Wittenoom was a town located 1,104 kilometres north-northeast of
Perth in the
Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The area around Wittenoom was mainly pastoral until the 1930s when mining begun in the area. By 1939, major mining had begun in Yampire
Gorge, which was subsequently closed in 1943 when mining began in
Wittenoom Gorge. In 1947 a company town was built, and by the 1950s it was the
Pilbara's largest town. During the 1950s and early 60's Wittenoom was Australia's only supplier of blue asbestos, the town was shut down in 1966 due to unprofitability and growing health concerns from asbestos mining in the area.
Wittenoom was named by Lang Hancock after Frank Wittenoom, his partner in the nearby Mulga Downs Station. The land around Wittenoom was originally settled by Wittenoom's brother, politician Sir Edward Horne Wittenoom. By the late 1940s there was a need for a government townsite near the
mine, and the Mines Department recommended it be named Wittenoom, advising that adoption of this name was strongly urged by the local people. The name was approved in 1948, but it was not until 2 May 1950 that the townsite was officially gazetted. In 1951 the name was changed to
Wittenoom Gorge at the request of the mining company, and in 1974 it was changed back to Wittenoom. The
mine closed in 1966, and the townsite was officially abolished by gazettal in March 2007.
In 1917 the Mines Department first recorded the presence of blue asbestos in the Hamersley Ranges. Hancock discovered
Wittenoom Gorge in the early 1930s, and in 1937 started mining crocidolite (commonly known as blue asbestos) from Yampire
Gorge. By 1940, he had managed to produce 364 tonnes of asbestos. Originally asbestos was taken from the hillside, crushed up in a tin shed Hancock had built on his property, put in sacks and taken by horse to the docks, 240 km away in
Point Samson and sold for around £5 for a 100-pound bag. It took another five or six years for it to become an economic proposition.
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Until the Second World War asbestos was mostly imported from South Africa and Canada. The Australian market for asbestos before the Second World War was worth $1 million a year, and there was export potential. Hancock has promising talks with the British, who were desperate to use asbestos as filters in gas masks, and his partners had negotiations with Johns Manville in the
United States. When the Second World War came asbestos was in high demand for use in tanks, planes, battleships, helmets and gasmasks. In 1943 the
mine was sold to CSR Limited subsidiary, Australian Blue Asbestos Pty Ltd (ABA), where Hancock remained as manager until 1948.
In 1946, the Yampire
Gorge mine was closed and subsequently
Wittenoom Gorge mine was opened in the same year. Production to 1956 is estimated at 590,000 tons of ore from which about 20,000 tons of asbestos were recovered. In 1947 the town of Wittenoom was built to service the nearby asbestos
mine. It was built ten kilometres from the
mine and mill as there was not a suitable area available to expand the original residential settlement. By 1951 the town had 150 houses and a
population of over 500.
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In December 2006, the Government of Western Australia announced that the town would be degazetted, and in June 2007, Jon Ford, the Minister for Regional Development, announced that the townsite status had officially been removed. The town's name was removed from official maps and road signs and the Shire of Ashburton is able to close roads that lead to contaminated areas.
Note:
The semi-precious Gemstone named Golden Tiger Eye was formed from Silicified Asbestos, most of what we get in Australia comes from South Africa.
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