Australia's Ghost Town_ The contaminated city Wittenoom _ Free Doc Bites _ Free Documentary

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Our reporter Raphael travels to Wittenoom and explores this Australian ghost town. Asbestos contamination made it uninhabitable, forever losing its place on the maps of our world.

Transcript

00:0042 degrees in the shade but there is no shade here our reporter Raphael Lauer is in the Australian

00:10outback his destination a ghost town in the middle of nowhere a highly contaminated place deserted

00:20and forgotten a lost place with a dark history that can still be deadly to visitors today

00:30in the 60s it was even the largest city in the Midwest of Australia with just under 1,000

00:43inhabitants an exemplary project then also a glimmer of hope for European immigrants many

00:51Germans came here looking for happiness but what they found was death that's because Vittenham is

00:58one of the most dangerous places in the world eighty percent of all people who have ever lived

01:03here are dead today wearing my safety suit I'm very well protected and yet it is a striking feeling to

01:13walk through a place that has cost so many people their lives the whole thing is very scary what was

01:25going on in this cafe couples in love the waitress running from table to table with coffee the

01:31overweight cook frying bacon I can imagine it vividly but it seems as if they've left everything

01:37behind hastily you don't really feel the danger it looks abandoned but you can't tell what is

01:51supposed to be dangerous here but the danger is everywhere and the city is so heavily contaminated that the

02:03government shut off all basic services in the early 2000s such as water electricity and the telephone

02:10vitamin has been deleted from the maps it ceased to exist the reason can be found on the street

02:16this is the corpus delicti that's blue asbestos look at this and it's all over everywhere blue asbestos this

02:40fibrous mineral was supposed to make bitanum wealthy and rich but in reality it was their

02:45ruin and still does not allow life there today that's what I was told anyway do you hear that

02:53that sounds like an engine maybe a generator but that can't be possible no one can live in this

03:07god-forsaken place or can they

03:14perth on the australian west coast three days earlier a reporter found one of the few surviving inhabitants of

03:22vittanum

03:24rafael has a meeting with the president of the australian organization against asbestos related diseases

03:30robert boyakovich the native croat like many europeans came to australia in the 1950s searching

03:37for happiness

03:38good morning

03:39good morning rafael hi nice to meet you robert

03:42nice to meet you thank you very much for having me um

03:45you used to live in vittanum

03:47yeah i used to live in vittanum and i worked there for about three months in asbestos mohan

03:51what brings you to perth 2400 kilometers away

03:55well i asked skype actually from whitman you know because once you're there you know you've got to be there for six months

04:02on the contract you know and i was very lucky that i was able to escape you know to perth

04:06the problem was uh was everything more or less you know no accommodation properly no food you see

04:12job was very hard you see intolerable you know a lot of dust

04:16as early as the nineteen thirties asbestos was already being mined at vittanum

04:20the fibrous stone was a popular building material

04:23because it insulates well and is heat resistant

04:26it was referred to in germany as the miracle fiber

04:29from remote parts of europe workers came over to dig it out of tunnels

04:35and separated from the rock in the mill without masks or any other protection

04:39even though there were already suspicions of asbestos being dangerous at the time

04:46both in the mine and in the mill microscopic fibers are created and inhaled by the unprotected workers and residents

04:54even years later almost all of them suffer from a particularly aggressive type of lung cancer

05:00which turns terminal within nine months of diagnosis

05:09one night robert won a few hundred dollars playing poker

05:12which he used to convince a truck driver to smuggle him out of town and take him to perth

05:17today he owes his life to this decision

05:21why don't you come with us

05:23well it possibly can't you see because if i go to whitman

05:27if i go to whitman

05:29i would actually show that we can use the kite to go there

05:32their policies and can go there it's incontaminated

05:35the government closed it it's a closed area

05:37it's no go area you see

05:39and we actually had at least two people who actually stayed there overnight camping

05:43you understand on there

05:44yeah

05:45or the visit to leoma

05:47just for one night of camping

05:49yeah

05:51as the consequences of the asbestos dust were being made public

05:55Robert was founding an organization that has been helping victims and survivors for over 40 years

06:01he was able to distribute around 1 billion euros in compensation

06:05he doesn't allow rafael to go to vietnam without adequate protection

06:10only the safest is safe enough

06:12in addition to the asbestos dust that rafael must not inhale

06:16a trip to the outback isn't without its dangers

06:18our reporter is expected to pack 50 liters of water 30 liters of gas and food for at least two extra days

06:28after so much it was clear to me even if his stories and precautions made me nervous

06:33i'm glad i met robert and didn't simply go there unprepared

06:48it takes 12 hours to drive through the outback

06:52hundreds of miles where i don't see a single car

06:56there is nothing here

06:58i wonder why anyone would ever get the idea of coming out here looking for happiness

07:04let alone digging for asbestos

07:07all that's waiting here is loneliness

07:11no sign vietnam not posted on any sign what's this here

07:25tom price

07:28but that's the 134 it must be right here somewhere in this direction

07:36in 2007 the australian government declared vietnam as highly contaminated and revoked its city status

07:43all street signs and map entries were removed

07:46eighty kilometers further out in the outback rafael discovers a junction

07:53i think that was the actual access to the mine

07:59a simple sign blocks the way into the mine and details the dangers

08:03it would be easy to get around but rafael decides to keep following the main road

