Asbestos continued

Over three decades more than 150,000 tonnes of asbestos fibre were shipped through Point Samson and Cossack.  For decades the miners, transport workers, and their families, breathed deadly asbestos dust that can cause asbestosis and mesothelioma. They used tailings from the mine to surface the road, and for fill throughout the town.  Court cases in the 1970's and 1980's established that the danger had been widely known long before the mine closed.  Wittenoom town site was effectively abandoned by the State government in 1979, although some people continued to stay on.

The abandoned mine at Wittenoom