface. Every operation in the mine was associated with dust. "

“It was generally dirty and dusty, clumps of asbestos were strewn all over the floor, and clothes got soiled through contact with any surface in no time. Every work in the mine was associated with dust. "

- Dr. Jim McNulty

Dr. McNulty repeatedly warned the company's managers of the dangers miners and townspeople were exposed to, but he and the Department of Health had no authority to order the mine to be closed.

Between 1977 and 1992, the Western Australia Department of Health and other agencies conducted eight air surveillance studies. These studies showed some shortcomings so that the debate about the risk to the residents was not finally resolved. Reports from the Environmental Protection Authority give details of the extent of the contamination. Inspection reports show that asbestos fibers were present in almost every part of the place.

Gradual abandonment of the place

In 1966 the mine was closed. Despite the many problems, the closure was not for health reasons, but simply for economic reasons.

Wittenoom has been removed from road signs and maps

In 1978 the government of Western Australia passed a guideline to phase out activities in Wittenoom. This policy was considered the most appropriate course of action given the widespread crocidolite contamination in and around the city. The policy encouraged local residents to voluntarily move out of Wittenoom by buying their homes, businesses and land and paying part of their relocation costs. The Shire of Ashburton and many local residents declined to abandon the place; Instead, they advocated renovating the place and turning it into a tourist attraction.

In 1981 the government reaffirmed its policy. In 1984 she amended the policy to ensure government facilities and the Fortescue Hotel would be preserved until alternatives were available. By the end of 1991, more than $ 1.4 million had been spent under this policy, which resulted in the population of Wittenoom halving from over 90 in May 1984 to approximately 45 in March 1992. Between 1986 and 1992 about 50 houses and other buildings were demolished by the government. When the population decreased, the school, infirmary and police station were closed and their tasks were largely taken over by facilities in Tom Price , about 80 kilometers away . In 1993 the airfield was officially closed and the government informed the remaining residents that they would not be forced to walk, but that new settlements would not be encouraged.

Several organizations, including the Shire of Ashburton, the Department of Minerals and Energy, and the Environmental Protection Authority, made a series of estimates of the costs and possible methods of remediating Wittenoom. In 1993 the government commissioned CMPS & F Environmental with a feasibility study for the remediation. This first established that, despite fifteen years in the past and several attempts at remediation, there was still considerable contamination. The final report recommended removing ten centimeters of soil under strict conditions and replacing it with gravel; the cost of this was estimated at $ 2.43 million. The report indicated that the place could then be further developed.

A systematic rehabilitation of the place was not tackled. Members of the Interdepartmental Committee on Wittenoom believed that a satisfactory refurbishment was unlikely and that the benefits of such an attempt were out of proportion to the costs and risks involved. The legal risks of encouraging people to live in a crocidolite-contaminated site would be enormous even after remediation: if residents or visitors were to contract an asbestos-related disease in the future, it would be very likely that they would involve legal action against the government or others Organizations would undertake.

In 2004, mining equipment and 400,000 cubic meters of heavily contaminated material were buried in the gorge.

Todays situation

Asbestos warning in and around Wittenoom

In 2005, a small number of residents remained in the town, despite the suspension of state services and the government's express intention to demolish the town. On June 30, 2006, the government cut power to Wittenoom. In 2007 the post ceased its services.

A report by the consultants GHD Group and Parsons Brinckerhoff in November 2006 evaluated the risks related to asbestos in and around Wittenoom and classified the risks for visitors as moderate and for residents as extreme. In December 2006, the Minister for the Pilbara and Rural Development, Jon Ford, announced that Wittenoom's status as a city would be removed, which officially took place in June 2007.

Both the Ministry of Health and an accredited contamination inspector reviewed the report, the latter finding that the free asbestos fibers detected in topsoil samples posed an intolerable health risk. The auditor recommended that the former urban area and other impaired areas should be classified as “contaminated - remediation required”. As a result, the Department of the Environment of Western Australia classified a total of 46,840 square kilometers of land in and around Wittenoom under the Contaminated Sites Act 2003 as a contaminated area, so this is officially "not suitable for any form of human activity or land use".

The Wittenoom Steering Committee met in April 2013 to complete the site's task of restricting access to the area and raising awareness of the risk. Details of how this will be achieved are not yet clear, but it will probably be necessary to relocate the remaining residents, convert private to state land, demolish houses and close or relocate roads.

The abandoned Doc Holidays Cafe at the entrance to the village

However, opinion about the real danger is not unanimous. Mark Nevill, a geologist and former Labor MP, said in an interview in 2004 that asbestos exposure in Wittenoom is below the limit of most gauges and that the real danger is in the canyon itself as it contains overburden from the mines.

