One of the things Shattered shows in Episode 2 — Doctor Doctor — is the lived experience of navigating a system while carrying psychological injury, and how constantly changing processes can cause harm rather than help. When people are able to see for themselves how distressing this system has become, it may help — even if only a little — to build a more compassionate workforce for those injured at work, particularly those with psychological injuries. In Shattered, Episode 2,

Researching and filming Shattered has been a very humbling experience, mostly because we feel as though we really have traversed through Australia's rich work history and gotten to know the people who built our nation. Today we discuss Heyfield. Heyfield's Victorian Timber Workers Memorial is a memorial shaped like shelter - situated in Lions Park at Heyfield, at the foothills of Victoria’s Great Dividing Range. The memorial honours the people who went to work in the timbe

Pictured: The Australian Truck Drivers Memorial at Tarcutta - the small township is midway between Sydney and Melbourne. This site was chosen as the township has a long historical association with the transport industry. We visited the memorial as part of research and filming for Shattered. Grief is part of working life. Yet too many people are expected to carry profound loss quietly, return quickly and continue as though nothing has changed. We tend to think of grief as so

Australia’s child sexual abuse Royal Commission established an important trauma-informed standard. When governments ask injured people to provide evidence, care, continuity and protection must be built into the process.

At Windy Gully, remembrance is not simply about looking back. It is a promise to remember the human cost of work, the importance of safety, and the families and communities who carry that cost long after the workplace falls silent. One of the most humbling things about filming Shattered has been travelling into communities and seeing firsthand how deeply workplace safety—or its failure—becomes part of their history. (There are literally memorial sites or plaques in almost eve

What does the Latrobe Valley’s asbestos history teach us about delayed workplace harm, institutional memory and the importance of listening to lived experience? There is a familiar way of recording Australia’s industrial history. We document when a power station opened, how much electricity it generated, how many people it employed and when it finally closed. We remember the engineers, the infrastructure and the contribution made to the state. What is less likely to survive i

If Australia is serious about creating safer workplaces, then safety cannot remain solely the responsibility of employers, regulators or workers. It must become part of our national culture. Cultures are not built only through legislation, enforcement or education campaigns. They are built through the stories societies tell, the traditions they preserve and the people they choose to remember. Australia already has important occasions that acknowledge those who have died becau

One of the unexpected lessons from making Shattered has been learning how difficult it is to connect history. Much of our research has involved travelling to communities, reading inquiry reports, speaking with people whose lives have been shaped by work and injury and, on more than one occasion, working through archive boxes with the assistance of parliamentary staff because many of the historical records we were seeking had not yet been fully digitised. Research like this te

From Lithgow to Mount Kembla, Melbourne, Canberra and Cobar, every place we visited became part of the story because understanding work, injury and recovery begins with understanding the communities in which they unfold. One of the questions we are asked most often is why Shattered was filmed across Australia. After all, much of the research could have been undertaken from a desk. Reports are publicly available, experts can be interviewed online and archives have never been m

Every two years, the Invictus Games remind the world that recovery is about far more than healing an injury. Founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, in 2014, the Games were created for wounded, injured and sick service personnel and veterans. The Invictus Games Foundation describes its purpose as using the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and generate a wider understanding and respect for those whose lives have been changed through military serv

"Sometimes what we don't see is the real issue." When someone is injured at work, kindness is usually our first instinct. We offer practical help, send flowers, cook meals, visit in hospital and ask how we can help. A broken leg, an arm in a sling or a visible scar tells us that something significant has happened, and most people respond with genuine compassion because the injury is there for everyone to see. Invisible injuries can be different. When we cannot see the injury,

Women leaving the Lithgow Small Arms Factory during the Second World War. As Australia's workforce changed, so too did the nation's understanding of responsibility, workplace safety and recovery. For more than a century, Australia has continually redefined what responsibility, safety and recovery should mean when work changes a life. They are smiling. At first glance, it looks like an ordinary shift ending. Women stream out of the Lithgow Small Arms Factory after another day'

Belonging is found in the places where people gather, contribute and know they have a place. Communities remind us that recovery is not only about healing the body, but also about reconnecting with others and rediscovering purpose. Photograph from the making of Shattered. During the making of Shattered, one idea surfaced again and again. Historians, doctors, employers, workers and families often approached workplace injury from very different perspectives. They did not always

Community is often where recovery quietly continues. Conversations, familiar faces and everyday places can help people reconnect with life after it has changed. Photograph from the documentary Shattered. When a workplace injury changes a family, everyone begins adapting in different ways. Our first questions are usually about the injury itself. What is the diagnosis? What treatment is needed? What is the prognosis? Will they return to work? How will this change our family lif

Recovery is often described as something medicine helps us achieve. Yet for many people, rebuilding a life after injury involves far more than treatment alone. This article explores the roles of family, work, community, purpose and hope, asking what recovery really means when work changes a life.

Judge Ralph Joseph Perdriau (1880–1975), inaugural Chairman of the NSW Workers' Compensation Commission. Contemporary newspaper reports described him as a judge who insisted on visiting workplaces and standing beside workers to better understand the jobs they performed before deciding workers' compensation cases. Digitally enhanced from a photograph published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 June 1950. On 1 July 1926, the newly created Workers' Compensation Commission began i

Every day, people leave for work expecting life to continue as normal. Most do. Some don't. This opening essay explores what happens after a workplace injury and why recovery is about far more than medicine, compensation or returning to work.

Before workers' compensation became a function of government and insurance, communities created their own systems of care. Friendly societies such as the Odd Fellows helped members navigate illness, injury and hardship, embodying a simple principle: when misfortune strikes, no one should face it alone. While researching Shattered: Episode 1 – Origins of Control, we came across a photograph from the official opening dinner of Lithgow's Blast Furnace on 17 May 1907. The image r

One of the unexpected gifts of researching Shattered: Episode 1 – Origins of Control has been the stories discovered along the way. I travelled to Lithgow to better understand the town where I was born and the industrial history that shaped generations of working families. My grandfather was killed in a quarry collapse near Lithgow in 1939, leaving behind a widow and four children. What began as a search for one story quickly became a journey through many others and a long jo

During the making of Shattered, a simple question kept returning: what is the role of an injured person within a recovery system? During the making of Shattered, I found myself returning to a surprisingly simple question: what is the role of an injured person within a recovery system? At first glance the answer appears self-evident. Their role is to focus on recovery, rebuild their health and confidence, maintain important connections with family and community and, where poss