Catherine Ellen Martin MBE (1918 – 17 April 2009) was a journalist for The West Australian newspaper from 1957, specialising in medical reporting.
The winner of the inaugural Gold Walkley, Martin is known for her reporting the impact of asbestos–related diseases on the mining community in Wittenoom Gorge that led to the company James Hardie being found in the Supreme Court of New South Wales guilty of misleading conduct and failing to meet its obligations over its handling of asbestos compensation.
[2] In 1978 she began investigating the high incidence of death and disease among workers at the Australian Blue Asbestos mine at Wittenoom Gorge.
Martin was able to access a study by Professor Michael Hobbs, a University of Western Australia epidemiologist, of the mine workers and their families.
Martin's front-page story for The West Australian won a Walkley award and she produced a series of another nine articles highlighting the impact on workers and their families.