A new podcast episode has cast fresh light on the early career of Lang Hancock, the father of Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart. While celebrated as a pioneer of the iron ore industry, the podcast reveals Hancock's beginnings were in a far more controversial sector: blue asbestos mining.
The Wittenoom Mining Operation
In the 1940s, Lang Hancock and a business partner initiated a mining operation at Wittenoom in Western Australia, targeting the dangerous mineral. This venture preceded his famed iron ore discoveries. The operation was later sold to the company CSR, which continued to extract asbestos from the site for another two decades.
The legacy of Wittenoom is one of profound tragedy. The town has become infamous for the devastating health impact on thousands of residents and workers exposed to asbestos fibres. The toxic dust led to widespread cases of mesothelioma and other lung diseases, creating one of Australia's worst industrial disasters.
Family Narratives Under Scrutiny
The podcast series, titled 'Gina', uses this historical context to interrogate the stories the Rinehart family chooses to highlight and those it often omits. It juxtaposes the celebrated narrative of industrial pioneering with the grim reality of the Wittenoom chapter, a part of the Hancock business history that is less frequently promoted.
This exploration comes amid ongoing reports of a bitter billion-dollar feud within Gina Rinehart's own family. The episode prompts listeners to consider how wealth, power, and influence are shaped by the stories families tell about their past, and what is deliberately left out of the official record.
The series continues to examine the immense power and privilege wielded by Gina Rinehart, one of the world's wealthiest individuals. It questions the foundation of that fortune and the complex history from which it sprang, a history inextricably linked to the tragic site of Wittenoom.
