Search Results (Searched for: semi trailer bus)
26 Dec 2020 20:41
09 Aug 2020 19:36
Replied by prodrive on topic Need a few good yarns
Excellent stories fellas!
My Dad was always interested in produce- I think he thought there was a lot of money to be made, and I think the idea of CASH really appealed to him.
He did a trip to Darwin in the old green 1418 cabover when I was a young fella, and of course I just HAD to go.. that involved me being the best kid I could possibly be, no arguing, no nothing except work, work work- hand the spanners, wash the truck, clean the cab, anything, until I eventually wore him down and he said yes I could come.... Anyway we took the usual load for Arnolds from Melbourne to Brisbane, less one car- that spot we loaded with spuds. Then in Brisbane we sorted a load from TNT to Darwin, and took our spuds with us too.
Dad used to use Ray Stow's yard in Calamvale, and of course him being ever the one for making an extra dollar, he got the welders there to weld a towbar on the back of the trailer. So we could tow a tandem trailer behind the semi trailer, of course! Which gave us an extra car on the load for Darwin.
We snuck out of Brisbane at four in the morning, to get well clear of anyone who might look askance at our mini road train, and really had no dramas all the way. We met a bunch of young hoons broken down in an old Corona, they were going to Darwin too for some sort of adventure. From memory their old jalopy was boiling all the time, and we kept bumping in to them along the way. I think the old Corona eventually died, so Dad hooked up a tow rope behind- the- tandem -trailer- behind-the-semi, and we toddled in to Darwin like that.
I don't remember much of Darwin apart from going to the blackfellas's bar (can you still say that?) and it was just stone tables, and concrete floor, and she was pretty wild, I do remember that! And I remember the "locals" partying/drinking/brawling after the pub shut in the area where we were parked with me sleeping on the deck on the back of the truck, shitting myself with all the goings on aroud me.. and being eaten by sandflies!!!
Anyway Dad couldn't sell the spuds, obviously it wasn't his best business decision, but I guess it was worth a go. We eventually bought the young fella's old Corona off them and brought that home, that was then used as the "shape" car to build future car carriers.. and I learnt to hoon around the yard in it.
What better fun could a kid have than going with his Dad in the truck???
Cheers
Rich
My Dad was always interested in produce- I think he thought there was a lot of money to be made, and I think the idea of CASH really appealed to him.
He did a trip to Darwin in the old green 1418 cabover when I was a young fella, and of course I just HAD to go.. that involved me being the best kid I could possibly be, no arguing, no nothing except work, work work- hand the spanners, wash the truck, clean the cab, anything, until I eventually wore him down and he said yes I could come.... Anyway we took the usual load for Arnolds from Melbourne to Brisbane, less one car- that spot we loaded with spuds. Then in Brisbane we sorted a load from TNT to Darwin, and took our spuds with us too.
Dad used to use Ray Stow's yard in Calamvale, and of course him being ever the one for making an extra dollar, he got the welders there to weld a towbar on the back of the trailer. So we could tow a tandem trailer behind the semi trailer, of course! Which gave us an extra car on the load for Darwin.
We snuck out of Brisbane at four in the morning, to get well clear of anyone who might look askance at our mini road train, and really had no dramas all the way. We met a bunch of young hoons broken down in an old Corona, they were going to Darwin too for some sort of adventure. From memory their old jalopy was boiling all the time, and we kept bumping in to them along the way. I think the old Corona eventually died, so Dad hooked up a tow rope behind- the- tandem -trailer- behind-the-semi, and we toddled in to Darwin like that.
I don't remember much of Darwin apart from going to the blackfellas's bar (can you still say that?) and it was just stone tables, and concrete floor, and she was pretty wild, I do remember that! And I remember the "locals" partying/drinking/brawling after the pub shut in the area where we were parked with me sleeping on the deck on the back of the truck, shitting myself with all the goings on aroud me.. and being eaten by sandflies!!!
Anyway Dad couldn't sell the spuds, obviously it wasn't his best business decision, but I guess it was worth a go. We eventually bought the young fella's old Corona off them and brought that home, that was then used as the "shape" car to build future car carriers.. and I learnt to hoon around the yard in it.
What better fun could a kid have than going with his Dad in the truck???
Cheers
Rich
24 Jul 2020 20:44 - 25 Jul 2020 07:18
31 May 2020 21:56
06 Apr 2020 10:24
Replied by Roderick Smith on topic * * * Manure Happenz * * *
Roderick
Truck driver in South-Eastern Freeway smash says he lost his brakes and couldn’t avoid crashing into cars
Adelaide 'Advertiser' September 12, 2019
The truckie that crashed into multiple cars at the bottom of the freeway has told how he desperately tried to slow his runaway semi-trailer — and the moment he knew it was too late.
video: There has been a miraculous escape from a pileup on one of Adelaide most notorious intersections.
The driver of a semi-trailer that smashed into multiple cars at the bottom of the South-Eastern Freeway after its brakes failed says he thought “f**k, here we go” when he realised he couldn’t stop.
Steve Phillips, 57, told The Advertiser he has lost his livelihood after police stripped him of his driver’s licence for six months after the crash at Glen Osmond just before 6.30pm on Wednesday.
The Queensland truckie was driving a white semi-trailer when it ploughed into seven vehicles waiting to turn right on to Portrush Rd at the bottom of the freeway.
The runaway truck crashed into six vehicles waiting to turn right on to Portrush Rd. Picture Dean Martin
A cyclist was also waiting at the intersection.
Police say it was a “miracle” no one was seriously injured.
They issued Mr Phillips with a defect notice for faulty brakes and directed him to have the truck further inspected.
“Following further investigation, police from the Heavy Vehicle Enforcement Section reported (Mr Phillips) this morning for driving in a dangerous manner and failing to engage his vehicle in a low gear,” a police spokesman said.
The spokesman also confirmed he was issued with a six month loss of licence and will be summonsed to appear in court at a later date.
Mr Phillips said he was travelling about 60km/h along the freeway towards the city when the incident unfolded. He said he lost his brakes after the second arrester bed, which was open.
“I was coming down the hill and I was using my brakes as it was starting to get away … and I got to the last descent and I hit the brakes and the next minute I had air in the brakes,” he said.
Mr Phillips said he could see cars lined up at the intersection and he knew he was going to hit them.
“The lights (at the Toll Gate intersection) were red and I had a trailer loaded with timber.
“I thought ‘f**k, here we go’. I was thinking ‘I hope no one dies’.”
Mr Phillips said as soon as he hit the vehicles he got out and checked that the motorists were OK.
One of the cars is sandwiched between the truck and another vehicle after the crash on Wednesday night. Picture Dean Martin
“I got out and asked the man in the ute in front of me if he was all right (and) he was like, ‘yeah’,” he said.
“The main thing is no one was killed.”
Trucks and buses heading down the South-Eastern Freeway are required to use a gear low enough to enable the vehicle to be safely driven without the need for a primary brake, however Mr Phillips defended using brakes during the incident.
“If you’ve got momentum, you’ve got to use your brakes to back them off again,” he said.
Mr Phillips said police had issued him with a six-month loss of licence and he was expecting a fine for dangerous driving.
“So there goes my livelihood — there goes my bread and butter,” he said.
“And I was just trying to do the right thing … when you feel a truck going a bit more than you should be doing, you hit the brakes.”
It was a miracle no one was injured, the MFS says. Picture Dean Martin
Vehicle accident involving cars, a truck and a cyclist, on the Tollgate intersection. 11 September 2019. Picture Dean Martin
A spokesman for the Department of Transport said the second arrester bed was not closed at the time of the crash.
Mr Phillips was driving a truck owned by BJ Harris Xpress. The company’s manager Nicole Fletcher described the crash as an “accident”.
“We regret that this happened and we’re glad no one is hurt,” she said.
The crash happened on the same night a young Riverland man died when his car hit a tree about 9.30pm and a cyclist and a motorcyclist were critically injured in separate crashes.
On Tuesday, a man died when his car smashed into a tree on Torrens Rd at high speed.
The downtrack into the city is notorious for truck crashes.
Numerous safety measures, including lower speed limits, upgraded signage and increased penalties for speeding truck drivers, have been implemented on the freeway in response to State Coroner recommendations made after inquests into heavy-vehicle fatalities on the road.
