"Long-hidden documents prove that the men who ran that mine, one of Australia’s largest public companies, were aware from the start of the terrible dangers of blue asbestos. They did too little, too late, to protect their workers, as did the government which should have been the watchdog. It was a conspiracy of silence."
On this date, twenty years ago, my much loved father, Clement Adam Christensen, died from asbestosis. This hideous slow motion drowning was entirely preventable. My father served his country. His country did not serve him. His suffering and premature death were a direct result of the unspeakable coupling of corporate greed and government indifference. Ben Hills' Blue Murder (Sun Books, 1989) quoted above is a fierce indictment.
My Dad was never in Wittenoom: he was a wharfie in Fremantle, as were two of my uncles. My Uncle Les was also a returned soldier. In the late eighties he was diagnosed with asbestosis. Deeply distressed by this news, I wrote a strange and eerily prophetic story called
"Midnight Shift" about my own father's death. Much more recently I also wrote a prose poem about both men. You can listen to it HERE.
My Dad was never in Wittenoom: he was a wharfie in Fremantle, as were two of my uncles. My Uncle Les was also a returned soldier. In the late eighties he was diagnosed with asbestosis. Deeply distressed by this news, I wrote a strange and eerily prophetic story called
"Midnight Shift" about my own father's death. Much more recently I also wrote a prose poem about both men. You can listen to it HERE.
Thirteen years after Dad died, "Midnight Shift" was published in Indigo, 1. My mother assumed it had been written afterwards. She cried and thanked me for telling her story so truly. I read the closing paragraphs at Voicebox, accompanied by my brother, Erik.
"long after people leave, they dance on the tide"
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