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.

Dust from the mining and milling operations blanketed both the workplace and town. The isolation of Wittenoom in the far north west of Western Australia meant that monitoring of conditions was difficult.

According to Dr Jim McNulty, former WA Commissioner of Health, this was exacerbated by the fact that the company that ran it, Australian Blue Asbestos (ABA), a subgroup of Colonial Sugar Refineries, was in turn managed it remotely from CSR’s Sydney headquarters.
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Listen to some of the former workers and their families talking about the working conditions at Wittenoom.

For a young man in the 1950s, Wittenoom appeared to offer good prospects. Two years’ work there would allow someone to earn enough to set themselves up in life. So it was on this basis that Liborio Napolitano accepted a two year contract, believing that the sacrifice of having to leave his fiancée for that period would make it possible for them to marry when the contract came to an end. His widow Angela tells his story.
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John Kafarela was 22 years old when he moved from Perth to Wittenoom in 1958 to work in the asbestos mine. Here he describes just what it was like to work underground where the extremely hot conditions meant the miners tried to wear as little clothing as possible.
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Josef Schrott was born in Austria in 1933, and in 1949 he left to see the world. His first visit to Australia was in 1962 and his experience of Fremantle led him to decide to apply for permanent residency and make Australia his home. When he returned to Fremantle, he heard about Wittenoom as a place where the money was reasonable and the lifestyle was good. His experience in tunnelling equipped him well for mining work so he decided to give it a go. However nothing in his career to that point prepared him for the conditions he encountered at the asbestos mine.
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Rod Powell began working at the mill but found the dusty conditions so unbearable that after six weeks he decided to transfer to the mine. However the work there was not only hard, but also carried its own considerable physical dangers.
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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. Here he describes what working in the mill was like. Click here to listen>>

Robert Vojakovic went up to Wittenoom thinking he had a contract to do some electrical work.  However when he arrived he was told the position was no longer available. He was persuaded to stay by the promise of easy well paid work with plenty of overtime and so found himself assigned to the mill.
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Listen to some of the former workers describing the asbestos mining and milling process.

Here Jack Carroll describes the milling processing of the asbestos rock after the ore had been brought to the surface out of the mine.
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After the asbestos fibre had been separated the waste (or tailings) had to be disposed of.  As Jack Carroll explains, this was yet another indescribably dusty and dirty job.
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Rod Powell describes the work of the baggers who were responsible for packing the asbestos fibre into hessian bags after it had been separated in the milling process.
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Asbestos was everywhere in Wittenoom and the workers were exposed to it whether at work or at play.
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Carole Kagi remembers her impression of the mill from when she was a young girl in Wittenoom.  It appals her now that given the dangers of asbestos there was no protection from the dust which was everywhere.
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