Work and workers' responses at Wittenoom, 1943-1966

Our plain-English summary of Work and workers' responses at Wittenoom, 1943-1966, by L. Layman (Community Health Studies, 1983).

The study

• Author: L. Layman
• Journal: Community Health Studies
• Published: 1983;7(1):1-18
• Cited by: 14 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

This labour history article examined how workers responded to life and work at Wittenoom, Western Australia, from 1943 to 1966. In that period Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd (ABA), a subsidiary of Colonial Sugar Refining Co. Ltd (CSR), mined and milled blue asbestos there. The author drew on 48 oral history interviews with former residents, on government, company and press records, and on data for 6,676 people identified as ABA workers, supplied by the University of Western Australia's Department of Medicine. The workforce was highly transient: 43.8% stayed less than three months and 22.2% more than a year. Half were in their twenties, and at least 35% (probably close to 50%) were of non-British migrant origin. The author identified three responses: departure, silence (almost no organised industrial, union, political or community action) and diversion (drinking, gambling and parties). These were explained by several factors. The workforce was young, single, migrant and male, often on contracts and saving for set goals. Miners worked in low 42-inch stopes and were trained only by management. The mills were extremely dusty, and masks were largely discarded. The company dominated the town, the state supported the venture, and the unions were ineffective. Their 1957 and 1959 claims for a dust allowance had no substantial success. The myths of the North and of classlessness also played a part. Asbestosis was first diagnosed in 1958 and mesothelioma in 1960. The author concluded that ex-workers questioned these responses only with hindsight. Many now blamed the company, the state and the unions for failing to provide safe conditions.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This article is a social history, not a medical study. The author examined how workers responded to working and living at Wittenoom, Western Australia, where Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd mined and milled blue asbestos from 1943 to 1966. Sources were mainly oral history interviews with former residents, documents, and employment data on 6,676 people identified as company workers. The workforce was highly transient: 43.8 per cent stayed less than three months and 22.2 per cent more than a year. Exactly 50 per cent were in their twenties, and at least 35 per cent were non-British migrants. The author described three responses. The first was departure as quickly as possible. The second was silence: little organized union, political or community action. The third was diversion through drinking, gambling and parties. Almost all interviewees recalled fog-like dust over the mills, and masks appear to have been almost universally rejected. The author concluded that demography and the work process mattered most, reinforced by the company, the state, the unions and social myths. The author wrote that the dust memories undoubtedly owed much to hindsight. However, documents from all 23 years of milling also focused on the mill dust problem.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Social history of a mining community, based mainly on oral history interviews, documentary records and company workforce data
• Who was studied: Workers and residents of the asbestos mining town of Wittenoom, Western Australia, 1943 to 1966. Workforce tables were based on 6,676 people identified (as of June 1982) as having worked for Australian Blue Asbestos Ltd (ABA). The tables used data from the University of Western Australia Department of Medicine. The author also drew on 48 interviews with former residents.
• Exposure: Work in the mining and milling of blue asbestos at Wittenoom by ABA, a subsidiary of CSR, including dusty mill work. No dust measurements or doses were reported.
• Main results:
  • Among ABA's Wittenoom workforce, approximately 44 per cent stayed less than three months and only 22 per cent stayed longer than one year. The table gives 43.8 per cent and 22.2 per cent.
  • Exactly 50 per cent of workers were in their twenties when first employed, most of them in their early twenties.
  • At least 35 per cent of ABA's workforce, and probably closer to 50 per cent, was of non-British migrant origin.
  • The author identified three responses by Wittenoom workers, of which departure as quickly as possible was the main one.
  • Workers were 'silent': they took part in virtually no organized activity to change their conditions of life.
  • The third response, 'diversion', consisted mainly of drinking, gambling and parties.
  • Almost all interviewees described fog-like dust over both mills.
  • The author wrote that documentary evidence from the entire 23 years of milling also focused primarily on the dust problem in the mills.
  • Masks appear to have been almost universally rejected.
  • Mill workers had the most rapid turnover in Wittenoom. In the author's assessment, what most of them found intolerable was the dust.
  • Citing documentary sources, the author recorded that the first diagnosis of asbestosis was made in 1958 and the first of pleural mesothelioma in 1960.
  • In 1957 and 1959 the unions asked the Arbitration Court for a special dust allowance for mill workers, without substantial success.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that workers' responses of departure, silence and diversion were shaped by demography and the work process. These were judged the most important factors. They were reinforced by the roles of the company, the state and the unions, and by the myths of the North and of classlessness.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated that the vividness of interviewees' memories of dust undoubtedly owes much to hindsight, because former residents live with fear of asbestos-related illness.
  • The workforce records did not allow British migrants to be separated from the Australian-born.
  • The size of ABA's workforce at any one time could not be established.

Mines named here

Asbestos mines this study is about. Each mine's page says who ran it, when it worked, and what it produced.

• Wittenoom, Western Australia

All asbestos mines

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Wittenoom, Australian Blue Asbestos, Crocidolite, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Migration and work in postwar Australia: mortality profile comparisons between Australian and Italian workers exposed to blue asbestos at Wittenoom — A. Reid, E. Merler, et al. (2018)
• The natural history of asbestosis in former crocidolite workers of Wittenoom Gorge — W. Cookson, N. De Klerk, et al. (1986)
• Sputum asbestos bodies and radiographic changes in residents of Wittenoom, Western Australia — A.W. Musk, J.E. Baker, et al. (1983)
• Perceptions of health hazards in the narratives of Italian migrant workers at an Australian asbestos mine (1943-1966) — F. Cappelletto, E. Merler (2003)
• Prediction of mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis in former Wittenoom asbestos workers — G. Berry (1991)
• Prevalence of radiographic asbestosis in crocidolite miners and millers at Wittenoom, Western Australia — W.O. Cookson, N.H. De Klerk, et al. (1986)

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