An out-of-control sewage truck smashed into cars at the bottom of the freeway on August 18, 2014, killing Tom Spiess, 56, and Jacqui Byrne, 41.
A coronial inquest into the incident heard the truck was travelling at 151km/h in the final 190m before hitting the victims’ vehicles.
The scene of the Cleanaway truck crash in 2014, which killed two people and caused a coronial inquest, which saw speed limits dropped for heavy vehicles and cars on freeway’s downtrack. Picture: Roger Wyman
On January 18 that same year, a semi-trailer rolled at the same location, killing its driver James William Venning, 42.
Last year, new safety cameras capable of singling out speeding trucks were installed on the freeway.
The cameras target trucks on the downtrack where they are only permitted to travel up to 60km/h while other vehicles can travel at up to 90km/h.
•‘Miracle’ escape as trucks, cars and bike smashed
•Young man dies in Riverland smash, two other serious crashes
< www.adelaidenow.com.au/truecrimeaustrali...5d02819e2f6f185f743d >
190912Th-Adelaide'Advertiser'-truck.prang (five photos)
Truck driver in South-Eastern Freeway smash says he lost his brakes and couldn’t avoid crashing into cars
Adelaide 'Advertiser' September 12, 2019
The truckie that crashed into multiple cars at the bottom of the freeway has told how he desperately tried to slow his runaway semi-trailer — and the moment he knew it was too late.
video: There has been a miraculous escape from a pileup on one of Adelaide most notorious intersections.
The driver of a semi-trailer that smashed into multiple cars at the bottom of the South-Eastern Freeway after its brakes failed says he thought “f**k, here we go” when he realised he couldn’t stop.
Steve Phillips, 57, told The Advertiser he has lost his livelihood after police stripped him of his driver’s licence for six months after the crash at Glen Osmond just before 6.30pm on Wednesday.
The Queensland truckie was driving a white semi-trailer when it ploughed into seven vehicles waiting to turn right on to Portrush Rd at the bottom of the freeway.
The runaway truck crashed into six vehicles waiting to turn right on to Portrush Rd. Picture Dean Martin
A cyclist was also waiting at the intersection.
Police say it was a “miracle” no one was seriously injured.
They issued Mr Phillips with a defect notice for faulty brakes and directed him to have the truck further inspected.
“Following further investigation, police from the Heavy Vehicle Enforcement Section reported (Mr Phillips) this morning for driving in a dangerous manner and failing to engage his vehicle in a low gear,” a police spokesman said.
The spokesman also confirmed he was issued with a six month loss of licence and will be summonsed to appear in court at a later date.
Mr Phillips said he was travelling about 60km/h along the freeway towards the city when the incident unfolded. He said he lost his brakes after the second arrester bed, which was open.
“I was coming down the hill and I was using my brakes as it was starting to get away … and I got to the last descent and I hit the brakes and the next minute I had air in the brakes,” he said.
Mr Phillips said he could see cars lined up at the intersection and he knew he was going to hit them.
“The lights (at the Toll Gate intersection) were red and I had a trailer loaded with timber.
“I thought ‘f**k, here we go’. I was thinking ‘I hope no one dies’.”
Mr Phillips said as soon as he hit the vehicles he got out and checked that the motorists were OK.
One of the cars is sandwiched between the truck and another vehicle after the crash on Wednesday night. Picture Dean Martin
“I got out and asked the man in the ute in front of me if he was all right (and) he was like, ‘yeah’,” he said.
“The main thing is no one was killed.”
Trucks and buses heading down the South-Eastern Freeway are required to use a gear low enough to enable the vehicle to be safely driven without the need for a primary brake, however Mr Phillips defended using brakes during the incident.
“If you’ve got momentum, you’ve got to use your brakes to back them off again,” he said.
Mr Phillips said police had issued him with a six-month loss of licence and he was expecting a fine for dangerous driving.
“So there goes my livelihood — there goes my bread and butter,” he said.
“And I was just trying to do the right thing … when you feel a truck going a bit more than you should be doing, you hit the brakes.”
It was a miracle no one was injured, the MFS says. Picture Dean Martin
Vehicle accident involving cars, a truck and a cyclist, on the Tollgate intersection. 11 September 2019. Picture Dean Martin
A spokesman for the Department of Transport said the second arrester bed was not closed at the time of the crash.
Mr Phillips was driving a truck owned by BJ Harris Xpress. The company’s manager Nicole Fletcher described the crash as an “accident”.
“We regret that this happened and we’re glad no one is hurt,” she said.
The crash happened on the same night a young Riverland man died when his car hit a tree about 9.30pm and a cyclist and a motorcyclist were critically injured in separate crashes.
On Tuesday, a man died when his car smashed into a tree on Torrens Rd at high speed.
The downtrack into the city is notorious for truck crashes.
Numerous safety measures, including lower speed limits, upgraded signage and increased penalties for speeding truck drivers, have been implemented on the freeway in response to State Coroner recommendations made after inquests into heavy-vehicle fatalities on the road.
An out-of-control sewage truck smashed into cars at the bottom of the freeway on August 18, 2014, killing Tom Spiess, 56, and Jacqui Byrne, 41.
A coronial inquest into the incident heard the truck was travelling at 151km/h in the final 190m before hitting the victims’ vehicles.
The scene of the Cleanaway truck crash in 2014, which killed two people and caused a coronial inquest, which saw speed limits dropped for heavy vehicles and cars on freeway’s downtrack. Picture: Roger Wyman
On January 18 that same year, a semi-trailer rolled at the same location, killing its driver James William Venning, 42.
Last year, new safety cameras capable of singling out speeding trucks were installed on the freeway.
The cameras target trucks on the downtrack where they are only permitted to travel up to 60km/h while other vehicles can travel at up to 90km/h.
•‘Miracle’ escape as trucks, cars and bike smashed
•Young man dies in Riverland smash, two other serious crashes
< www.adelaidenow.com.au/truecrimeaustrali...5d02819e2f6f185f743d >
190912Th-Adelaide'Advertiser'-truck.prang (five photos)
02 Feb 2020 15:26
Pacific Hwy (NSW) safety was created by Roderick Smith
Roderick
Pacific Highway turns the corner on safety December 28, 2019. 2 comments
The two horrific Pacific Highway crashes came within a few weeks of each other. On October 20, 1989, 21 people were killed when a coach and semi-trailer collided near Cowper, north of Grafton. On December 23, 1989, two packed coaches collided 12 kilometres north of Kempsey, leaving 36 dead and 39 injured.
It is believed the southbound bus from Brisbane failed to negotiate a bend and collided head on with the northbound TransCity bus from Sydney.
A new bridge over the Clarence River at Harwood, looking north.Credit:Grant Turner/Mediakoo
The two-way highway was unlit and it was drizzling at the time. It was Australia's worst road accident.
But inevitable calls for an upgrade to the highway fell on deaf ears for years.
Ray Jones, a doctor who lived in Grafton, was out jogging when he got news of the first crash. He jumped in his car and drove 30 minutes to the scene.
The scene of a fatal collision between a passenger bus and semi-trailer near Grafton, October 1989.Credit:SMH
“It was horrendous,” he said. “The bodies of 20 people had already been laid out in the paddock. The was a collection of people in the road that needed to be attended to. Back in those days, they didn't have paramedics.”
He spent most of his time attending to Yvonne Bradford. She was eight months pregnant and was travelling home to Brisbane after a trip to England with her husband Alan.
“She lost the baby,” Dr Jones said. She needed 20 units of blood. She almost bled to death. She had a ruptured uterus which is a life-threatening condition.”
Thirty years on, doctor and patient were reunited in October at a memorial service that took place at the crash scene.
Mrs Bradford, who now works in Indigenous education in Queensland, said when they flew in to Sydney there was a pilots' dispute and everyone was trying to get on buses to get home.
Most bodies from the crash were to be taken to Sydney but Yvonne's sister, Denise, a neo-natal nurse, insisted the baby should go to Brisbane where Yvonne had been taken by helicopter.
“They brought my baby girl in to me in hospital so I could say goodbye,” Yvonne said. “The baby was conceived in Nepal. We had given it the nickname 'Yeti' before the birth.”
Mrs Bradford was told that because of her injuries she might never have children. But she went on to have a baby boy and then twins, one of each. She said: “I bless Ray Jones for the fact that I am here rushing about looking for Christmas presents.”
