Fri, 16th Sept, 2016 Dale Campground, Karijini Nat Park to Mt Robinson Rest Area, 70km N of Newman, WA (Wittenoom Asbestos Mine)

25 months on the road. 7.30am 17 degrees, clear sky and windy.

Steve put the spare tyres on the back of the truck – we have worn the others out on the rough dirt roads!!

Headed back out of the National Park to the main road then north up to the roadhouse as we had miscalculated the distance still to Newman and won’t have enough fuel so will have to put some more in. Since we are going back that way we decided to go and check out the Asbestos Mine. We dropped off the van at the Albert Tognolini Lookout camp area then headed up to the roadhouse. I checked with the staff and it wasn’t fenced off. It is 41km west on a dirt road which is the northern border of the National Park. Looking at the Hema these are the top end of the gorges we visited.

 

Very flat on the other side of the road.

As we enter what used to be the town of Wittenoom, warning signs greet us.

Still a few houses here though and it appears there are a few residents.

Followed the road past the old café.

Continued along crossing over a dry creek bed and heading up into Wittenoom Gorge.

Next sign made us laugh but then again asbestosis is not a laughing matter.

The road is a mix of bitumen and dirt (where the creek has washed away the bridges etc). On the map it shows Pyramid Pool – I can guess why it has that name by the shape of the hill nearby. Looks nice but I don’t think we will have a dip!!

Found some more Sturt’s Desert Peas.

Across the causeway – gave the bottom of the truck a good wash as it was quite deep.

On the Hema it shows the mine is further on but looks like there was lots of work done around the ridges. Huge pile running down the hillside.

Parked and walked along the track. Asbestos everywhere, loose bits and in the rocks. I won’t keep any as a souvenir though.

Steve brought the truck through to the base of the hill. We are now in the creek bed.

Continued on in the truck – it is quite amazing to see and wonder how they processed the asbestos. Will google that later.  End of the road.

Turned around – you can see what must have been a processing plant foundations up on the hillside.

  

Found another track which takes us further on towards the mine (on the map). They must have cut a road way up there to get around to where the asbestos was.

Came to an area of concrete foundations – maybe office area etc. Lots of lovely plants growing here.

The track to the mine according to our Hema is blocked so we turned around and headed back.

The high road along the hillside.

Back to the van, it is 32.7 degrees in the van (all closed up) at 2.30pm. Hooked up and headed south.

Passed lots of turnoffs into mine sites. Looks like a meteor hit that hill.

Mt Robinson 1157m and The Governor 1051m.

Pulled into the Mt Robinson Rest Area for the night. Set back up the hill beneath a gorge entrance. Even had a shelter shed beside us.

I had collected some desert peas and picked up some other wildflowers to decorate our van.

Walked up through the gorge. Nice walk with lots of flowers to photograph.

Drinks with our neighbours from Mandurah as the sun started to set. Bit chillier now, had to put a jumper on.

Good phone and internet reception here so went on and found some information and photos about Wittenoom. Very interesting reading and maybe we should have read it before going in!! Won’t be swimming in the Fortescue River either.

From Wikipedia:

Wittenoom is a ghost town 1,106 kilometres (687 mi) north-north-east of Perth in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

The area around Wittenoom was mainly pastoral until the 1930s when mining began in the area. By 1939, major mining had begun in Yampire Gorge, which was subsequently closed in 1943 when mining began in Wittenoom Gorge. In 1947 a company town was built, and by the 1950s it was Pilbara's largest town. During the 1950s and early 1960s Wittenoom was Australia's only supplier of blue asbestos. The town was shut down in 1966 due to unprofitability and growing health concerns from asbestos mining in the area.

Today, three^[3] residents still live in the town, which receives no government services. In December 2006, the Government of Western Australia announced that the town's official status would be removed, and in June 2007, Jon Ford, the Minister for Regional Development, announced that the townsite had officially been degazetted. The town's name was removed from official maps and road signs and the Shire of Ashburton is able to close roads that lead to contaminated areas.

The Wittenoom steering committee met in April 2013 to finalise closure of the town, limit access to the area and raise awareness of the risks. Details of how that would be achieved were to be determined but it would likely necessitate removing the town's remaining residents, converting freehold land to crown land, demolishing houses and closing or rerouting roads. By 2015 six residents remained; in 2016 the number had reduced to three.

www.asbestosdiseases.org.au/the-wittenoom-tragedy.html

The Wittenoom Tragedy

The Wittenoom Tragedy In Summary

1. Mining Asbestos at Wittenoom (Remote town in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia)
2. In April 1943 Colonial Sugar Refinery (CSR) commenced mining Blue Asbestos at Wittenoom Gorge
3. 31st December 1966 CSR closed its asbestos mining operations at Wittenoom claiming lack of profitability and falling of asbestos prices
4. Approximately 7,000 men and women worked for CSR blue asbestos mining and milling operations at Wittenoom.
5. Approximately 13,000 non-workers resided in the Wittenoom township i.e. women and children (7000 were children either born in Wittenoom or they arrived with their parents).
6. To date more than 2000 of the workers and residents of Wittenoom have died from Asbestos Diseases.

