lefa's review against another edition
5.0
After reading The Coal Face I had been anticipating the release of this full-length exploration of the fire at Hazelwood and its impact on the La Trobe Valley. It didn’t disappoint. Doig has crafted a compelling narrative driven by the stories of the people living with the far-reaching impacts at the centre of the book.
While most of Victoria is under lockdown amidst a global health crisis it is good to be reminded that our political leaders are often slow to react and even slower to take action. We believe our government and health officials will do their best to lead and protect us, but our faith shouldn’t be placed blindly. As the events surrounding the fire at Hazelwood showed, and this novel articulated clearly, economic and practical concerns (logistics of mass evacuations for example) can often dictate messaging about community health, as can a blind optimism that everything will turn out fine. It also showed that those marginalised by lack of financial independence, reliant upon government services or trapped in insecure work and cycles of poverty are hardest hit when disaster occurs. It’s clear that many residents had no option but to persevere living in unsuitable housing which couldn’t protect them from being poisoned, or work that placed them in harms way.
The community in the La Trobe Valley has been badly betrayed by governments both here and overseas, placed in a situation where devastating environmental, safety and health risks were ignored in favour of economics and greed. If not for the activism of locals and the very few people in the media who paid attention, they may never have gotten even the meagre slice of recognition and justice they have achieved. Doig’s chronicle of their battle to be seen and acknowledged is a deft exploration of the larger political factors in play, juxtaposed with the personal, often heart wrenching, stories of people whose lives were devastated by the fire and its aftermath. His ability to weave the big and small pictures together is long form journalism at its best.
While most of Victoria is under lockdown amidst a global health crisis it is good to be reminded that our political leaders are often slow to react and even slower to take action. We believe our government and health officials will do their best to lead and protect us, but our faith shouldn’t be placed blindly. As the events surrounding the fire at Hazelwood showed, and this novel articulated clearly, economic and practical concerns (logistics of mass evacuations for example) can often dictate messaging about community health, as can a blind optimism that everything will turn out fine. It also showed that those marginalised by lack of financial independence, reliant upon government services or trapped in insecure work and cycles of poverty are hardest hit when disaster occurs. It’s clear that many residents had no option but to persevere living in unsuitable housing which couldn’t protect them from being poisoned, or work that placed them in harms way.
The community in the La Trobe Valley has been badly betrayed by governments both here and overseas, placed in a situation where devastating environmental, safety and health risks were ignored in favour of economics and greed. If not for the activism of locals and the very few people in the media who paid attention, they may never have gotten even the meagre slice of recognition and justice they have achieved. Doig’s chronicle of their battle to be seen and acknowledged is a deft exploration of the larger political factors in play, juxtaposed with the personal, often heart wrenching, stories of people whose lives were devastated by the fire and its aftermath. His ability to weave the big and small pictures together is long form journalism at its best.
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