Blue Murder

Alistair Hulett



They say it's easy money
A full page ad in the local rag,
Always nice and sunny.
Come on lad, and pack your bag.

Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.

It's off to West Australia.
Leave the old hometown behind.
Be a winner, not a failure.
There's money to be made in the Wittenoom Mine.

Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.

They took me to my quarters,
A stinking bed in an old tin shed.
Got my working orders,
With a lamp, and tin hat on my head.

Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.

My girl she's a cook and a cleaner.
Works all day in the canteen hall.
Six days since I've seen her.
Some don't have no girl at all.

Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.

Sweeps the fine blue dust up.
Tips it into an old wool pack.
Never had a check-up.
If she did she'd get the sack

Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.

I feel my health is failing
Working down in the thick blue dust.
The kids play in the tailings.
The boss says work, and work I must.

Day in, day out, everyday they drive us harder.
Day in, day out, they're getting away with blue murder.


The late Alistair Hulett's classic song about the mining of blue asbestos in Western Australia. Considered by some to have been Australia's greatest industrial disaster, thousands of miners were exposed to lethal concentrations of asbestos dust in the course of their work. While no deaths were recorded in the ten years following their employment, 85 deaths from malignant mesothelioma were reported between 1976 and 1985. You can read more here.