AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIA.

Wittenoom Gorge (Western Australia).
Third stamp in a set of 6, issued on 25.08.1976.
Face value: 35 cents of Australian dollar.
Design: Otto Berchert.
Printing: Photogravure.
Size: 25 x 38 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 612.
- Scott No. 643.
- StampWorld No. 611.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 629.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 597.

Wittenoom Gorge is located 1,420 km (880 mi) north-north-east of Perth in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The area around Wittenoom was mainly pastoral until the 1930s when the mining of blue asbestos began there. A business town was built in 1947, and in the 1950s it was the largest town in the Pilbara. During the 1950s and early 1960s, Wittenoom was the only Australian supplier of blue asbestos. The mine was closed in 1966 due to lack of profitability and growing health problems resulting from asbestos mining in the area. In December 2006, the Government of Western Australia announced that the city's official status would be removed, and in June 2007 it was announced that the city had been officially closed and its name removed from official maps and road signs. Roads leading to contaminated areas were closed.