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And all these years that are passing — every time that
my daughter…says (tears)
“I don’t feel well”. I am afraid.
69
Interview with Giulio Santini, Perth, October 2009.
70
CSR Limited vs Della Maddalena [2006] HCA 1 2
nd
February, 2006, P 36/2005, p. 4.
71
What is passed, is passed. You can’t go back, can you?
273
I am afraid. I am afraid of this
male [illness] . You know,
because I took them up there.
Alvaro Giannasi verbalizes the fear with which all Wittenoom residents live, but upon which
they do not dwell.
Should I be taken out by the same disease which is a
strong possibility; that’s on the back of my mind; that’s a
fear I’ve always got. I go on with my life. Don’t sort of
dwell on it but there are so many things that remind me of
it all the time. That it’s in the back of my mind that one
day I’ll get a pain somewhere and I’ll go to the bloody
doctor and then I’ll have a test and I come up with this…
or my mother or my sister. That’s there all the time.
Among Wittenoom survivors who participated in this research, despite the sacrifices,
challenges and loss of loved ones to asbestos-related diseases, like Alvaro Giannasi most
express no rancour for the place, Wittenoom. Maria Detoni, Alvaro Giannasi and his mother,
Valentina, have returned there in recent years to reacquaint themselves with the place where
they spent their early days in Australia. When I asked Alvaro Giannasi to share what his
father thought of his time at Wittenoom, he explained that his father held no regrets. He had
made many friends there, something commented on by many of the men and women.
However, Alvaro explains the feelings of loss: his and those of his children.
It became very hurtful when he died. Wittenoom in taking
this away… that the place in which I had my most
memorable time as a person growing up… Michael,
[Alvaro’s son] was the first born. He was around when
dad passed away. I would miss him continuously every
time I saw an old person with a grandchild. I would for
months forget about it. But for the first few years I would
choke and always I would think about the grandfathers
who I knew that were grandfathers, who had
grandchildren - they had nothing to do with them. My
father did. He would come down in the last year before
he died. He was crook, but he would come down... every
day and visit Michael. They would sit in his car together.
Mum was inside. And they would sit in his car and he’d
hold him there and probably tell him stories - things like
that I find I resent.
72
Several participants recounted the loss of parents and siblings during their childhood
in Italy. The philosophical approach to death of the older Wittenoom Italians is possibly
rooted in these earlier experiences and now as adults with considerably more life experience
these underscore their acceptance of death’s inevitability, despite having witnessed those of
family and friends. More importantly, as result of their sacrifices and hard work they had been
72
Interview with Alvaro Giannasi, Perth, September 2009.
274
able to achieve a better future for themselves and their families. Many — despite their deaths
due to an ARD — have lived longer, in comparison to their parents’ shorter life spans, as
Francesco and Emilia Oprandi pointed out.
Francesco: my father’s parents were dead before they hit
35. So, if he died at 55 from something he probably
thought
Emilia: I’m doing well.
They also offered the following observations about their family’s friends, the Bonomi brothers’
acceptance of their impending deaths. Francesco recalled:
I know the Bonomis and I talked to them when they were
dying. I went to visit them in the last week but neither
(Emilia: no…) of them said anything about they “duded”
me. They were dying from something they had caught
working and they — what Millie was saying — they had a
house, they had a farm, the kids had jobs… In terms of
money… they were comfortable… alright they were dying
in their 50s but
Emilia continued:
Mario Bonomi had been a prisoner of war. That was
probably worse for him. He used to talk about that... He
was very bitter that he had been a prisoner of war but he
was never bitter about… [Wittenoom] He was
philosophical.
Francesco Oprandi offers one last observation about the Bonomi brothers’ attitude to life and
how those around them accepted their deaths.
They weren’t bitter. So they didn’t pass that on to their
family, the people around them… We just think that it
was sad that they died the way they did. And it would
have been better if they hadn’t… but in a way they were
happy… I mean both of the Bonomis went back two or
three times…..four…..Beppe did [to Italy]… I think Mario
went back at least once, maybe twice… They had their
father come out [from Italy]… They paid for him… He
stayed here a year or so… So they sort of in the end
enjoyed… The kids are all happy…..married.
73
Nevertheless, some also asked the question, why those responsible for Australia’s
worst industrial disaster should not be made accountable for their actions? In 2011 a friend of
mine, Emilio Baldi, informed me of a court case in Turin, Italy, involving the two aging former
owners of the European Eternit Corporation which had exposed thousands to asbestos. They
were being held accountable:
73
Interview with Francesco and Emilia Oprandi, Perth, October 2009.
275
Judge Raffaello Guariniello’s wide-ranging investigations
unearthed 2,696 cases – over 2,200 deaths and some
700 cancer sufferers… This case was one of the hardest
to put together. The Swiss National Accident Insurance
Organization (SUVA) long refused to pass on the case
files. It took a Swiss court order to force SUVA to hand
over the information. The investigation has indicted
Stephan Schmidheiny and the Belgian baron Cartier de
Marchienne on charges. Stephan Schmidheiny comes
from a family prominent in Swiss economic and political
circles. For almost a century his family was the biggest
shareholder in Eternit… Baron de Cartier de Marchienne
is a doyen of the Belgian economic establishment who
held executive responsibility in the Belgian branch of
Eternit (subsequently renamed Etex.)
74
On 13
th
February 2012 both were sentenced in absentia to 16 years gaol. They were found
guilty of causing an environmental disaster and failing to comply with safety regulations.
75
After the success of the class action (in 1989) against CSR for damages claims
payable to Wittenoom victims, the legal firm Slater and Gordon pursued the possibility of
CSR executives being held accountable for their role in the deaths of Wittenoom workers.
John Gordon, one of the victims’ lawyers, explained to me when I asked him about
holding CSR accountable for their actions:
The prosecution of CSR officers was a decision for the
Crown Prosecutor’s Office, possibly on referral from the
Attorney General.
We certainly raised it and urged it, but there was little
interest because the events had taken place so long ago
and the chances of successfully prosecuting for any
offences then available under the W.A. Criminal Code
they regarded as remote. We were so totally occupied as
a priority with getting compensation for people — and
you will recall how hard it was just getting a negligence
claim to stick, that we had no capacity to do any more.
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