Yvonne Bradford, pictured with her young family, was eight months pregnant and lost her baby in the bus crash.
Ray Walkden, a first responder with what is now the State Emergency Service, was one of the first on the scene at the second crash, near Kempsey at 3.30am on the day before Christmas Eve.
“We had been told two buses had collided head on and that they were both full,” he said. “We knew we were going to see something we hadn't seen before. The first thing was to try and find a way in through an emergency window.”
Mr Walkden, president of the local Lions Club, was due to dress up as Santa that night to attend a Driver Reviver, handing out free coffees and teas to motorists, encouraging them to take a break.
He spent 14 hours at the crash scene. Bodies were bagged in a temporary morgue but then had to be re-checked to see identification was correct. Then he went to a debrief before showing up at the Driver Reviver, though not in the Santa garb. “Your body says you are tired but you can't just go home and sleep,” he said.
The coroner who oversaw the inquests into both smashes urged the state and federal governments to move quickly to upgrade the highway.
The aftermath of a head-on collision between two buses at Kempsey 30 years ago.Credit:SMH
Former NSW coroner Kevin Waller was still banging the drum in 2006 when he said it was unacceptable that federal and state governments had not upgraded the highway to a dual carriageway.
“The main recommendation (from the inquests) was that there be a dual highway between Sydney and Brisbane, and 17 years later, of course, that still has not been done,” he said at the time.
“My plea would be to governments to get a bit of resolve in the matter and decide to actually do something for the benefit of the citizens of this country. Gee whiz, 17 years ... is it going to take 25 or 30 years to implement what was obvious to anyone who was present and heard evidence at the inquest?”
Dr Jones also campaigned for improved safety measures on the Pacific Highway for 20 years. Then in 2012 an 11-year-old boy, Max McGregor, was killed as he slept in bed when a B-double truck collided with a ute before it smashed into the family's holiday house in Urunga. The male driver of the ute was also killed in the accident.
Dr Jones said: “I had campaigned in the years before that and hadn't got very far. The government didn't want to spend any money on the highway. They wanted to spend it all in Sydney.
“After the child was killed, we had a protest march and blocked the highway. There was a huge outpouring of anger.”
Then things started to happen. Within three weeks of the protest, there was an announcement of a $6 billion upgrade to the highway.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott backed the Gillard government when it said the upgrade was necessary after four deaths on the road in just 24 hours. Then transport minister Anthony Albanese called for the federal and state governments to join together and improve the roads between Queensland and Sydney by 2016.
Mr Abbott said at the time: “The government committed to getting this job done by 2016. I doubt very much they are going to meet that deadline as things stand.”
He was right. The deadline was missed. But making the highway a much safer link between Sydney and Brisbane is now well advanced. Bridges have been built, lots of them. Towns have been bypassed and concrete and asphalt have been laid in quantities unlike anything seen before.
In 1982, around 4000 vehicles on average travelled along the Pacific Highway each day. In 2007, almost 9500 vehicles on average travelled along the Pacific Highway between Woolgoolga and Ballina each day. In 2018, the average had risen to almost 13,500 vehicles travelling along the same section of the Pacific Highway each day.
The $15 billion Pacific Highway, dual carriageway all the way, is now about 82 per cent complete. Transport for NSW says it is Australia's largest road infrastructure project and that it is on track to cut the ribbon on the final section next year.
In a statement it said: “The ongoing significant investment by the Australian and NSW governments has transformed one of Australia's busiest roads into a safer and more enjoyable journey for road users while contributing to regional growth, economic development and efficiencies in freight movements due to shorter travel times.”
In the 20 years since the start of the program, annual fatalities have more than halved from more than 50 to less than 25 and most recently to eight in 2018.
“This is a core motivation behind this project and more lives will be saved with the opening of the rest of the upgrade,” the TfNSW statement says.
“Travellers are seeing huge changes. The upgraded highway has removed notorious bottlenecks during the peak holiday period, which has been a source of frustration to road users and locals trying to travel around the beautiful Pacific coast.”
A report was carried out by the UNSW in 2014 to look into the economic impact on Kempsey, which was bypassed in 2013. It concluded: “There was considerable optimism in the community that once things settled down, Kempsey would become a much better place for shopping and to visit and that the future environment for business would be enhanced.
An excavator in action on the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade. Credit:Grant Turner/Mediakoo
“At the time of the survey, several businesses reported signs that sales were starting to improve.”
There has also been considerable effort to protect wildlife as the long and winding road crosses river systems, flood plains, coastal ranges, travels through forests and adjoins marine parks.
The final part of the jigsaw is the $4.95 billion dual carriageway upgrade to the 155 kilometres section between Woolgoolga and Ballina, which is to open before the end of next year. Once complete, the Pacific Highway will bypass South Grafton, Ulmarra, Woodburn, Broadwater and Wardell.
The western roundabout of the Coolgardie [south of Ballina] interchange under construction. Credit: Grant Turner/Mediakoo
Superintendent Nick Williams, 60, started out as a labourer and has now worked on the road for 20 years. In the early days, he says, it was a rather wild workforce and many workers lived itinerant lifestyles. The safety culture changed over the years and a lot less risk was taken nowadays.
“You could almost say we are at the finishing stage now,” he said. “I never get too concerned about what I am going to be doing next. I am concerned about the project I am working on.
“The [reduction in fatalities] is to me the biggest thing about the whole project. The traffic, from what it was 25 years ago, has increased exponentially and yet the fatalities are dropping all the time.”
That is a sentiment shared by Dr Jones, who is still practising as a doctor. “In the 1980s there was 40 centimetres separating the two lanes,” he said. “It was a dreadful road and so many people lost their lives.
Earthworks between Broadwater and Ballina. Credit:Grant Turner/Mediakoo
“At last you have got a good chance of getting to where you are going, without becoming another road statistic.”
Related Article A safer road system, including wire rope barriers which were later installed, would have increased the chances of the Jessica and the rest of the Falkholt family surviving the crash that killed the family of four on Boxing Day 2017. 'Lost decade' of road safety means 500 have died unnecessarily
Gallery The western roundabout of the Coolgardie interchange under construction. 19 images
< www.smh.com.au/national/pacific-highway-...20191219-p53lmq.html >
191228Sa-'SMH'-PacificHwy-fatalities.jpg
191228Sa-'SMH'-PacificHwy-old.bus.crash-a-ss.jpg
191228Sa-'SMH'-PacificHwy-old.bus.crash-b-ss.jpg
191228Sa-'SMH'-new.ClarenceRiver.bridge-ss.jpg
Pacific Highway turns the corner on safety December 28, 2019. 2 comments
The two horrific Pacific Highway crashes came within a few weeks of each other. On October 20, 1989, 21 people were killed when a coach and semi-trailer collided near Cowper, north of Grafton. On December 23, 1989, two packed coaches collided 12 kilometres north of Kempsey, leaving 36 dead and 39 injured.
It is believed the southbound bus from Brisbane failed to negotiate a bend and collided head on with the northbound TransCity bus from Sydney.
A new bridge over the Clarence River at Harwood, looking north.Credit:Grant Turner/Mediakoo
The two-way highway was unlit and it was drizzling at the time. It was Australia's worst road accident.
But inevitable calls for an upgrade to the highway fell on deaf ears for years.
Ray Jones, a doctor who lived in Grafton, was out jogging when he got news of the first crash. He jumped in his car and drove 30 minutes to the scene.
The scene of a fatal collision between a passenger bus and semi-trailer near Grafton, October 1989.Credit:SMH
“It was horrendous,” he said. “The bodies of 20 people had already been laid out in the paddock. The was a collection of people in the road that needed to be attended to. Back in those days, they didn't have paramedics.”
He spent most of his time attending to Yvonne Bradford. She was eight months pregnant and was travelling home to Brisbane after a trip to England with her husband Alan.
“She lost the baby,” Dr Jones said. She needed 20 units of blood. She almost bled to death. She had a ruptured uterus which is a life-threatening condition.”
Thirty years on, doctor and patient were reunited in October at a memorial service that took place at the crash scene.
Mrs Bradford, who now works in Indigenous education in Queensland, said when they flew in to Sydney there was a pilots' dispute and everyone was trying to get on buses to get home.
