Why community screenings are part of Shattered. Shattered documents the experiences of people injured at work and the families beside them. Community screenings offer an opportunity to bring those experiences into a shared conversation about what happens next and how we can build a more caring culture. What is a community screening? A community screening brings people together to watch a film, with time afterwards to discuss what they have seen. A workplace, community group,

One of the memorials we visited during filming of Shattered was the Tarcutta Truck Drivers Memorial. Situated at Tarcutta, on the old Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne, the Australian Truck Drivers’ Memorial gives a permanent place to the names of people whose working lives helped keep Australia moving. For the families and friends who visit, it is also a place where a loved one’s life can be publicly acknowledged and remembered. Its history offers a valuable example

Work related injury and illness discussion during Mental Health Month In 2021–22, an estimated 497,300 people in Australia experienced a work-related injury or illness. That was 3.5% of people who had worked at some time during the year. Almost half a million people, each with a life beyond their job. [1] During Mental Health Month, this scale deserves attention. For Shattered, it is a reason to call for sustained public education about preventing harm, how people treat one a

At 11.50 am on 15 October 1970, a 112-metre span of Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge collapsed during construction. Thirty-five workers died and 18 others were seriously injured. Some of those killed had been taking their lunch break in huts beneath the structure. Others were working on or inside the span. They had gone to work that morning. Their families expected them home. The collapse became a turning point for workplace safety in Victoria. It also left questions that extend

You may miss the sound effect but it is there if you listen: The church bells heard briefly in Episode 1 of Shattered connect us to a history of industry, family loss and memorial gardens. In Episode 1 of Shattered: Origins of Control, you can hear the bells of Hoskins Memorial Church in Lithgow. Behind that sound is a story of family loss and remembrance that extends beyond the film. The church gardens are in full bloom at the moment. Their history connects a family prominen

After more than 25 years of seeking a permanent memorial, ACV/GARDS is raising funds to recognise those who have suffered or died from asbestos-related disease—and the families beside them. Making Shattered gave us a new awareness of workplace memorials and what they mean to families and communities. Around the country, we visited memorial after memorial, spending time understanding the stories they told. They brought us closer to the people behind the history: those who had

For Mental Health Month, Shattered explores how recognising loss can help leaders, workplaces and communities support mental health after injury. Someone survives a serious workplace injury. Treatment begins. Forms are completed. Conversations turn towards capacity and return to work. At home, another story may be unfolding. A person misses the work they loved. Their partner watches them withdraw. Familiar routines disappear. Colleagues gradually stop calling. The future the

When someone is injured at work, treatment and financial support matter. So does having someone to talk to who understands what they are going through. As World Mental Health Day approaches on 10 October, this year’s global theme—Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change—invites us to consider whether people’s experiences genuinely influence the support available to them. Here in Australia, Mental Health Australia’s Together We Thrive campaign highlights connection an

National Safe Work Month begins today, 1 October. This year’s theme, Safe work is for life, recognises that workplace safety reaches beyond the working day. It is about coming home safely, being well enough to enjoy life and having a future to look forward to. For Shattered, this connects with the question at the centre of our documentary series: When work changes a life, what happens next? Preventing injury is essential. Safety is everyone’s business, and keeping people safe

Pictured: Dr Julian Parmegiani, a retired forensic psychiatrist who appears in Shattered and speaks about the response to psychological injury in workers’ compensation. Shattered was named a finalist in the Leadership in Workplace Psychosocial Safety category at the 2026 Mental Health Matters Awards on 25 September. The four-part documentary asks what happens after workplace injury changes a life. It brings injured people, families, clinicians and others across the system in

The 1974 Woodhouse inquiry grew from a long standing concern: whether a person’s chance of recovery and financial security should depend on where an injury happened and what they could prove in a legal claim. When someone is injured, the first questions are usually practical. Can they get treatment? How will they pay their bills? What support will help them regain health and participate in work and community life? In Australia, the answers have long depended in part on the ca

What the Wesley LifeForce Suicide Memorial Service reminded us about grief, connection and the quiet power of being present. This article discusses suicide and bereavement. Support information appears at the end. Yesterday we attended the Wesley LifeForce Suicide Memorial Service at ACO On The Pier in Sydney’s Walsh Bay. It was hauntingly beautiful. The service created a safe and gentle space for grieving and reflection—a room filled not only with sorrow, but with humanity’s

Part One: The World of Work Is Changing Faster Than Recovery What happens when an injured person is expected to return to a labour market they did not change and cannot control? In Episode 3 of Shattered, coming later this year, we explore what the rapid transformation of work through AI means for people recovering from workplace injury—and for a workers’ compensation sector racing, like everyone else, to keep pace. Change on this scale will inevitably bring mistakes and unin

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