Cracking Asbestos - Nat Kassel

Cracking Asbestos is a 44 page dispatch from a Marrickville warehouse in 2016. It moves through freelance hustling, selling nangs, secret lakes, illegal parties, train track trespassing and the slow grind of gig economy survival. A not for profit project by Nat Kassel, with design and illustrations by Kayla Sutton.

It was written during Sydney’s lockout era, when the city felt like a battleground. Lockout laws, WestConnex, the housing crisis, gentrification, the Baird government. Venues were shuttering while The Star glowed exempt in the night. Culture was being sanded down, but the underground kept sparking. Bowlo shows, Portuguese club gigs, rogue inner west warehouses. DIY as resistance. Cheap or free as a statement. Community built from scratch and always close to collapse.

It is also about trying to force freelance writing into a full time life under a precarious, dignity draining model. Chasing entry to the media class while dumpster diving, sleeping in a windowless room and living gig to gig. It was technically possible. It did not look sustainable.

Freelance writing is no longer the main job. That shift has been a relief. Writing feels like DIY again. Creative. Voluntary. Alive.