The Australian WEBsite "Voice Of Industrial Death" has been drawn to the CTW Working Group's attention and it may well be one that the relatives and friends of a Tasmanian worker who lost her/his life at work may wish to access and use either in conjunction with this site or some other site.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
WEBsite: Voice Of Industrial Death
The Australian WEBsite "Voice Of Industrial Death" has been drawn to the CTW Working Group's attention and it may well be one that the relatives and friends of a Tasmanian worker who lost her/his life at work may wish to access and use either in conjunction with this site or some other site.
Workers' Memorial Site Opens
IN THE EXAMINER TODAY
Memorial site pays tribute to workers
20 Jun, 2011 12:00 AM
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE
The site's design is the outcome of a collaboration between Launceston City Council's landscape architect, Niall Simpson and Launceston poet Tim Thorne.
The site's opening coincided with the launch of the website www.commemoratingtasmanianworkers.com.au. It is hoped that in time the site in Elizabeth Gardens and the website will be of some help to those family, friends and workmates left behind after a fatal workplace accident.
Memorial site pays tribute to workers
20 Jun, 2011 12:00 AM
"AND when the phone rang I just knew." This is just one of the phrases featured at the Tasmanian Workers' Memorial Park in Elizabeth Gardens, next to Aurora Stadium, unveiled on Saturday.
Those words ring true for the mother and sister of Scott Sharpe, who died last August doing the job he loved, working as an arborist.
Those words ring true for the mother and sister of Scott Sharpe, who died last August doing the job he loved, working as an arborist.
Christine Sharpe and her daughter Jodie Ombao attended the official opening of the park and said it was a wonderful tribute to all those killed at work.
"It's a really good thing," Mrs Sharpe said.
"It's a really good thing," Mrs Sharpe said.
"They all mean something to us and it's a nice place to come and sit." ... click here to go to The Examiner story
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGEWorkCover's records for 2009 show that 9273 Tasmanians were injured while at work and 15 were killed. However, there are an as yet unknown number of workers killed in road accidents while at work and that are not considered workplace deaths.
The Project up to now has been managed by a community based committee, the Tasmanian Workers Commemorative Park Committee, made up of the following membership:
- Robert Groenewegen : Chairman
- Ian Pattie : Secretary
- Rex Neil
- Tim Thorne
- Lionel Morrell
- Guy Hudson
- Niall Simpson
The site's design is the outcome of a collaboration between Launceston City Council's landscape architect, Niall Simpson and Launceston poet Tim Thorne.
The site's opening coincided with the launch of the website www.commemoratingtasmanianworkers.com.au. It is hoped that in time the site in Elizabeth Gardens and the website will be of some help to those family, friends and workmates left behind after a fatal workplace accident.
The next phase of the project is to realise the casting in bronze of the enigmatic symbol of a past presence a pair of work boots.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Question: When is a work place death not a work place death?
Question: When is a work place death not a work place death?Answer: Statistically speaking, when it is a road death.
This anomaly is important to those who seek to support families and friends who have lost loved ones when they were apparently at work. A carpenter, who loses his life on a building site, for example, is recognised as a work place death. A bus driver, for example, who loses his life in the course of his driving around city and suburban streets, is assessed as a road death, yet, if he or she were to be killed at the bus depot, the assessment would be that the death was in the work place.
The data about those killed in the course of their work should be more refined. Of course a person killed on the road is a road death but the bald statistic says nothing about the circumstances of the death.
If the death was a log truck driver travelling to or from a mill, he or she is conducting business. Road death statistics should be able to show this.
Similarly for a travelling salesman, an educational consultant travelling to or from a seminar or a doctor driving to see a patient.
The Australian Government’s Traumatic Injury Fatalities reports attempts a breakdown of the statistics. It is possible to find workplace deaths by sector, e.g. agriculture, and within that sector there are listed:
fatality which arises out of, or in the course of, employment or at a workplace where the activity of the deceased was contributing to or subject to the activity of that work place.
