Fibro Modernity: A Social History of Asbestos in Australia, 1878-2024

Abstract

The use of asbestos in Australia is an industrial tragedy of immense scale. A naturally occurring fibrous mineral that is resistant to enormous heat and electric currents, asbestos was used widely by national governments and firms as a safety material in post-World War II public works and private markets. It is also a carcinogen that is conducive of the terminal cancer mesothelioma. The use of asbestos in the twentieth century is a global story, but, as the highest per capita consumer of asbestos between 1955 and 1977, it is also a particularly Australian one. Asbestos is now ubiquitous in Australian life, with asbestos-containing materials present in one-third of New South Wales homes and two-thirds of Canberra homes. The legacy of Australia's high level of asbestos consumption is one of the highest rates of asbestos exposure and asbestos-related disease in the world: 80 per cent of Australians today are estimated to have been exposed to asbestos at some point in their life, with an estimated 30,000-40,000 cases so far. Fibro Modernity is a social history of the use of asbestos in Australia. Tracing the history of asbestos use in Australia from the opening of the first asbestos mine in 1878 to the Mr Fluffy Garden of Reflection in Canberra in 2024, it is a history of the production, manufacture, and consumption of asbestos in this country. It is a history told in two parts: the discovery of asbestos deposits in regional Australia and its use in manufacturing (especially for fibro housing) was a series of optimistic dreams; then asbestosis and mesothelioma reconfigured fibro modernity as a sham, and destroyed consumers' trust in asbestos firms and the state. As the first social history of asbestos use in Australia, this thesis demonstrates that both the embrace and rejection of asbestos in Australia were public phenomenon, and it adds nuance to previous top-down asbestos studies which have foregrounded the conspiratorial elements of this story. Considering Australia's asbestos history from below, too, and the lived experience of history, has meant broadening the context of the story previously told by legal, political, and labour historians. It argues that the stakeholders - workers, victims, journalists, insurance companies, activists, carers, and the middle class - were more important than the state and asbestos firms in changing understandings of asbestos in Australia. A consideration of the broader asbestos politics which emerged in the mid- to late-twentieth century with public policy being influenced through protests, industrial action, petitions, and media reporting, it makes its argument through the use of a wide range of new sources, including government reports and minutes, Hansard transcripts, newspaper articles, medical records, legal judgments, songs, poems, exhibitions, memorials, graffiti, oral histories, inquiry papers, novels, paintings, documentaries, and social media posts. The understandings of asbestos in the public and private lives of Australians were more diverse than has been previously assumed. This thesis reinserts the voice and agency of Australians back into this tragic history. Show more