Most bodies from the crash were to be taken to Sydney but Yvonne's sister, Denise, a neo-natal nurse, insisted the baby should go to Brisbane where Yvonne had been taken by helicopter.
“They brought my baby girl in to me in hospital so I could say goodbye,” Yvonne said. “The baby was conceived in Nepal. We had given it the nickname 'Yeti' before the birth.”
Mrs Bradford was told that because of her injuries she might never have children. But she went on to have a baby boy and then twins, one of each. She said: “I bless Ray Jones for the fact that I am here rushing about looking for Christmas presents.”
Yvonne Bradford, pictured with her young family, was eight months pregnant and lost her baby in the bus crash.
Ray Walkden, a first responder with what is now the State Emergency Service, was one of the first on the scene at the second crash, near Kempsey at 3.30am on the day before Christmas Eve.
“We had been told two buses had collided head on and that they were both full,” he said. “We knew we were going to see something we hadn't seen before. The first thing was to try and find a way in through an emergency window.”
Mr Walkden, president of the local Lions Club, was due to dress up as Santa that night to attend a Driver Reviver, handing out free coffees and teas to motorists, encouraging them to take a break.
He spent 14 hours at the crash scene. Bodies were bagged in a temporary morgue but then had to be re-checked to see identification was correct. Then he went to a debrief before showing up at the Driver Reviver, though not in the Santa garb. “Your body says you are tired but you can't just go home and sleep,” he said.
The coroner who oversaw the inquests into both smashes urged the state and federal governments to move quickly to upgrade the highway.
The aftermath of a head-on collision between two buses at Kempsey 30 years ago.Credit:SMH
Former NSW coroner Kevin Waller was still banging the drum in 2006 when he said it was unacceptable that federal and state governments had not upgraded the highway to a dual carriageway.
“The main recommendation (from the inquests) was that there be a dual highway between Sydney and Brisbane, and 17 years later, of course, that still has not been done,” he said at the time.
“My plea would be to governments to get a bit of resolve in the matter and decide to actually do something for the benefit of the citizens of this country. Gee whiz, 17 years ... is it going to take 25 or 30 years to implement what was obvious to anyone who was present and heard evidence at the inquest?”
Dr Jones also campaigned for improved safety measures on the Pacific Highway for 20 years. Then in 2012 an 11-year-old boy, Max McGregor, was killed as he slept in bed when a B-double truck collided with a ute before it smashed into the family's holiday house in Urunga. The male driver of the ute was also killed in the accident.
Dr Jones said: “I had campaigned in the years before that and hadn't got very far. The government didn't want to spend any money on the highway. They wanted to spend it all in Sydney.
“After the child was killed, we had a protest march and blocked the highway. There was a huge outpouring of anger.”
Then things started to happen. Within three weeks of the protest, there was an announcement of a $6 billion upgrade to the highway.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott backed the Gillard government when it said the upgrade was necessary after four deaths on the road in just 24 hours. Then transport minister Anthony Albanese called for the federal and state governments to join together and improve the roads between Queensland and Sydney by 2016.
Mr Abbott said at the time: “The government committed to getting this job done by 2016. I doubt very much they are going to meet that deadline as things stand.”
He was right. The deadline was missed. But making the highway a much safer link between Sydney and Brisbane is now well advanced. Bridges have been built, lots of them. Towns have been bypassed and concrete and asphalt have been laid in quantities unlike anything seen before.
In 1982, around 4000 vehicles on average travelled along the Pacific Highway each day. In 2007, almost 9500 vehicles on average travelled along the Pacific Highway between Woolgoolga and Ballina each day. In 2018, the average had risen to almost 13,500 vehicles travelling along the same section of the Pacific Highway each day.
The $15 billion Pacific Highway, dual carriageway all the way, is now about 82 per cent complete. Transport for NSW says it is Australia's largest road infrastructure project and that it is on track to cut the ribbon on the final section next year.
In a statement it said: “The ongoing significant investment by the Australian and NSW governments has transformed one of Australia's busiest roads into a safer and more enjoyable journey for road users while contributing to regional growth, economic development and efficiencies in freight movements due to shorter travel times.”
In the 20 years since the start of the program, annual fatalities have more than halved from more than 50 to less than 25 and most recently to eight in 2018.
“This is a core motivation behind this project and more lives will be saved with the opening of the rest of the upgrade,” the TfNSW statement says.
“Travellers are seeing huge changes. The upgraded highway has removed notorious bottlenecks during the peak holiday period, which has been a source of frustration to road users and locals trying to travel around the beautiful Pacific coast.”
A report was carried out by the UNSW in 2014 to look into the economic impact on Kempsey, which was bypassed in 2013. It concluded: “There was considerable optimism in the community that once things settled down, Kempsey would become a much better place for shopping and to visit and that the future environment for business would be enhanced.
An excavator in action on the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade. Credit:Grant Turner/Mediakoo
“At the time of the survey, several businesses reported signs that sales were starting to improve.”
There has also been considerable effort to protect wildlife as the long and winding road crosses river systems, flood plains, coastal ranges, travels through forests and adjoins marine parks.
The final part of the jigsaw is the $4.95 billion dual carriageway upgrade to the 155 kilometres section between Woolgoolga and Ballina, which is to open before the end of next year. Once complete, the Pacific Highway will bypass South Grafton, Ulmarra, Woodburn, Broadwater and Wardell.
The western roundabout of the Coolgardie [south of Ballina] interchange under construction. Credit: Grant Turner/Mediakoo
Superintendent Nick Williams, 60, started out as a labourer and has now worked on the road for 20 years. In the early days, he says, it was a rather wild workforce and many workers lived itinerant lifestyles. The safety culture changed over the years and a lot less risk was taken nowadays.
“You could almost say we are at the finishing stage now,” he said. “I never get too concerned about what I am going to be doing next. I am concerned about the project I am working on.
“The [reduction in fatalities] is to me the biggest thing about the whole project. The traffic, from what it was 25 years ago, has increased exponentially and yet the fatalities are dropping all the time.”
That is a sentiment shared by Dr Jones, who is still practising as a doctor. “In the 1980s there was 40 centimetres separating the two lanes,” he said. “It was a dreadful road and so many people lost their lives.
Earthworks between Broadwater and Ballina. Credit:Grant Turner/Mediakoo
“At last you have got a good chance of getting to where you are going, without becoming another road statistic.”
Related Article A safer road system, including wire rope barriers which were later installed, would have increased the chances of the Jessica and the rest of the Falkholt family surviving the crash that killed the family of four on Boxing Day 2017. 'Lost decade' of road safety means 500 have died unnecessarily
Gallery The western roundabout of the Coolgardie interchange under construction. 19 images
< www.smh.com.au/national/pacific-highway-...20191219-p53lmq.html >
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191228Sa-'SMH'-PacificHwy-old.bus.crash-a-ss.jpg
191228Sa-'SMH'-PacificHwy-old.bus.crash-b-ss.jpg
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20 Jan 2020 11:10 - 20 Jan 2020 11:12
1966 bus crash (Vic.) was created by Roderick Smith
191214Sa-Melbourne'Age'-1966-Chiltern.bus.crash
Roderick
How a fatal bus crash connects Barrie Cassidy and Harry Frydenberg December 14, 2019. 11 comments
Barrie Cassidy and Harry Frydenberg sit side by side in a Melbourne restaurant, learning for the first time of a connection they share from more than half a century ago.
Sometimes time and circumstance collapse and we are brought to understand how few are the degrees by which we are separated.
A surprise connection: Harry Frydenberg, centre, with his son, Josh Frydenberg, and Barrie Cassidy.Credit:Simon Schluter
And so it was for Cassidy, one of Australia’s best-known journalists, and Harry Frydenberg, internationally respected surgeon, still operating at 77 - and dad of the current Australian Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg.
Though their lives when they were young had intersected in a chaos of suffering, death and heroism on a single winter’s night in 1966, Cassidy and Dr Frydenberg met for the first time this week.
They were brought together because of a newspaper article I wrote a few months ago to coincide with Cassidy’s retirement from his ABC television show, Insiders.
The article mentioned he had worked night shift in a country telephone exchange when he was a schoolboy, and how his most frantic night followed a crash between a bus and a truck on the Hume Highway which had caused multiple fatalities.
