Railway workers

The Islington railway yards employed hundreds of men from the 1940's until the 1960's. They worked building and maintaining a fleet of steam powered locomotives and carriages. Many workers were exposed to asbestos at the railway yards when they installed asbestos lagging around pipes, handling large asbestos blankets, which were placed over the boilers, or worked in the vicinity of others doing this work.

Railway workers used all manner of asbestos materials, including asbestos clutches and brake linings, which needed to be drilled and cut, large, heavy and very dusty asbestos blankets, asbestos rope, asbestos gloves and aprons, as well as asbestos pipe sections, blocks and composition.  Many describe time spent as young men, sitting on bags of raw fibre during smoko's, or having balls of soft asbestos fibre mixed with water thrown at them in pretend snowball fights.

Turner Freeman has acted for many workers in the Islington and Mile End railway yards, as well as other railway yards around Australia. 

Mr. Reynolds

One of them, Mr. Reynolds, worked at Islington from 1956 to 1961.  In 2006 he developed mesothelioma, at age 66. 

Turner Freeman brought his proceedings in the District Court of South Australia.  Mr. Reynolds' condition deteriorated and his hearing was expedited. On 15 December 2006 the District Court awarded Judgment in favour of Mr. Reynolds for the sum of $336,048.83. This was the first verdict for a person suffering from mesothelioma in South Australia under the Dust Diseases Act 2005.