They Paved This Australian Town With Deadly Asbestos

In Wittenoom, Western Australia, waste from a blue asbestos mine was used to pave roads, footpaths, the racecourse and school playgrounds. More than 2,000 former workers and residents have died of asbestos diseases. A government doctor warned the mine in 1948. The mine ran until 1966. Then the state emptied the town and took its name off the map. 🗺 Off The Old Map: true stories of places history forgot. New documentaries every Tuesday and Saturday. ▶ Next: Picher, Oklahoma, the town poisoned by its own mines Chapters 0:00 A town paved with asbestos 0:33 Blue asbestos in the hills 1:20 The company town 2:30 The mill 3:14 The tailings 3:57 The warnings 5:04 1966: the mine closes 5:27 The slow killer 6:01 Taking CSR to court 7:06 Emptying the town 8:13 The answer Sources UWA News (2012), Wittenoom children study: news.uwa.edu.au/archive/201209044978 Australian Asbestos Network: australianasbestosnetwork.org.au Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia, Wittenoom overview: asbestosdiseases.org.au/information/wittenoom-overview/ Australian Dictionary of Biography (Lang Hancock, Eric Saint): adb.anu.edu.au National Archives of Australia, "Selling the Wittenoom dream": naa.gov.au/blog/selling-wittenoom-dream Musk et al. (1992), American Journal of Industrial Medicine WA Government, Wittenoom brochure (2021) and media statement (24 Mar 2022) ABC News (2022, 2023, 2024, 2026) Photo and film credits Wittenoom Gorge 1969 photos: wilford peloquin, CC BY 2.0 Wittenoom mine buildings 1966: lindsaybridge, CC BY 2.0 Hamersley Range aerial photos 2022: Calistemon, CC BY-SA 4.0 Crocidolite specimen (Bolivia): Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart, CC BY 4.0 Asbestos specimen, Thetford Mines museum: remundo, CC BY-SA 2.0 Dales Gorge: Graeme Churchard, CC BY 2.0 Karijini National Park: Tparket, CC BY-SA 4.0 Somewhere in Karijini: Iktoh, CC BY-SA 4.0 Advertisement for Winter at Wittenoom: Celebrating suburbia, CC BY-SA 4.0 Mesothelioma microscope image: Nephron, CC BY-SA 3.0 Ferruginous bodies (lung): Atlas of Medical Foreign Bodies, CC BY-SA 2.0 X-ray film clip: Polygoon-Profilti / Beeld en Geluid, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL Hamersley Range from space 1990: NASA, public domain Asbestos tailings, Wittenoom Gorge: public domain (Wikimedia Commons) Maps, charts and timeline: Off The Old Map (map data Natural Earth) All photos via Wikimedia Commons. Narration voice is synthetic (Kokoro TTS). #wittenoom #asbestos #history #documentary #australia