Where it all began

Let’s start at the beginning, well close to it.

It was around March 2021 when we noticed the leaking roof (aparently a five year problem) and mold in the house. We reported it to the Pilbara Service Centre (run by Sodexo for Rio Tinto) as per our tenancy agreement. Nothing happened, this went on for 3 months, call up, get ignored. Anyone that dealt with these guys will understand.

Then the mushrooms started growing out of the walls (not the good kind right), Sodexo sent tradesman round with vinegar to spray them on 3 occasions from painters to plumbers, chippys to sparkies all with no real solution.

Bear in mind now we have two little girls at the time aged 1 and 3. Mold throughout the house.

It wasn’t until the property manager came for her “inspection” in September (5months later)that things started happening, she brought around Eddie and Brendon Podmore from the Rio Tinto Coastal Housing team, they said, “it’s not good enough” and left without doing anything (they will both feature later). Sodexo sent another laborer around to find the “leak” he cut 3 holes in the hallway wall, before freaking out that it could be asbestos, used our vacuum to clean it up and left, leaving the holes right where my kids walk! Unbeknown to us it was now whilst inspecting the roof for leaks, he found the huge hole in the ducting and a ceiling cavity full of friable asbestos and debris but said nothing just took photos for his supervisor. Then after more queries from us about the holes that he had left in the suspected asbestos wall on top of the unsolved mould issue, Sarah Newland the Rio Tinto housing Superintendent finally rolled through boots and all to put her spin on it, bluffing her way through our home, seeing the holes in the wall, the mushrooms and mold, said “ I give you my word I will make this right”, she left and wasn’t heard from again (she also features in her own chapter later). At this time my wife started getting a rash around her eyes and feeling unwell and went reluctantly to see the local doctor (she never goes), he diagnosed her condition as suspected mold toxicity and immediately called the Sodexo property manager with his concerns.

Next day the Sodexo tradie cavalry arrived all tools a blazing whilst one of them was showing me the “photo file” of our property, the photo of the hole in the ducting popped up on the iPad. Both he and myself were both shocked at the size of the hole and the mess in the ceiling space, this got me a little uneasy, at this stage not sure why- something just seemed off.

The next post- The Hole. We are going to pick our way through and unravel this piece by piece, the story is long with more lies, coverups and harm to our family than we imagined possible.