The story revived all sorts of old memories in the Frydenberg household.
Josh Frydenberg, astonished at the previously unknown conjunction of events in the lives of his father and Cassidy long before he was born, arranged for a meeting over lunch. Having written the article that brought the connection to light, I went along too.
Politics was set aside and a glass of wine eased the way into a distant past.
Harry Frydenberg related how, aged 23 and employed as a junior doctor in a country hospital, he was blearily driving his car on the Hume Highway through the early hours of Monday, June 20, 1966.
He had spent the weekend in Sydney romancing the woman who - five years later - would become Josh Frydenberg’s mother, the teacher and psychologist Erica Strausz. Harry was heading back to work as a first-year resident at the Mooroopna Base Hospital, near Shepparton in north-central Victoria.
At the same time Barrie Cassidy, aged 16, was trying to get some sleep on a bunk in the telephone exchange in his hometown, the north-east Victorian village of Chiltern.
In those days, Hume Highway was a single lane in both directions, and ran just outside Chiltern, population 900. [part of the building of the 1962 Melbourne - Albury standard-gauge railway was the elimination of Hume Hwy level crossing by relocating the highway east of the railway, bypassing Chiltern and Barnawartha].
At 4am, all hell broke loose.
A Melbourne-bound bus packed with sleeping passengers ploughed into the rear of a semi-trailer on the highway just north of the village.
Cassidy was earning his keep by looking after the telephone exchange at night so he could continue attending high school during the day.
He had a mid-year English exam coming up that day. He had no reason to expect his rest would be interrupted: country folk generally respected the custom that late at night was no time to be chatting on the phone.
Suddenly, however, the phone alarm sounded with an urgency that wouldn’t stop for hours.
Young Cassidy would get no more sleep as he frantically patched through calls to police, ambulance stations and emergency workers across the north-east.
Soon enough, too, he had to contend with Melbourne reporters clamouring for details of the disaster - his first experience of the big-time media that would later dominate his career. Long before mobile phones or even automatic dialling in country districts, calls from Melbourne went to the exchange at Wangaratta and were transferred to little Chiltern.
Young Cassidy thus became a one-man communications post at the centre of one of Victoria’s worst highway disasters.
Out on the road Harry Frydenberg, piloting his seven-year-old EK Holden, was the first on a scene of smoking chaos.
“The bus had gone into the back of this semi-trailer, and the tray of the truck was actually inside the bus, level with the floor,” he recalls.
“I found an elderly man who had gone through the front windscreen of the bus and was lying under the back axle of the truck. I picked him up and was amazed that he wasn’t badly injured.
The Age's report of June 21, 1966 on the Hume Highway crash and Harry Frydenberg's heroism.Credit:Age archive
“By then other trucks had stopped and I got the drivers to smash the emergency window at the back of the bus with their crowbars, and I got inside.
“All the seats had concertinaed and the passengers’ legs had been fractured. We used the crowbars to lever the seats apart and to pull them out, with the passengers still caught in the seats.
“There was a lot of blood about the place and all the rest of it. I started binding up the fractures and the wounds and used the seats as sort of stretchers.”
It’s a modest retelling. A report the next day in The Age was headlined “Young Doctor is Hero: Saved gravely injured in 4-death crash”.
It related that “Dr H. Frydenberg worked in battlefield conditions to save the lives of three of the critically injured. Ambulance men said the doctor virtually fought his way through the wrecked interior of the bus to evacuate and treat the injured.”
Meanwhile, Barrie Cassidy’s frantic efforts patching phone lines through to emergency services eventually paid off. Chiltern had only one policeman, but soon enough, Cassidy’s work had police and ambulances howling to the scene from Wangaratta, Wodonga and Beechworth.
As the ambulances ran a shuttle service to hospitals in Wangaratta, 38 kilometres to the south-west, and Wodonga, 32 kilometres to the north-east, young Dr Frydenberg tended to those still trapped in the wreckage.
The elderly man Dr Frydenberg had pulled from beneath the truck’s axle kept up a chant: “How many dead so far, Doc?”
In the end, four passengers died that night, and another succumbed to her injuries a month later.
The wrecked tourist coach with the semitrailer in the background. The impact sheared off the coach's left side. Credit:Age archive
But young Dr Frydenberg wasn’t about to give up. Once all the survivors were away in ambulances, he drove to Wangaratta Hospital and assisting the local surgeon, Dr Hal Stanistreet, spent the entire day operating on survivors.
By the time he got back to Mooroopna Hospital the next day, the newspapers were on the streets and his fellow doctors and nurses had hoisted a sign that embarrassed him: “Hero Harry Lives Here".
By that time Cassidy had switched from besieged emergency telephone operator to high school student.
At 8am that morning he was on the bus to nearby Rutherglen High School, where he managed to pass his mid-year English expression exam despite lack of sleep.
The Age's November 1966 report of the verdict in the trial of bus driver Clarence Cook. Credit:Age archive
His facility with English expression would soon enough help him into a cadetship in journalism at the Albury Border Mail, and later take him to the heights of political correspondent on the ABC and help him create Insiders, where for 18 years he interviewed leading politicians - including, naturally, Josh Frydenberg.
Dr Frydenberg (entitled these days to be called Mr, in the curious tradition of surgeons), hadn’t been dissuaded from working in battlefield conditions, it turned out. In 1967 he volunteered for service with the Israelis in the Six-Day War, but arrived too late to take part. Erica Strausz followed him to Israel, where they married. Josh was born in Melbourne in 1971.
But through the 54 years since that frenzied night at little Chiltern, neither Cassidy nor Frydenberg had any idea how their efforts had combined to save lives. Until Josh, a proud son, organised this week's lunch.
The bus driver, Clarence Cook, was acquitted in November 1966 of five charges of manslaughter and one of dangerous driving.
Related Article Barrie Cassidy is taking stock as his role on the ABC's 'Insiders' comes to an end. Barrie Cassidy: a country boy who flew in the highest circles
< www.theage.com.au/national/how-a-fatal-b...20191211-p53izr.html >
Roderick
How a fatal bus crash connects Barrie Cassidy and Harry Frydenberg December 14, 2019. 11 comments
Barrie Cassidy and Harry Frydenberg sit side by side in a Melbourne restaurant, learning for the first time of a connection they share from more than half a century ago.
Sometimes time and circumstance collapse and we are brought to understand how few are the degrees by which we are separated.
A surprise connection: Harry Frydenberg, centre, with his son, Josh Frydenberg, and Barrie Cassidy.Credit:Simon Schluter
And so it was for Cassidy, one of Australia’s best-known journalists, and Harry Frydenberg, internationally respected surgeon, still operating at 77 - and dad of the current Australian Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg.
Though their lives when they were young had intersected in a chaos of suffering, death and heroism on a single winter’s night in 1966, Cassidy and Dr Frydenberg met for the first time this week.
They were brought together because of a newspaper article I wrote a few months ago to coincide with Cassidy’s retirement from his ABC television show, Insiders.
The article mentioned he had worked night shift in a country telephone exchange when he was a schoolboy, and how his most frantic night followed a crash between a bus and a truck on the Hume Highway which had caused multiple fatalities.
The story revived all sorts of old memories in the Frydenberg household.
Josh Frydenberg, astonished at the previously unknown conjunction of events in the lives of his father and Cassidy long before he was born, arranged for a meeting over lunch. Having written the article that brought the connection to light, I went along too.
Politics was set aside and a glass of wine eased the way into a distant past.
Harry Frydenberg related how, aged 23 and employed as a junior doctor in a country hospital, he was blearily driving his car on the Hume Highway through the early hours of Monday, June 20, 1966.
He had spent the weekend in Sydney romancing the woman who - five years later - would become Josh Frydenberg’s mother, the teacher and psychologist Erica Strausz. Harry was heading back to work as a first-year resident at the Mooroopna Base Hospital, near Shepparton in north-central Victoria.
At the same time Barrie Cassidy, aged 16, was trying to get some sleep on a bunk in the telephone exchange in his hometown, the north-east Victorian village of Chiltern.
In those days, Hume Highway was a single lane in both directions, and ran just outside Chiltern, population 900. [part of the building of the 1962 Melbourne - Albury standard-gauge railway was the elimination of Hume Hwy level crossing by relocating the highway east of the railway, bypassing Chiltern and Barnawartha].