Wittenoom Facts

1. Existence of Crocidolite in Hamersley Ranges has been known since 1915.
2. In 1923 a Ton of Blue Asbestos could fetch 80 Pounds Stirling in England.
3. About 1925 Asbestos rush occurred in the Pilbara, however tyranny of distance and the terrain difficulties forced the prospectors to sell their claims to speculators.
4. In 1939 the Late Mr Hancock and his associates constructed primitive Asbestos Crushing Plant on the site which became known as the Wittenoom Mill.
5. In 1943 CSR purchased the Leases and primitive Mill structure from Hancock Syndicate (Messers Lang Hancock, Wright & Warren).
6. Mr Lang Hancock became Superintendent of the Blue Asbestos Mining and Milling operations.
7. The company was incorporated on the 17th April 1943 and continued its operations of Asbestos Mining and Milling at Wittenoom and Colonial Gorges until 30th December 1966.

1. CSR and its subsidiary ABA operated 2 mines and Infrastructure at Wittenoom from 1943 to 1966.
2. The processed Blue Asbestos fibre was transported to Point Samson on open trucks.
3. The  Blue Asbestos fibres were stored in sheds at Point Samson and loaded onto Ships.
4. About half of the Blue Asbestos fibre production at Wittenoom was sold to overseas interest and the rest was used in Australia.

1. To accommodate the Mine and Mill workers, tents were erected approximately a kilometre from the Mill.
2. Staff and other more important employees were accommodated in a small estate of 13 houses about 600 metres from the single men’s tents.
3. Offices and the company store were located between the single men’s tents and the housing estate.
4. Up to 1947 there were up to 200 Miners and Mill workers employed to carry out the Milling and Mining Operations.
5. To increase the production of asbestos fibre CSR approached the WA Government for assistance to establish a town 7 miles from the Mining and Milling Operations to accommodate additional workforce.
6. The WA Government agreed to supply all housing requirements, a school, post office, hospital, police station, water supply and to bitumise the seven mile road connecting the town with the mine.
7. CSR agreed to provide hotel, general store, butcher, bakery, cafeteria, library, café and employees amenities building and accommodation for 100 single men.
8. The building commenced in 1947.
9. Wittenoom Population
10. During the asbestos mining and milling operations the population of the town of Wittenoom was around 20,000 which included workers, wives, children including numerous service providers like bank, police, post office, hotel staff, shire and medical.

There is absolutely no question that CSR knew that asbestosis and cancer were extremely likely results of working in conditions such as those they permitted in Wittenoom. (CSR's knowledge was established in the Victorian and Western Australian courts through the judgements of asbestos-caused injury litigation).
During the mining operations, more than 20,000 men, women and children lived at Wittenoom. Some of the workers sent there were part of the Commonwealth Government policy to place new migrants for a period of two years in any work situation.

Dr Jim McNulty AO visited Wittenoom milling and mining operations between 1957 and 1962 in his capacity as a chest physician, mines medical officer.

In 1962 Dr McNulty diagnosed the first mesothelioma case in Australia in a worker employed at CSR's blue asbestos mine at Wittenoom. Upon diagnosing this first Australian mesothelioma, Dr McNulty personally explained its significance to CSR's subsidiary management (Australian Blue Asbestos Pty Ltd) stating "that the relatively short period of exposure to blue asbestos confirms the impression that these tumours may arise after transitory exposure to crocidolite." He also sent them a copy of his paper describing the case which was published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Dr McNulty is adamant that CSR was always aware that if it continued to run the mine without adequate dust suppression, they could be endangering the Wittenoom mine and mill workers to a very grave degree.

One of the strongest warnings was given in writing to CSR's consulting doctor, Maynard Rennie, by West Australian specialist Dr Bruce Hunt on September 25 1961. He wrote, "It would obviously be much more satisfactory if the company (CSR) itself took the necessary action - which I suggest should start with an inspection by yourself and by a well qualified ventilation engineer. After examining the evidence which has been produced for you I find it very difficult to believe that a reputable public company (CSR) could remain in its apparently self satisfied state and continue to allow the asbestos mining industry to go on killing men unfortunate enough to be employed in it. If however the present situation is to remain unaltered I feel it my bounden duty to bring the matter to the personal attention of the Premier."

