Tucked into the banks of the Clarence River in Bundjalung Country, north-eastern New South Wales, lies a small town called Baryulgil.

It’s a quiet community that, to an outsider, perhaps seems as peaceful as any other rural pit stop.

But Daniella feels the history of this place running through her veins. Her ancestors lived and died on this land.

She describes it as a place of extremes.

"It holds breathtaking beauty in the landmarks where my ancestors have walked and swum for thousands of years.

"But seeped into the soil is great sadness from the scars of colonisation."

About a kilometre from the centre of town, the visible scars remain: the grave of an old asbestos mine.

From 1953 until 1979 James Hardie operated the asbestos mine at Baryulgil, employing men who spent their days drilling into rock wall for a precious white fibre.

For the people whose ancestors nurtured this land, working at the mine became their only means of staying connected to Baryulgil.

The wages they earned from crushing and bagging allowed them to build housing and a community to support their growing families.

Among them were Daniella's great-grandfather and pop, Albert Robinson and Daniel Walker.

Her mother Albatina, named after Albert, tells her they used to come home covered in fine white asbestos dust, so thick all you could see was their eyes. 

Years after the mine closed down, Albert and Daniel died from mesothelioma. 

Their story is just one of many in this town, of lives cut short and families ripped apart.

"Its deadly legacy has drilled deep into the core of my community," Daniella says.

Growing up in Baryulgil

Diane Randall grew up in Baryulgil in the 1970s, alongside her brother Ffloyd Laurie.

She describes her childhood as the happiest years of her life.

"We had a hard life. It was a struggle, but even with the struggles it was the happiest years of our life.

"Baryulgil was safe. All the children felt safe. If your mum and dad were home late, you always had other uncles and aunties who looked after you."

Her father worked an array of different jobs at the asbestos mine, from crushing to bagging.

"When dad worked there, they never wore any masks," she says.

"The only time they used to wear protective gear, was on the day the big bosses come up."

Asbestos tailings were used around the town as landfill for roads, around houses and the local primary school.

Diane remembers playing with Ffloyd in the mounds dotted around the town. 

"They put it all around all of our play equipment. Just to fill the holes in the school grounds. And the netball court, the foundation of it was asbestos.

"So, we played in it. And on the mound, we'd run when the teachers weren't looking, we'd run and jump on the tailings.

"We had no clue that it was dangerous."

As the years went by, people from the tiny community started getting sick, even people that had never even set foot inside the mine.

Ticking time bombs

Mesothelioma, a cancer most often caused by exposure to asbestos, can take up to 40 years to develop.

Ffloyd Laurie was the first confirmed victim of the Baryulgil mine whose only exposure to the deadly dust was as a child. 

He died in 2017 at 55 years of age, less than a year after his diagnosis. 

It is estimated that around 4,000 Australians die each year from asbestos related diseases. These diseases include asbestosis, lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestos related pleural diseases (ARPDs). 

Professor Anna Nowak is an internationally renowned asbestos and mesothelioma researcher at the University of Western Australia.

"Mesothelioma is a result of people breathing in asbestos fibres. [The fibres] are the right size and shape to go down the trachea, windpipe and going into the periphery of the lung," she says.

Those fibres penetrate through the outside of the lung into the pleura, which is the membrane lining the outside of the lung and inside of the chest wall. 

"The asbestos fibres are lodged in the pleura and over decades, they can cause inflammation and genetic changes in cells that can eventually lead to the cancer."

Contrary to what mine workers were told decades ago as they ventured into the mines, there is no "safe" amount of asbestos that you can inhale.

"We know that even people who have minimal exposure can develop mesothelioma. The longer you're exposed to asbestos, the more likely you are to develop mesothelioma," Professor Nowak says.