08:08and then

08:10i think this is it

08:12no barrier no fence

08:15only a board on the roadside reads enter at your own risk

08:1942 degrees in the shade but as we know there is no shade here

08:26the heat slaps me in the face but that's frankly the least of my concerns

08:31i'm actually really nervous because i have no idea what to expect

08:36how dangerous is this place really

08:39do you hear that

08:44that sounds like a motor engine maybe a generator

08:50maybe a generator

08:57this actually looks like someone's living here

09:00hello

09:05hello

09:11hi

09:18yeah we are journalists from germany

09:21hi buddy

09:22hi buddy

09:23and yeah we were told that

09:26are you actually living here

09:29yeah

09:30since when for how long

09:32nearly 30 years

09:34yeah

09:35are you living on your own

09:36yeah

09:37yeah

09:38may i come in and have a look

09:39yeah

09:40oh thank you

09:43what kind of a guy must he be to actually live here

09:51so how is life here in pippernon

09:53well i like it

09:55yeah

09:56yeah

09:57but all the people went went away

10:00why did you stay here

10:02well i come after the mine closed and

10:06because i like i like i like it here

10:09yeah

10:10good lifestyle

10:12this is an austrian flag

10:14yeah i'm austrian originally

10:16really

10:17yeah

10:18let me introduce mario hartmann from vorarlberg

10:21his german's a bit rusty

10:23but that doesn't stop him proudly showing me his garden

10:26he can really show his pride for it

10:33a homemade pool

10:35running water

10:36a vegetable patch

10:37a solar panel system on the roof

10:40a completely bizarre situation

10:43i could easily forget

10:45that i'm currently in one of the most polluted places in the world

10:48if not for my constant fear of my mask moving out of position

10:53i feel so silly here with a safety suit and a gas mask at 50 degrees centigrade

10:59and he is here in his flip-flops and without a shirt

11:04but i still think it's the right thing to do

11:10even if i am on the verge of having a heat stroke

11:14i don't want to be rude or um you know because of the mask

11:21what do you think about it

11:23well

11:24i don't think it's a problem here

11:28yeah

11:29and i mean i've been here 30 years

11:32it's safe here

11:33yeah i reckon the town is pretty good

11:35you know as long as you don't dig the spaces up and all that

11:39i reckon it's alright

11:41okay

11:43and the big mess is out in the gorge

11:46are you just lucky

11:48that you don't get the disease or

11:52is it just

11:53well it's like cancer

11:54some people get it and some don't

11:58no it's not like cancer it is cancer

12:01and i don't have to be the one who finds out today

12:04where you get it here and where you don't

12:06but my mask doesn't seem to bother mario at all

12:09he proudly shows me his city

12:12a completely different side of biternum

12:14which gives an idea of what it must have been like here

12:21although the mine closed in 1966 for economic reasons

12:26biternum remained as the largest city in northwestern australia

12:30however the inhabitants of the still heavily contaminated city began to die of lung diseases

12:36many moved away

12:39a handful remained

12:41it was not until the late 1980s that the government began demolishing houses and burying them in a large ravine

12:48that's when the austrian emigrant mario centered his chance and began to earn his living as a kangaroo hunter in the area

12:59at some point the last inhabitants were gone mario state and he found a new job

13:06we only have to read now

13:08we only have to read now

13:09now only read the gauges

13:13today 42.3 so it's not that hot

13:2042.3 is not that hot

13:22no it's not that hot

13:23well i say that's enough

13:27mario works for the australian weather service

13:34twice a day he collects data

13:36temperature

13:37precipitation

13:38cloud formations

13:40he sends them using a satellite phone to the airport in perth

13:44thousand kilometers away

13:46mario's information is important for forecasts for air traffic

13:50a surreal scene in the middle of this ghost town a meticulously maintained tidy house financed with two shifts of ten minutes work per day

14:05about 850 dollars a month

14:08ok

14:09that's a good amount isn't it

14:11yeah but you have to be here all the time

14:14like you have to do it all the time

14:16ok

14:17so no vacation for you

14:18nine o'clock in the morning

14:19365 days a year

14:21nine o'clock in the morning and three o'clock in the afternoon

14:25ok

14:26so for me it's very hard to go away see

14:28but what did you get do?

14:30or sick or

14:31well i've just been to Perth

14:33and i had to get somebody to come here from Tom Price to do it

14:36look i can't leave here because of the power and everything

14:39ok

14:40you have to run the power and i got the dog and i got a rabbit

14:43and what do you do when you break your leg somewhere out into the up back?

14:48well i already had some problems you know i dislocated my shoulder and stuff

14:54well just somebody i made a morning or whatever has to come here

14:58and then i have to go away

15:01but it's that's why i'm not going away

15:04that's it

15:05i'm usually always here

15:07once the pride of a region twice as big as germany

15:15now a ghost town in the middle of nowhere

15:18there's nowhere

15:23Wittenurm

15:24eighty percent of all inhabitants have since died as a result of asbestos contamination

15:29only an austrian

15:31hasn't been defeated by the town

15:33quite the contrary

15:35what do you miss most?

15:37oh nothing really

15:40i reckon there's still too many houses here now

15:42i like it yeah

15:44because

15:45if we wouldn't have the asbestos

15:48there'd be

15:49this be a big tourist thing here

15:52there'd be people everywhere

15:54and i wouldn't be here then

15:56on my trip to the contaminated lost place

16:03i expected a sad intimidating city

16:07and that's Wittenurm no question

16:10i can't wait to leave this place and protection suit behind

16:14for mario it's exactly the city in which he wants to live

16:19and thanks to him

16:24Wittenurm

16:25is not quite as lost

16:26as it seems

16:28of

16:31well

16:32well

16:33well

16:34well

16:36well

16:37well

16:38well

16:39well

16:40well

16:41well

16:42well

16:45well

16:46well

16:47well

16:48well

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