In 1962 the matters of poor hygiene and excessive dust at the CSR Wittenoom mine and mill were brought to the attention of Premier and Cabinet of the day. Sadly, no action was taken because apparently CSR threatened to close the mine if additional restrictions were to be placed upon their mining and milling of blue asbestos at Wittenoom.

It would appear that despite the many warnings from doctors and mining inspectors, CSR continued to run the mine and milling operations with little regard for dust suppression, which is now considered to be the reason for many premature deaths of former Wittenoom workers many years later.

During the 1970s Dr Janet Elder, Senior Chest Physician at the University of Department of Medicine at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, was horrified by the speed with which the new cases of mesothelioma and other asbestos-caused diseases were developing amongst the former Wittenoom workers. "The dreadful tragedy," she recalls, "was that so many of its victims were very young and very fit when they went there [Wittenoom]."

CSR blue asbestos mining and milling at Wittenoom has had a significant impact on all Australians. Western Australia in particular has the highest rate of malignant mesothelioma than any State in Australia or elsewhere in the world per capita of population.

In response to CSR’s notice of closure of Wittenoom mining and milling operations, the Hon. Charles Court, Minister for North West at the time made the following statement to the press on the 1st December 1966 : “This is not the end of Wittenoom. It is the beginning of a new phase in its history.”

The Hon. Sir Charles Court was absolutely right and more than 2000 Wittenoom asbestos diseases deaths are the corroborating factor. 

http://www.watoday.com.au/interactive/2015/blueGhosts/

Blue death permeates the Pilbara. It blows with the scorching winds across the vast north-west inland area of Western Australia, washing with the wet-season rains through the Fortescue River floodplains.

At its centre is the ghost town of Wittenoom, with its hauntingly beautiful backdrop of ribbon-red scarps and green gorges that adjoin Karijini National Park, one of the state’s most spectacular tourist destinations.

The blue asbestos that was mined around here for more than 30 years continues to kill those who worked with it.

It kills the children – now adults – who hugged their dusty fathers home from long days processing the deadly fibres.

Asbestos-related diseases can strike decades after the sharp, microscopic filaments have been inhaled and pierced the lungs.

Mesothelioma - the most deadly of these diseases - has no cure. It is a painful and aggressive cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs and abdomen, killing many victims just months after diagnosis.

Such is the average latency period, more than 40,000 Australians are expected to die of asbestos-related diseases over the next 15-20 years, according to the federal government, as a direct result of mining, manufacturing and close contact with the material.

More than 10,000 have already died.

Yet mountains of blue asbestos tailings remain in the Pilbara – open to the elements, spreading across the landscape – because those who mined it left it where it was dumped, while successive governments have failed to tackle the problem over 80 years.

The blue-grey mounds of the old Colonial and Wittenoom mines stand out against the red ridgelines and green valleys of scenic Wittenoom Gorge. The riverbeds and creeks are the colour of asbestos, where the tailings have washed down over decades of annual floods, past the condemned townsite, through tributaries, towards the mighty Fortescue River.

There are more than three million tonnes of tailings around Wittenoom, containing up to 5 per cent blue asbestos. The deadly dumps are the product of mining that began in the 1930s and ended in 1966 – 60 years after the first asbestos deaths were formally recognised by British Parliament in 1906.

Of the estimated 20,000 people who lived and worked in Wittenoom during the life of the mines and town, more than 2,000 are believed to have so far died of asbestos-related diseases. Some estimates put the figure at around 3,000.

Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia president Robert Vojakovic – who himself worked in the Wittenoom Colonial asbestos mine in 1961, and has been involved in more than 200 legal claims – estimates more than 4,000 have died, citing those who were never officially diagnosed, and the hundreds of migrant asbestos miners who returned to their native countries to pass away.

While Wittenoom was wiped from the map in 2007 – degazetted by the state government – the abandoned tailings contain up to 150,000 tonnes of raw asbestos fibre: almost the entire amount of blue asbestos produced commercially in the area – 165,000 tonnes – over the life of the mines.

An official survey by global engineering firm GHD in 2006 highlighted the ongoing spread of tailings asbestos through the gorges, townsite, floodplains, pastures, towards drinking water and other inhabited areas.

“The undercutting by stream action is serving to feed asbestos material into the Fortescue River catchment that will continue, if unchecked, for hundreds of years,” states the report, commissioned by the WA government.

