Current e-Petitions for the Legislative Council

Wittenoom Memorial for Australia's worst industrial disaster

Eligibility : Residents of Western Australia Only

To the President and Members of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Western Australia in Parliament assembled. We the undersigned ...

In 2018, the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia unveiled a small memorial plaque at Solidarity Park, West Perth.
The plaque commemorates the 4,000+ West Aussies who have died from asbestos-related diseases and remembers those who were victims of Australia’s worst industrial disaster.
The CSR Wittenoom Mine and Mill is the greatest example of workplace negligence in Australia, and second in the world to date.
Wittenoom was a blue asbestos mining town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Despite health warnings as early as 1948, it continued to operate until 1966, killing thousands of workers, their families and town visitors.
One of those visitors was the Minister of the Crown Mr Ernie Bridge MLA, who died from Mesothelioma which he contracted during his time dealing with the town's closure.
Today, we continue to lose many lives to the deadly asbestos dust from Wittenoom.
While we are very grateful to both the CFMEU WA and Unions WA for allowing the memorial plaque in Solidarity Park, our members and friends from Wittenoom have requested a permanent memorial, not just for the workers but also for their children, families, visitors, and local Traditional Owners of the land, many of whom have since lost their lives to deadly asbestos diseases.
Wittenoom has been taken off the map and cannot be accessed by road; for many this creates a situation where there is not a place of memorial to grieve lost loved ones.
We therefore ask the Legislative Council to both enquire into and to support our efforts for the construction of a permanent memorial in Perth and the Pilbara in partnership with the State Government, the Shire of Ashburton, the Banjima, Yinhawangka and Nyiyaparli traditional owners, and the Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia

And your petitioners as in duty bound, will ever pray.