Every now and again I come across a book so deeply satisfying that I think to myself, Australian publishing is in good hands. So it is with Dustfall, the debut novel of WA doctor Michelle Johnston, and published by UWAP who consistently publish worthwhile novels. On a day that follows an historic decision by the ACCC to lay charges against senior executives of the ANZ bank, I finished this story of Wittenoom and wondered why corporate crime is so rarely held to account. The next day the ANZ story was buried beneath an avalanche of trivia, and the story of a negligent UK doctor is given great prominence. An interesting juxtaposition…

Johnston’s story is framed around two narratives, both featuring doctors who have made mistakes. As Michelle Johnston says in this interview with Amanda Curtin, there’s a world of difference between the way that medical errors and corporate errors are judged and yet the consequences can be equally fatal for individuals.

Dustfall begins with Dr Lou Fitzgerald’s agonised flight from her medical mistake: in a car not suited to outback roads and without any plan except to get away, she hurtles inland from Port Hedland on the WA coast in the Pilbara. South east, three and a half hours away she stumbles into the ghost town of Wittenoom, notorious in Australia as the place which knowingly condemned its workers and inhabitants to cruel deaths from asbestosis and mesothelioma. After years in which the corporate owners of the asbestos mine and government authorities ignored health warnings, the mine was finally closed for economic reasons in 1966.

Along with incentives to encourage residents to leave, from 1978 town services and infrastructure were phased down and Wittenoom was de-gazetted in 2007. As in real life, Lou in the 21st century finds the site has not been rehabilitated because there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos, yet – also as in real life – there is someone living there despite the danger (reminding me of Lois Murphy’s story Soon, which though set in Tasmania, features a group of residents who for various reasons won’t leave a place that is highly dangerous).

"When she opens the car door and the interior light clicks on, she can see that there are scattered rocks near the front wheel. She picks one up, turning it over. It has a silvery seam cut through the middle, and the fibres pull off with little effort. They look like the grizzled hair of an old man, and she realises this is asbestos, right here in her hand. She knows how dangerous the filaments are; that inhaling a single fibre can sound the march of death, so she drops the rock and wipes her hands on her pants, but then thinks, what does it matter anyway?" (p.9-10)

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/06/07/dustfall-by-michelle-johnston-bookreview/ ( )