The mine dumps are not the only source of asbestos fibre in the area.

Asbestos tailings were used for decades by local government as infill and construction material in and around Wittenoom: for roads, pipelines, the airstrip, golf course and other infrastructure. In the early 1970s, asbestos tailings were sold to Australian concrete manufacturers for $15 a tonne.

All this happened despite WA government warnings about “asbestosis” as early as 1948 and the internationally known dangers decades prior.

Blue asbestos – known by its geological name crocidolite – is the most deadly form of asbestos due to the length of its filaments that can pierce lung tissue and can’t be contained by the body’s natural defences.

According to US studies, it has killed up to 18 per cent of those who have mined it around the world.

Crocidolite is found in few places on earth, but is abundant in WA’s Pilbara.

Blue asbestos was first noted in the Hamersley Ranges by the WA Mines Department in 1917. But it was prospector Lang Hancock and partner Peter Wright who started large-scale mining of Wittenoom Gorge, about 30 kilometres from Hancock’s Mulga Downs pastoral station, in 1936.

Two years later, asbestos trading partners Islwyn Walters and Walter Leonard started mining nearby Yampire Gorge with their company, West Australian Blue Asbestos Fibres Ltd, which was later sold to WA Goldfields entrepreneur Claude de Bernales.

In 1943, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company – with no experience in mining – bought out both ventures, renaming Hancock and Wright’s interest Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd, which later became Midalco Pty Ltd. Hancock remained as manager until 1948, when he and Wright sold their remaining shares in the company.

CSR opened the Colonial Mine upstream from Wittenoom Gorge in 1953, and it’s the asbestos tailings from this site, according to GHD, that now poses the biggest risk.

“The dump is currently unstable and this needs to be addressed... the priority should be to stabilise [it],” the engineering report states of the largest source of asbestos tailings.

About 8 kilometres downstream is the old town of Wittenoom, which was established by the WA government in 1947 at the behest of the miners to house their growing workforce. The foundations were laid one year after the first asbestosis case was reported there in 1946.

In 1959, WA Health Department mines medical officer Jim McNulty visited Wittenoom and raised serious concerns about the asbestos mine and processing plant, three years later reporting Australia’s first case of asbestos-related malignant mesothelioma in a man who had worked there.

Asbestos mining at Wittenoom continued until 1966, with more than 100 cases of lung disease recorded in the last five years.

Dr McNulty later served as WA’s Commissioner for Public Health – from 1975 to 1984 – and was instrumental in the decision to phase down Wittenoom from 1978. But the town would officially remain open another three decades, serving as a prime tourist destination with up to 40,000 visitors a year, and hosting the annual Wittenoom horse races and other events.

Tailings and other contaminated sites near the township have been cleaned up in recent decades, but asbestos fibre is still widespread – especially in the gorges. (Blue asbestos also occurs naturally in the area, which is obviously why it was mined.)

In 2008, a “Wittenoom Asbestos Contaminated Area” of almost 470 square kilometres was declared and listed by the WA Health Department as "not suitable for any form of human occupation or land use". It borders Mulga Downs station to the north and Karijini National Park to the west, south and east. The Youngaleena Banjima Aboriginal community lies 15 kilometres east.

In 2013, Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting applied to start iron ore mining Mulga Downs station. An initial application for environmental approval was not pursued by the company, according to WA’s Environmental Protection Authority.

Wittenoom remains to this day, of the most beautiful places in the Pilbara and continues to attract hundreds of tourists and travellers each year.

Wittenoom is not quite a ghost town.

There are working telephone lines.

Despite there being no power grid, no official post service, no road maintenance and signs posted around the old township warning visitors of the deadly risks of airborne asbestos, three people remain.

One of them is Shire of Ashburton councillor Lorraine Thomas, who moved to Wittenoom from Victoria in 1984 claiming she “knew nothing about asbestos” when she arrived.

Ms Thomas runs the local gem and souvenir shop – still open to adventurous tourists – and owns 10 properties in the town, which she bought as part of a failed mining accommodation venture. At 72, and having lived half her life in Wittenoom, Ms Thomas is dismissive of the health risks.

“It’s only the dust that’s dangerous,” she says, claiming there is little or no airborne asbestos in the town since mining activities ceased.

However, Ms Thomas says it’s a different story in the nearby gorges, and is aware the tailings are being eroded downstream and carrying with it asbestos fibre.

“[The tailings] are eroding down into the Fortescue River,” she says. “That Fortescue River goes to Mill Stream – which is a drinking water area.”

Ms Thomas also cites the potential danger to tourists and mine workers camped inside adjoining Karijini National Park.