At 4am, all hell broke loose.
A Melbourne-bound bus packed with sleeping passengers ploughed into the rear of a semi-trailer on the highway just north of the village.
Cassidy was earning his keep by looking after the telephone exchange at night so he could continue attending high school during the day.
He had a mid-year English exam coming up that day. He had no reason to expect his rest would be interrupted: country folk generally respected the custom that late at night was no time to be chatting on the phone.
Suddenly, however, the phone alarm sounded with an urgency that wouldn’t stop for hours.
Young Cassidy would get no more sleep as he frantically patched through calls to police, ambulance stations and emergency workers across the north-east.
Soon enough, too, he had to contend with Melbourne reporters clamouring for details of the disaster - his first experience of the big-time media that would later dominate his career. Long before mobile phones or even automatic dialling in country districts, calls from Melbourne went to the exchange at Wangaratta and were transferred to little Chiltern.
Young Cassidy thus became a one-man communications post at the centre of one of Victoria’s worst highway disasters.
Out on the road Harry Frydenberg, piloting his seven-year-old EK Holden, was the first on a scene of smoking chaos.
“The bus had gone into the back of this semi-trailer, and the tray of the truck was actually inside the bus, level with the floor,” he recalls.
“I found an elderly man who had gone through the front windscreen of the bus and was lying under the back axle of the truck. I picked him up and was amazed that he wasn’t badly injured.
The Age's report of June 21, 1966 on the Hume Highway crash and Harry Frydenberg's heroism.Credit:Age archive
“By then other trucks had stopped and I got the drivers to smash the emergency window at the back of the bus with their crowbars, and I got inside.
“All the seats had concertinaed and the passengers’ legs had been fractured. We used the crowbars to lever the seats apart and to pull them out, with the passengers still caught in the seats.
“There was a lot of blood about the place and all the rest of it. I started binding up the fractures and the wounds and used the seats as sort of stretchers.”
It’s a modest retelling. A report the next day in The Age was headlined “Young Doctor is Hero: Saved gravely injured in 4-death crash”.
It related that “Dr H. Frydenberg worked in battlefield conditions to save the lives of three of the critically injured. Ambulance men said the doctor virtually fought his way through the wrecked interior of the bus to evacuate and treat the injured.”
Meanwhile, Barrie Cassidy’s frantic efforts patching phone lines through to emergency services eventually paid off. Chiltern had only one policeman, but soon enough, Cassidy’s work had police and ambulances howling to the scene from Wangaratta, Wodonga and Beechworth.
As the ambulances ran a shuttle service to hospitals in Wangaratta, 38 kilometres to the south-west, and Wodonga, 32 kilometres to the north-east, young Dr Frydenberg tended to those still trapped in the wreckage.
The elderly man Dr Frydenberg had pulled from beneath the truck’s axle kept up a chant: “How many dead so far, Doc?”
In the end, four passengers died that night, and another succumbed to her injuries a month later.
The wrecked tourist coach with the semitrailer in the background. The impact sheared off the coach's left side. Credit:Age archive
But young Dr Frydenberg wasn’t about to give up. Once all the survivors were away in ambulances, he drove to Wangaratta Hospital and assisting the local surgeon, Dr Hal Stanistreet, spent the entire day operating on survivors.
By the time he got back to Mooroopna Hospital the next day, the newspapers were on the streets and his fellow doctors and nurses had hoisted a sign that embarrassed him: “Hero Harry Lives Here".
By that time Cassidy had switched from besieged emergency telephone operator to high school student.
At 8am that morning he was on the bus to nearby Rutherglen High School, where he managed to pass his mid-year English expression exam despite lack of sleep.
The Age's November 1966 report of the verdict in the trial of bus driver Clarence Cook. Credit:Age archive
His facility with English expression would soon enough help him into a cadetship in journalism at the Albury Border Mail, and later take him to the heights of political correspondent on the ABC and help him create Insiders, where for 18 years he interviewed leading politicians - including, naturally, Josh Frydenberg.
Dr Frydenberg (entitled these days to be called Mr, in the curious tradition of surgeons), hadn’t been dissuaded from working in battlefield conditions, it turned out. In 1967 he volunteered for service with the Israelis in the Six-Day War, but arrived too late to take part. Erica Strausz followed him to Israel, where they married. Josh was born in Melbourne in 1971.
But through the 54 years since that frenzied night at little Chiltern, neither Cassidy nor Frydenberg had any idea how their efforts had combined to save lives. Until Josh, a proud son, organised this week's lunch.
The bus driver, Clarence Cook, was acquitted in November 1966 of five charges of manslaughter and one of dangerous driving.
Related Article Barrie Cassidy is taking stock as his role on the ABC's 'Insiders' comes to an end. Barrie Cassidy: a country boy who flew in the highest circles
< www.theage.com.au/national/how-a-fatal-b...20191211-p53izr.html >
23 Oct 2019 08:31
11 Jul 2019 10:00
15 May 2019 13:51
Mighta known
Grandad iz thirsty
Tiz a:
Pena Truck
Northern Trailers (Trailers del Norte, S.A.) of Monterrey, Mexico was a manufacturer of heavy trucks sold under the Pena brand.
Headed by brothers Ricardo, Américo and Marcos Pena, they also produced trailers and buses over the years.
The company produced its first semi-trailers in 1958, and Pena brand heavy tractors from 1960.
In a bid to better compete with Dina, Ramirez and FAMSA, the truckmaker launched the new Cummins-powered Pena 350 tractor in June 1978.
Wotzit # 562
cya
Grandad iz thirsty
Tiz a:
Pena Truck
Northern Trailers (Trailers del Norte, S.A.) of Monterrey, Mexico was a manufacturer of heavy trucks sold under the Pena brand.
Headed by brothers Ricardo, Américo and Marcos Pena, they also produced trailers and buses over the years.
The company produced its first semi-trailers in 1958, and Pena brand heavy tractors from 1960.
In a bid to better compete with Dina, Ramirez and FAMSA, the truckmaker launched the new Cummins-powered Pena 350 tractor in June 1978.
Wotzit # 562
cya
22 Jan 2019 07:28
21 Jan 2019 13:57
Replied by xspanrman on topic Semi trailer bus.
NMP Photo credit Leon Batman
20 Jan 2019 18:26
Replied by Roderick Smith on topic 1939 'Black Friday' fires.
The second article, a reprint of a contemporary one. One of my railway-group people commented 'harrowing reading'.
Enclosed: the sixth from the earlier article, and the first four of 12 from this one.
Roderick.
Flashback 1939: Black Friday bush fires devastate Victoria 13 January 2019.
First published in The Age January 16, 1939
WORST DISASTER IN AUSTRALIA’S HISTORY
Total Deaths 64
Refugees from the Ada Mill near Noojee emerge from a dugout.
Many Trapped at Mills
Whole Family Lost Near Noojee
Amazing Escapes from Flames
(From Our Special Reporters)
Proving to be the most appalling bush fires in the history of Australia, the Victorian outbreaks have now resulted in the deaths of 64 persons, a total of 35 being added to the list over the weekend.
Whole townships have been wiped out; the damage to property, houses and timber is running into millions of pounds; thousands of cattle have been burned to death, and scores of persons are on the “missing” list.
Present indications are that further extensive fires can be expected today, but with the change in weather conditions and some scattered showers, the position should rapidly improve tomorrow.
Overtaken By Flames
Man and Horse Succumb
People rescued from the bush fires.
Bairnsdale – Workmen employed on the Hill Top Hotel construction went to Cobungra Station to assist in fighting the fire, but they were trapped when the wind caused fresh outbreaks. With refugees from the station, including several
children, they plunged into the Victoria River, and remained there until rescued.
Ernest Richards, 30 years, an employee of the station, set out on horseback to go to his wife, who had recently returned home with a baby. He was overtaken by the flames, and he and his horse were burnt to death. His wife and child had been taken into Omeo earlier by the doctor for safety.
Harry Morgan, a partner of Morgan Bros, who have extensive cattle runs on the Victoria River, beyond Cobungra, was brought to the Bairnsdale Hospital yesterday suffering from severe burns.
Fears were entertained for the safety of Charles Rowe, another cattle run owner in the Cobungra area, who has not been heard of for two days, but he was brought into Omeo today suffering from severe burns.
