Over Twenty-Five Years After Longford, Are We Any Wiser?

Professor Andrew Hopkins transformed Australia’s occupational health and safety (OHS) approach through his research on mining safety management and disasters, and especially through his analysis of the Royal Commission into the Longford Gas Explosion. That Royal Commission was only the second in Victoria into an industrial disaster, following the one into the Westgate Bridge Collapse in 1970. His Longford analysis remarkably became a best-selling book and remains an obligatory read for OHS people, senior executives and OHS regulators.

In 2000, I interviewed Hopkins after a Lessons From Longford book launch in Victoria.