At the moment, over the last 10 years, there has been an annual average of about 9 work place deaths. This would be much higher, and have a greater impact on the community if the average also accounted for road deaths where the person killed was in the course of his or her work.
EDITOR'S NOTE: If you know of a circumstance where someone died as a result of road accident while at work please use the comment section below to draw attention to it or any other relevant matter.
The data about those killed in the course of their work should be more refined. Of course a person killed on the road is a road death but the bald statistic says nothing about the circumstances of the death.
If the death was a log truck driver travelling to or from a mill, he or she is conducting business. Road death statistics should be able to show this.
Similarly for a travelling salesman, an educational consultant travelling to or from a seminar or a doctor driving to see a patient.
The Australian Government’s Traumatic Injury Fatalities reports attempts a breakdown of the statistics. It is possible to find workplace deaths by sector, e.g. agriculture, and within that sector there are listed:
- Deaths while working for an income;
- Deaths while commuting;
- Deaths while being a bystander.
fatality which arises out of, or in the course of, employment or at a workplace where the activity of the deceased was contributing to or subject to the activity of that work place.
At the moment, over the last 10 years, there has been an annual average of about 9 work place deaths. This would be much higher, and have a greater impact on the community if the average also accounted for road deaths where the person killed was in the course of his or her work.
IAN PATTIE 2011
EDITOR'S NOTE: If you know of a circumstance where someone died as a result of road accident while at work please use the comment section below to draw attention to it or any other relevant matter.
LOST WORKERS REMEMBERED AT ELIZABETH GARDENS – Media Release
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO TO THE EXAMINER'S STORYAurora Stadium ground manager Robert Groenewegen, park steering committee member Lionel Morrell and Launceston City Council landscape architect Niall Simpson reflect at the newly established Elizabeth Gardens. Picture: PAUL SCAMBLER
A memorial site dedicated to those who have lost their lives in workplace accidents will be opened on Saturday, 18 June.
The site, now called Commemorating Tasmanian Workers, is in Elizabeth Gardens, one of Launceston’s under-used green spaces.
Chairman of the committee that realised the project, Robert Groenewegen said: “Elizabeth Gardens was established to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and was originally a rose garden, however, of recent years, it has mostly been the green rectangle passed by busy motorists on Invermay Road while travelling between the city and the northern suburbs. “Commemorating Tasmanian Workers gives a new emphasis to the reserve while it retains its original name,” Mr Groenewegen said.
The meeting circle may be accessed through a path of sentiments, cleverly cut into metal, atop a beautiful bluestone wall.
The sentiments, by poet Tim Thorne, are those thoughts that survivors have on first hearing and then living with the loss of a loved one in a work place accident.
Mr Groenewegen said: “The meeting circle is dominated by a large healing stone, with an array of smaller stones, all acquired from Tasmania’s North East Highlands. “The committee hopes that those affected by a work place death will use the site as a memorial to their lost family member or friend and that people walking through the park, or travelling beside it, may be reminded of the necessity of work place safety,” Mr Groenewegen said.
“The site has already been used on International Workers Memorial Day, onApril 28 and the committee hopes that this use will continue and expand, as this site is the only one in Tasmania dedicated to the workers who have lost their lives in work place accidents,” he said.
The site will be officially opened on Saturday (June 18 2011) at 10.30am.
At the same event we will be launching the website which has been designed to offer a first port-of-call for those suffering trauma from a workplace death. The website will have links to counselling services.
The major sponsors of Commemorating Working Tasmanians are:
The site, now called Commemorating Tasmanian Workers, is in Elizabeth Gardens, one of Launceston’s under-used green spaces.
Chairman of the committee that realised the project, Robert Groenewegen said: “Elizabeth Gardens was established to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and was originally a rose garden, however, of recent years, it has mostly been the green rectangle passed by busy motorists on Invermay Road while travelling between the city and the northern suburbs. “Commemorating Tasmanian Workers gives a new emphasis to the reserve while it retains its original name,” Mr Groenewegen said.