A young man, believed to be Barry Richards of Cobungra, is reported missing. An unconfirmed story states that cattlemen on the Dargo high plains have not been heard of.
Remains of the Winding House at the High Level Sumit near Noojee.
Cattlemen, who came to Omeo on Saturday, stated that the flames from fires on the Bogongs were hundreds of feet above the mountain tops.
The fires at Benambra today are being held in check, and are being watched closely.
Thousands of cattle have been burned to death in the shocking fires.
Omeo Hospital Destroyed
Omeo – The fires swept over the mount at 8.30pm on Friday into Omeo. The hospital, from which two men and three woman patients were removed to safety at Bairnsdale, was destroyed. Because of the heat the car which removed them could not be started, and Matron Lee played a hose on the car. When fear of the fire was greatest the matron was preparing morphine for patients. The historic Golden Age Hotel, 22 homes and 11 shops were destroyed.
The engine of the car in which the hospital patients were being removed once stalled, and there were moments of terrifying suspense until the driver succeeded in restarting it. The patients were taken to the Hill Top Hotel, a concrete
building in course of construction.
Dr Little and Matron Lee were in attendance here to Mrs. Charles McNamara, of Cohungra, who gave birth to a baby girl within an hour of being transported from the burning hospital.
The brick house at Yelland's Mill from where the survivors rushed out of when the roof collapsed. Credit: Age Archives
SIXTEEN PERISH IN MATLOCK FOREST
Women’s Epic Courage
Fifteen men perished and one man miraculously escaped at one mill, and one woman lost her life while 26 of her comrades escaped at another mill on Friday, when the heights of the Matlock Forest were swept with flames, the fury of which was unprecedented in the experience of millers in the district
Borne across the mountain tops on a tornado-like wind, fire demolished the five mills in the area – James Fitzpatrick’s, where fifteen men lost their lives; Yelland’s, at which the woman died; Porter’s, from which all men had been
evacuated the day before; Richards’ and W.P Fitzpatrick’s mill, at which some small salvage of plant may be possible.
Courage almost past belief was displayed by the four women who survived at Yelland’s. Aided by the men, they dashed through flame from a brick house when the roof collapsed, and were forced to stand on the fire-blasted ground, tending three terrified children, until the heat had subsided sufficiently for them to find other shelter.
An hour before the fire reached the mills, men from Fitzpatrick’s, a mile away, tried to induce the 27 souls at Yelland’s to join them at their mill for greater safety. They refused, preferring to stand by their own homes.
Survivors from the Yelland's mill, in the Matlock Forest. Credit: Age Archives
By time the fury of the fire broke, after half an hour of almost complete darkness, the entire company at Yelland’s had assembled on the veranda of the one brick house, where they had collected their most precious belongings.
The flames seemed to break upon them from all quarters, and forced them into the four-roomed building. Through the windows they watched, terror-stricken, as the fire struck the first wooden home of Mr. H. J. Henderson, managing director for the owners, Yelland Brothers, adjoining; a large motor truck standing nearby, then 24 drums of fuel oil and petrol, all of which burst into flames and created such intense heat that after an hour and three-quarters had passed they were terrified to see the roof above them cracking.
Smashing the windows, the men seized the women and children, and thrusting them into the open, except Mrs. Maynard, a cook, who, in a state of collapse, refused to leave. Every second of delay endangered the rest of the party, and as the roof collapsed they fled to a small clearing over which the fire had already swept. After remaining in this precarious situation for more than an hour it was considered safe to try to procure water from a spring nearby, but the
water proved too hot to be used, and the survivors, sought to pacify the three screaming children – a 20-months-old baby girl, a 4-year-old boy (neither of whom was seriously harmed, and a 3-year-old girl, who was suffering acutely from severe burns on both legs.
The remains of James Fitzpatrick's mill, in the Matlock Forest. Credit: Age Archives
The only provisions which the 26 survivors had saved were ½ lb. of tea and a piece of fruit cake, brought to them the day before from Fitzpatrick’s Mill.
As night approached the women and children were made as comfortable as was possible in a small shelter improvised from galvanised iron and odd pieces of timber, into which had been placed, before the fire occurred, the camp’s medical supplied and a few blankets and personal belongings. Here they remained for the night, while great logs smouldered around them and burning trees crashed dangerously nearby.
Appalling Spectacle
Once the immediate danger was over two of the mill hands – Messrs. E. Silver and C. Sutherland – crossed to James Fitzpatrick’s mill, a mile away. There they discovered the appalling calamity that had befallen their comrades.
Mr G Sellers, the sole survivor of sixteen men who were at James Fitpatrick's mill.Credit:The Age Archives
As they approached the smouldering sawdust heap they were astounded to see the figure of a man wrapped in a blanket. Running towards him, they found George Sellers, the sole survivor of one of the most tragic episodes that the mountain has ever known. Around him in the debris lay the bodies of all but four of his workmates, who had perished in a frantic endeavour to escape.
Later two other bodies were found lying on a skid track leading from the mill. The third was discovered in a 13-foot water tank, where, apparently he had been scolded to death; and a fourth, that of Harry Illingworth, who had gone to
the mill from W P Fitzpatrick’s mill, three miles distant to visit his father, William Illingworth. His body was found within a few hundred yards of a cleared paddock known as the Oaks, a mile and a half away, to which he had raced in
an effort to reach safety.
Sellers was taken to Yelland’s mill, where he told an astonishing story of fortitude. “When the flames struck the mill,” he said, “we raced for safety. Most of the men ran behind the boiler house. I picked up a blanket and soaked it in
a tub of water, and shouted to Gladigo to share it with me. Gladigo tried to run for it and the flames caught him. With the blanket wrapped closely round me, and one corner held in my mouth to prevent me from inhaling smoke, I stood in the open while the flames swept overhead. When the blanket began to dry I had to rush to the tub to wet it again. For nearly two hours I kept this up until most of the danger had passed. It was the most terrible experience of my life. I would not part with that blanket now for anything.”
FIRE RACES OVER HILL TOPS
Tragedy At Saxon’s Mill
Eight Persons Dead
Warragul – The tragic, but unbroken figures of 37 survivors of the fire at Saxon’s mill, Fumina North, arrived at Moe and Warragul on Saturday night. All were exhausted. Some had burnt hands, and two were totally blind. All were without possessions.
The bodies of eight persons who were suffocated or burnt near the mill have been taken to Warragul, and have been identified.
In front of the Rowley homestead was a mass of burning, impenetrable debris. It is thought Poynton died while running to Saxton’s dugout for shelter. Fire came upon the mill through the tops of the tall timber at 1.30 pm on Friday. By
2.10 pm 37 mill hands had collected in two dugouts near the mill. Gorey had left to help Mrs Saxton to take valuables from their beautiful home to a small dugout near the house. When the fire cut off communications, 31 men were in the big dugout, six in a smaller one nearby and Mr and Mrs Saxton and Gorey were in the dugout near the house. Impelled by a roaring north-west wind flames leaped across the clearing. Big lumps of wood flaming against a sky as dark as night ignited everything they touched.
The sign for the town of Narbethong on the Healesville Marysville road. Credit:Les Dory
Collapse After Fight
Squads of picked men with wet bags sallied outside in relays, keeping the timbering of the dugout, which supported the earthen roof, from catching fire. After a minute they would return and lie on the ground in a semi-conscious state.
Four mill horses and a pony, which were free, dashed round the clearing screaming with pain, but after enduring the heat for half an hour they went mad and galloped off into the timer, where their charred remains were found later. Two of the men broke down under the terrible strain, and blindness came to others.
According to George Maxfield, in a small dugout nearby, the wind and noise were so tremendous that it seemed like the concussion of great trees falling all around. The heat became unbearable and the roof of the smaller dugout caught fire, but luckily a tank over the roof fell when the roof gave way, filling the hole and pouring water over the burning supports. Scooping up the mud the men filled up the cracks and kept out the flames. By 4:30pm, when the wind changed, the men were able to issue from both dugouts and rush through smoke and burning trees to Saxton’s dugout. They immediately saw that the inmates had been suffocated.
Grim Scene in Ruins
What a few hours before had been a fine mill, situated in tall, mountain ash country, had been turned into a ruin, and not a blade of green grass existed. Skeletons of three motor cars, a motor cycle and mill machinery were all the
remained at the mill. All that was left of the house were two chimneys, a bath and a wash basin.
