Catherine Martin

Catherine Ellen Martin (1918 – 17 April 2009) was a journalist for The West Australian newspaper from 1957, specialising in medical reporting. The winner of the inaugural Gold Walkley, Martin is known for her reporting the impact of asbestosrelated diseases on the mining community in Wittenoom Gorge that led to the company James Hardie being found in the Supreme Court of New South Wales guilty of misleading conduct and failing to meet its obligations over its handling of asbestos compensation. Biography Martin was born in London, England in the United Kingdom and emigrated to Western Australia together with her Czechborn husband. Following his premature death and faced with the challenge of raising three children, Martin sought and gained work with The Western Australian. In 1978 she began investigating the high incidence of death and disease among workers at the Australian Blue Asbestos mine at Wittenoom Gorge. Martin was able to access a study by Professor Michael Hobbs, a University of Western Australia epidemiologist, of the mine workers and their families. This study found a high incidence of illness and death from asbestos-related diseases among the small number of workers in the sample. Between 1947 and 1967 when the mine was closed more than 6500 people had been employed at Wittenoom. Nearly half the workers had been European migrants, some of whom had returned to their homelands.