The remaining inhabitants manage a campsite, a guest house and a souvenir shop for tourists.

Population development

census	Residents	source
1947	129
1954	543
1961	881
1966	876
1971	422
1976	962
1981	247
1986	356
2019	3

Working conditions in the mine

General

Working conditions during the operation of the mine and ore processing in Wittenoom were extremely poor, especially when compared to those of the 1990s. The biggest problem was the dust, which is made up of tiny airborne asbestos fibers. Workers worked permanently in the asbestos dust in the poorly ventilated facilities, mostly without effective personal protective equipment . The existence or compliance with safety regulations was not evident. Wittenoom's climate is hot and humid in summer, which made working conditions in the poorly ventilated, dusty mine and ore processing plant even more uncomfortable.

recruitment

Many workers often only stayed in the city for a short time. Although only around 200 people were employed at the same time, the mine employed around 7,000 workers in its 23 years of operation (this corresponds to an average of a complete replacement of the workforce every eight months). Almost half of these workers stayed for less than three months. Since CSR had problems attracting workers to Wittenoom, they wrote to the Department of Immigration in 1951 to ask for help. CSR sent representatives to European countries like Italy to recruit workers. Many European immigrants who could not find work in their own country signed a two-year contract with CSR to work in Wittenoom. The only way to end their contract early was to reimburse the CSR paid crossing to Australia, which was impossible for most of them.

Long-term consequences

The Australian Blue Asbestos Company employed around 6500 men and 500 women in crocidolite mining in Wittenoom between 1943 and 1966. This group has been periodically examined for health since 1975 and the cause of death recorded in the event of death. By 1986 there were 85 deaths from peritoneum or pleural mesothelioma (see also asbestosis ). None of these deaths occurred within the first ten years of first contact with crocidolite. An industrial dustiness survey carried out in 1966 provided a basis for estimating the cumulative crocidolite exposure of this group. The relationship between exposure and body response was studied and it was found that incidents of mesothelioma increased with the intensity of exposure and even increased exponentially with time since first contact. Mathematical modeling of the relationships between exposure intensity, duration of exposure, and time since first exposure to mesothelioma incidents resulted in an estimated expectation of up to 700 cases in this group by 2020.

religion

In 1968 Wittenoom was one of only two Catholic parishes in the Pilbara, along with Port Hedland .

Wittenoom in art

• The song Blue Sky Mine and its album Blue Sky Mining by the Australian band Midnight Oil were inspired by the city and its mining industry.
• Alistair Hulett also drew the inspiration for his songs He Fades Away and Blue Murder there.
• The city and its history appear in the novel Dirt Music (German title: The Singing Tree ) by the Australian author Tim Winton .
• The “digital poet” Jason Nelson designed the work Wittenoom: speculative shell and the cancerous breeze , an “interactive journey of discovery into the death of the city”. It won the Newcastle Poetry Prize in 2009.

literature

• Hills, Ben: Blue Murder: Two thousand doomed to die - the shocking truth about Wittenoom's deadly dust. Sun Books, South Melbourne, 1989, ISBN 0-7251-0581-X .

