Episode 292 - Asbestos Australia Part 2 - Wittenoom (1939-1966)

Weird Crap in Australia

Jan 8 2024 • 39 mins

Wittenoom emerged as a bustling mining hub in the 1930s, extracting lucrative blue asbestos from the surrounding rock. By 1947, it dominated global supply.


By the 1960s, alarming health concerns linked to asbestos emerged. Despite mounting evidence, mining persisted until 1966.


Today, Wittenoom stands as a haunting testament to unchecked industrial ambition, its once-thriving streets now ghostly remnants. Join Matthew and Holly as they delve deeper, and uncover a town erased from maps but not from memory, where prosperity met an unsettling legacy.

Main Theme music – Kevin MacLeod
"Slow Ticking Clock" – Kevin MacLeod
Used under a Creative Commons license.

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