Western Australia's Wittenoom Gorge blue asbestos mine: 'Se l'avessimo saputo, non ci avremmo mai portato i figli'

During the 1950s and 1960s, 1100 Italian migrants worked in the remote northwest Western Australian blue asbestos mining town of Wittenoom. Unaware of the health risks, many Italians took their families. This article draws upon interviews with thirty-six Italian migrants. It considers the effect of the Italian parents' decision to go to Wittenoom on the lives of their children. CSR closed the mine in 1966. The mine operators - the Colonial Sugar Refining Company and its subsidiary Australian Blue Asbestos - were aware of the risk of disease from the 1940s. It took till the 1970s for the possibility of developing the insidious asbestos-related disease, mesothelioma, to become apparent to the workers and their families. The children's stories are now coloured by the fear of cancer, with which all ex-Wittenoom residents live. Italians would never have taken their children had they known about asbestos-related diseases.