Web links

Commons : Wittenoom, Western Australia  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Wittenoom: Asbestos contamination and management (Government of Western Australia)
• The Asbestos Disease Society of Australia
• Wittenoom: An Australian Tragedy , BBC report (June 20, 2018)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Western Australian Land Information Authority: Town names - Wittenoom . Retrieved December 3, 2015.
2. ↑ Bonzle Digital Atlas of Australia: Map of Wittenoom, WA . Retrieved July 10, 2016.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Final Wittenoom residents to be forced out of asbestos ridden mining town. On theguardian.com on March 21, 2019.
4. ↑ Melanie Garrick and Loretta Florance: Wittenoom: The survivors of an erased town . In: ABC News . September 7, 2016. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
5. ^ Western Australian Government Gazette 42, 1950 Page 974 . In: State Law Publisher . Retrieved November 15, 2010.
6. ^ ^{A b} Jack Edmonds: North-West Pioneer lived in a packing case , Daily News article from July 25, 1958
7. ↑ ^{a b} Hills, Ben: Blue Murder: Two thousand doomed to die - the shocking truth about Wittenoom's deadly dust , page 11. Sun Books, South Melbourne, 1989, ISBN 0-7251-0581-X .
8. ↑ Hills, Ben: Blue Murder: Two thousand doomed to die - the shocking truth about Wittenoom's deadly dust , p. 16. Sun Books, South Melbourne, 1989, ISBN 0-7251-0581-X .
9. ↑ Safetyline Institute / WorkSafe WA: The Wittenoom Disaster (PDF) p. January 5, 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. Retrieved on November 14, 2010.
10. ↑ Hills, Ben: Blue Murder: Two thousand doomed to die - the shocking truth about Wittenoom's deadly dust , page 17. Sun Books, South Melbourne, 1989, ISBN 0-7251-0581-X .
11. ↑ ^{a b} Hills, Ben: Blue Murder: Two thousand doomed to die - the shocking truth about Wittenoom's deadly dust , page 21. Sun Books, South Melbourne, 1989, ISBN 0-7251-0581-X .
12. ↑ Safetyline Institute / WorkSafe WA: The Wittenoom Disaster (PDF) p. January 13, 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. Retrieved on November 14, 2010.
13. ^ Australian Safety News, May 1995
14. ↑ Safetyline Institute / WorkSafe WA: The Wittenoom Disaster (PDF) p. January 9, 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. Retrieved November 14, 2010.
15. ↑ Safetyline Institute / WorkSafe WA: The Wittenoom Disaster (PDF) p. January 17, 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. Retrieved on November 14, 2010.
16. ↑ Safetyline Institute / WorkSafe WA: The Wittenoom Disaster (PDF) p. January 19, 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. Retrieved on November 14, 2010.
17. ↑ Safetyline Institute / WorkSafe WA: The Wittenoom Disaster (PDF) p. January 20, 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. Retrieved on November 14, 2010.
18. ↑ ^{a b} Safetyline Institute / WorkSafe WA: The Wittenoom Disaster (PDF) p. January 18, 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. Retrieved on November 14, 2010.
19. ↑ ^{a b c d} Last six residents of Wittenoom resist efforts to close asbestos mining town . In: The Guardian . December 15, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
20. ^ ^{A b c} Department of Environment and Conservation: Search for Known Contaminated Sites . Retrieved November 14, 2010.
21. ↑ ^{a b c} Safetyline Institute / WorkSafe WA: The Wittenoom Disaster (PDF) p. January 22, 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. Retrieved on November 14, 2010.
22. ↑ New report into Wittenoom's asbestos risks . In: Regional Development Minister Jon Ford - Government of Western Australia . Archived from the original on March 11, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2010.
23. ^ Mick O'Donnell: Wittenoom's diehard residents stay put . In: The 7.30 Report , December 6, 2004. Retrieved February 15, 2008. 
24. ^ Andrew Fildes: The Doom of Wittenoom . July 2006. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
25. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics : 1947 Census - Volume I - Part VIII Population and Occupied Dwellings in Localities , page 552 (page 60 in the PDF). Retrieved September 23, 2016.
26. ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics : 1954 Census - Volume V - Part V WESTERN AUSTRALIA Population Occupied Dwellings LGA 50 Persons or More , page 17 (page 18 in PDF). Retrieved September 23, 2016.
27. ↑ Australian Bureau of Statistics : 1961 Census - Volume V - Part V WESTERN AUSTRALIA Population and Dwellings in Localities , page 24. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
28. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics : 1966 Census - Volume 5 Population and Dwellings in Localities - Part 5 WA , page 10. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
29. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics : 1971 Census - Bulletin No 6 - Population and Dwellings in LGA - Part 5 WA , page 22. Retrieved September 23, 2016.
30. ↑ ^{a b} Australian Bureau of Statistics : 1981 Census - Persons and Dwellings in Local Government areas and Urban Centers, Western Australia , page 25 (page 28 in the PDF). Retrieved September 23, 2016.
31. ^ Australian Bureau of Statistics : 1986 Census - Persons and Dwellings in Legal LGAs, Statistical Local Areas and Urban Centers / (Rural) Localities - Western Australia , Table C5, page 27 (page 32 in the PDF). Retrieved September 23, 2016.
32. ↑ ^{a b} Safetyline Institute / WorkSafe WA: The Wittenoom Disaster (PDF) p. January 10, 2009. Archived from the original on June 4, 2009. Retrieved on November 14, 2010.
33. ^ AW Musk, NH de Klerk, JL Eccles, MST Hobbs: Mesothelioma: the Wittenoom experience . In: Elsevier Ireland Ltd (Ed.): Lung Cancer . 9, No. 1-6, 1993, pp. 405-408. doi : 10.1016 / 0169-5002 (93) 90698-W .
34. ^ History of St Paul's Catholic Church Karratha . Retrieved December 3, 2015.
35. ↑ Blue Sky Mine by Midnight Oil . Song facts. Retrieved September 10, 2007.
36. ↑ The work of Jason Nelson on secrettechnology.com .