“The tailings are 10 kilometres from here and they’re closer to the main attractions at Karijini,” she says. “There’s a mining camp at Karijini – there’s more than one. They’re much closer than we are.”

Ms Thomas is in no doubt who is responsible for cleaning up the tailings.

“Both the state and the commonwealth governments subsidised all aspects of the mining to keep it going,” she said. “They are entirely responsible. If the government owns the problem – they also own most of the town – they should [clean it up].”

The WA government is fully aware of the dangers and spread of abandoned blue asbestos tailings around Wittenoom, as stated in a 40-page WorkSafe document published by the Department of Commerce in 2012.

“There is extensive, severe crocidolite fibre contamination in the town of Wittenoom and surrounding areas,” the document reads. “The tailings have washed into the beds of nearby creeks that eventually flow into the Fortescue River. These sites are still popular tourist sites.

“[Asbestos] fibres readily migrate as a result of wind and flooding, and human activities such as the movement of vehicles. The Department of Health, which has reviewed the [2006 GHD] report, has expressed the view that the exposure and risks identified in the report pose an unacceptable public health risk.”

The GHD summary – which can be found here – lists all human activity and potential health risks in and around Wittenoom, including the highly-contaminated gorges, townsite and floodplains. It states:

• Up to 40 tourists a day visit the gorges and townsite year-round, mostly during the dry season.

• Up to 200 Aboriginal people visit the gorges and townsite during ceremonies, mostly during the wet season.

• Up to 100 cars a day drive through Wittenoom and over connecting roads year-round, mostly during the dry.

• Pastoralists, mining explorers, remediation and contract workers all visit the town or work on the floodplains each year.

“The risk assessment indicated that the gorges, in particular, could present a high or extreme risk to certain user groups,” the GHD report states. “Other areas of concern were the floodplain, and in particular contaminated creek beds, used by Aboriginal people and pastoralists, and the townsite, where residents, pastoralists and construction contractors may be at high risk from exposure to respirable fibres.”

An “extreme risk” and “imminent risk of exposure to harmful levels” – is posed to indigenous people, tourists and residents in the area.

Yet there are still no concrete plans to clean up the asbestos tailings almost 80 years after they were first dumped there.

What strikes you most as you fly towards the old asbestos mining town of Wittenoom is not the spectacular Hamersley Ranges washing on the horizon like red-crested waves.

It’s the activity.

Cutting across the dry Fortescue River, a train runs along the spur line from Fortescue Metals Group’s Solomon iron ore mine.

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Mulga Downs Station looms into view with its dirt airstrip – presumably from which her father, the late Lang Hancock, flew.

The township appears in the somewhat hazy, dusty distance, sitting at the mouth of Wittenoom Gorge.

Cars can be seen driving along a bitumen road through the condemned town that links Auski Tourist Village, on the Great Northern Highway, to Karijini National Park.

In the short time we’re overhead, we count four vehicles, including a car and caravan parked deep inside the gorge - just a few hundred metres from the old Colonial asbestos mine and its mountains of deadly tailings.

Wittenoom itself is an almost-square grid of paved roads, empty blocks and demolished structures, however some lots have lush lawns, large trees and kept-up houses - including a neat little row of four homes owned by Lorraine Thomas.

The other lots are where remaining residents Peter Heyward and Mario Hartmann live.

To the west is the old Wittenoom race track, which used to host a popular annual event named after the town.

From the town, it’s an almost straight run up the gorge to the asbestos tailings.

The landscape is breathtaking - like a swirling, rolling maze of red-ribbon rock, lime-green trees and pockets of blue water.

At the old Colonial mine and adjacent East Gorge (old Wittenoom) mine, the blue-grey tailings form their own walls and ridges for hundreds of metres.

Asbestos doesn’t have a smell, but the industrial stench – even 50 years after mining finished – burns the nostrils.

Deep channels – like the tendrils of an octopus – can be seen running down the mountain-sides where the tailings have been washed away by heavy wet-season rains for over half a century.

Blue-grey tailings fill the natural creeks, flowing from the gorges and out on to the nearby floodplains.

The colour of asbestos stains the ground all the way to the Fortescue River.

From the air, the scale of any clean-up operation seems so vast... it’s almost no wonder successive governments have been trying to hide Wittenoom from the rest of the world.

So, Who is responsible?

“The problem confronting the government is that, no matter what they do, it’s going to cost them money - money to clean up the asbestos, or money to settle the legal claims if they don’t.”

Wittenoom may have been stripped from Western Australia's map, but the deadly blue ghosts remain.