The meeting circle may be accessed through a path of sentiments, cleverly cut into metal, atop a beautiful bluestone wall.
The sentiments, by poet Tim Thorne, are those thoughts that survivors have on first hearing and then living with the loss of a loved one in a work place accident.
Mr Groenewegen said: “The meeting circle is dominated by a large healing stone, with an array of smaller stones, all acquired from Tasmania’s North East Highlands. “The committee hopes that those affected by a work place death will use the site as a memorial to their lost family member or friend and that people walking through the park, or travelling beside it, may be reminded of the necessity of work place safety,” Mr Groenewegen said.
“The site has already been used on International Workers Memorial Day, onApril 28 and the committee hopes that this use will continue and expand, as this site is the only one in Tasmania dedicated to the workers who have lost their lives in work place accidents,” he said.
The site will be officially opened on Saturday (June 18 2011) at 10.30am.
At the same event we will be launching the website which has been designed to offer a first port-of-call for those suffering trauma from a workplace death. The website will have links to counselling services.
The major sponsors of Commemorating Working Tasmanians are:
- WorkCover Tasmania
- The Launceston City Council
- Unions Tasmania and
- The Premier’ Office.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Elizabeth Gardens Map
Who was the first?
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGEThe first person to die in a work place accident on, in or around this island has yet to be found. The problem is the starting point.
Given that Aboriginal Tasmanians have a 40,000 year history here, it is safe to say that we will never know who the first “Tasmanian” killed in a work place accident if Aboriginal history is the starting point.
However, with white settlement we have a different scenario given that there is a written and mostly accessible history, but the problem of a starting point remains.
If a seaman, in the course of his duties, dies on board ship and the captain decides that he should be buried on land rather than at sea, because of the proximity of the land, who then becomes the first person to be killed in the work place on this island. Further, should we rule out burials at sea, in the search for the first working person to die on or around the island.
Readers will note that I have used the word ‘island’ and “Tasmania” in inverted commas so far in this text. This is for a very good reason.
The history of British settlement dates from 1803, at Risdon Cove, and, at the time, the colony was part of New South Wales even though it was Van Diemen’s Land.
Therefore, if 1803 is the starting point, the question becomes, who was the first Van Diemen’s Lander to die in the course of his or her work.
If the question is: Who was the first Tasmanian to die in the course of his or her work? then the pursuit for an answer starts in 1856 when the name Van Diemen’s Land was dropped because of its historical connotations.
Having decided on a starting point, post Aboriginal Tasmanian settlement, the next interesting question relates to the circumstances of the first work place death in the island.
Most history books will note that convicts were settled in Tasmania from 1803 but that overlooks a fact made plain by Phil Hinton in the June 2011 edition of the University of Tasmania’s Alumni News.
The first settlers were soldiers or sailors, those that brought the convicts to Van Diemen’s Land and guarded them while they were here. The answer to the first work place death will be a soldier, sailor, convict or Aboriginal Tasmanian who was going about his or her “work”. The circumstances that surround the first work place death will be of interest. Beyond this, the search could continue for the first free settler to die in a work place death.
The question remains unanswered and we look for amateur and professional historians to fill in the gaps and, if possible, say, who, when, where and why, a person died in the work place and, is there any information about how the family and friends of that person were informed or supported following the ordeal.
IAN PATTIE 2011
EDITOR'S NOTE:
If you wish to contribute to the search for the first worker to have lost her/his life in Tasmania/ Van Dieman's Land please make a comment in the COMMENTS section below or email info@commemoratingtasmanianworkers.com.au
If you wish to contribute to the search for the first worker to have lost her/his life in Tasmania/ Van Dieman's Land please make a comment in the COMMENTS section below or email info@commemoratingtasmanianworkers.com.au
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)