West gate disaster remembered

Stick Together

This Wednesday the 15th October marks the 55th Anniversary of Australia's worst industrial disaster, the collapse of the Westgate Bridge - the bridge designed to run out of Melbourne to Geelong.35 Workers died in the collapse, and 18 were seriously injured as a result of the 1970 incident, but the design of the bridge was already in doubt beforehand, with a similar bridge having recently come down with worker deaths in the UK.Without the modern emergency service response, the workers were left to dig their comrades bodies out of the rubble. Three days later, they were all sacked. This is an excerpt from the Creatures of the Industry podcast, a 3CR Community Radio project and an oral history of those who made the building and construction industry in Melbourne since the 1960s.Here, survivor of the collapse and industry stalwart Pat Preston gives his first-hand account of the disaster and its aftermath... plus industry standards at the time, other near-misses on the bridge, and the pay and conditions fought and won on that job.This extended interview features the voices of Peter Clarke, and Creatures of the Industry Podcast host, Ralph Edwards. You can find the full extended interview with Pat Preston, plus all episodes and stories over at 3cr.org.au/cotiToday, after this episode is first broadcast in Melbourne on Wednesday Morning, families and supporters will gather in a yearly memorial organised by the Westgate Bridge Memorial Committee under the bridge on Douglas Parade in Spotswood.