Burnt out Post Office at Narbethong Credit: Les Dory
Ben Rowley had been warned to vacate his property and come to the big dugout in case of fire. On the previous day he had started to dig his own dugout, on this advice, but when, after a walk of two miles, mill hands came to the
homestead they found his pick and shovel in the hole where he left them on Thursday. He saved his house in the fire of 1926, and thought he could do so again. The party found the house in ruins. Skeletons and heaps of ash were all that remained of the couple and three children, who had evidently been trapped in the house before they could do anything, and who met death without a hope.
FAMILY TRAPPED AT HALL’S GAP
Boy Dead; Mother and Brothers In Hospital
Stalwell – A boy is dead and his mother and two brothers are in hospital, as a result of burns received at Hall’s Gap. The family was trapped on the road when a tyre of their trailer blew out.
Eric Habel Saddle, of Nhill, with his wife and three sons, were spending a holiday at Hall’s Gap, when, owing to the bush fire, they decided to leave on Friday evening. Near the water channel, three miles from the entrance to the Gap, a tyre on the trailer blew out. Mr. Habel and the family got out of the car, and while standing on the roadway the fire swept across the road, badly burning the children and Mrs. Habel.
Assistance was rendered by other motorists, and the injured woman and children were conveyed to Stawell Hospital, where all were found to be badly burned.
One of the victims, the oldest son, Eric, 13 years, died this morning. The mother and other two sons, Rex and Leon, are expected to recover.
Scorched trees line Black's Spur road between Healesville and Marysville.Credit:The Department of Primary Industries.
The bush fire at Hall’s Gap is under control. The change of wind on Saturday night obviated further immediate danger. On Saturday morning portion of the fluming at the head works of the Stawell water supply was destroyed, cutting off the supply to the town’s reservoir.
The fire from Hall’s Gap on Saturday afternoon reached Fyan’s Creek, and for a time the pines planation was seriously endangered.
The public is generously responding to an appeal for clothes and food for destitute families at Pomonal, where 26 persons are billeted at the two homes not destroyed.
WOOD’S POINT HOLOCAUST
Elderly Woman’s Death
Seymour – Tired and worn out after their fearful experience, 115 survivors from Wood’s Point were brought to Seymour by special relief train from Mansfield at 4.15 am yesterday, and were quartered at Seymour military camp.
All survivors told a heart-rending story of a long period of anxiety as four fires swept over, destroying all but nine of the 150 dwellings which comprised the mining township.
A copy of a picture of the Woods Point fire.
The mine tunnels proved a valuable haven when the terrible fire rolled over the town, otherwise the death roll would have been considerable. Miss Nellie O’Keefe, 60 years, whose brother is a partner in O’Keefe and Carey’s store, met a shocking death.
When the fire started to rage over the town, Miss O’Keefe was seen by Mrs M Harty and some other women in the swimming pool, running up the street towards her brother’s home, three-quarters of a mile away. Those in the swimming pool, who were standing up to their necks in the water and were compelled by the heat to submerge every few moments, called to Miss O’Keefe, who, however, could not hear through the mighty roaring of the flames. She ran on until her clothing caught alight, and she was seen to fall unconscious on the roadway. Those in the swimming pool, helpless to assist, were horrified to see the blazing top panel of a post and rail fence fall across Miss O’Keefe’s body.
Mine Magazine Explodes
A gripping story of the ordeal undergone by the Wood’s Point people who lost everything in the flames was told by Mr. Charles McKay, driver of the air compressor at the Morning Star mine, and who lives in Clarendon Street, South
Melbourne.
The ruins of a home at Big Pat's Creek. Credit: Age Archives
Fires had been burning in the heavily timbered forest around the town for a week, he said, but with the scorching hot northerly on Friday, with a shade temperature of 120 degrees, matters became desperate. The mining manager (Mr P Clarke) was away in Melbourne seeking medical attention, so Mr J Mahoney, underground boss, called all the men from the mine at 2pm.
In the meantime all the women and children had been ordered into the tunnels and mining insets in the hillside.
Mr Mahoney then directed a gang of volunteers to shift the mine explosives into the mine, but eventually the task had to be abandoned with 150 cases still left in the magazine.
“It was then a case of every man for himself,” Mr. McKay continued. “Many reached the tunnels but some men had time just to jump into the Goulburn River under the bridge. I ran for an inset and helped along two mates who had collapsed.
Four of us stuck to the inset. We were safe, although the heat was almost unbearable. I saw the battery catch alight. Large lumps of red charcoal and large sheets of flame from burning gases floated over the open ground. Then above the terrific roaring of the flames came a tremendous ‘Bang!’. Up went the magazine about 4pm with the 150 cases of explosives. We thought we had born as much heat as human endurance could stand, but it was a Melbourne cool change compared
to the blast from the magazine. A hole 25 feet wide by 20 feet deep was left where the magazine had stood. After consuming the hospital, the post office, the hotel and most of the houses, the fire travelled over the forest to the south
after four hours of hell.”
Families In Tunnels
The Age, January 16, 1939. Credit: Age Archives
The many women and children in the tunnels, who were joined later by their menfolk, underwent a terrifying ordeal of mental anxiety, but escaped unscathed. Mrs. H. Hecker, whose husband had a contract carting wood for the mine, was one of a large group seeking refuge in the tunnel at the back of the post office. “It was cool enough in the tunnel,” she said. “But the air was almost suffocating as the fire burnt up the oxygen outside. Now and then we had awful glimpses of the inferno outside as the blanket over the mouth of the tunnel moved with the heavy draught. We had three patients from the hospital in our tunnel. They were three men, including Mr. Dick Dargue, whose care was used to bring them to the tunnel. The car caught alight just after they were helped from it.”
ABERFELDY WIPED OUT?
Alarming Reports
Wood Point – Two men have been despatched on pack horses to Aberfeldy, 22 miles distant, to investigate a report that the township has been destroyed and that fifteen people are stranded.
News of the disaster was brought to Wood Point by Thos E Adamson, 69, who arrived from Kid Jacket in a state of collapse.
Other reports have reached here that either three or five are missing, but these are unconfirmed.
< www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/flas...20190111-p50quv.html >
Enclosed: the sixth from the earlier article, and the first four of 12 from this one.
Roderick.
Flashback 1939: Black Friday bush fires devastate Victoria 13 January 2019.
First published in The Age January 16, 1939
WORST DISASTER IN AUSTRALIA’S HISTORY
Total Deaths 64
Refugees from the Ada Mill near Noojee emerge from a dugout.
Many Trapped at Mills
Whole Family Lost Near Noojee
Amazing Escapes from Flames
(From Our Special Reporters)
Proving to be the most appalling bush fires in the history of Australia, the Victorian outbreaks have now resulted in the deaths of 64 persons, a total of 35 being added to the list over the weekend.
Whole townships have been wiped out; the damage to property, houses and timber is running into millions of pounds; thousands of cattle have been burned to death, and scores of persons are on the “missing” list.
Present indications are that further extensive fires can be expected today, but with the change in weather conditions and some scattered showers, the position should rapidly improve tomorrow.
Overtaken By Flames
Man and Horse Succumb
People rescued from the bush fires.
Bairnsdale – Workmen employed on the Hill Top Hotel construction went to Cobungra Station to assist in fighting the fire, but they were trapped when the wind caused fresh outbreaks. With refugees from the station, including several
children, they plunged into the Victoria River, and remained there until rescued.
Ernest Richards, 30 years, an employee of the station, set out on horseback to go to his wife, who had recently returned home with a baby. He was overtaken by the flames, and he and his horse were burnt to death. His wife and child had been taken into Omeo earlier by the doctor for safety.
Harry Morgan, a partner of Morgan Bros, who have extensive cattle runs on the Victoria River, beyond Cobungra, was brought to the Bairnsdale Hospital yesterday suffering from severe burns.
Fears were entertained for the safety of Charles Rowe, another cattle run owner in the Cobungra area, who has not been heard of for two days, but he was brought into Omeo today suffering from severe burns.
A young man, believed to be Barry Richards of Cobungra, is reported missing. An unconfirmed story states that cattlemen on the Dargo high plains have not been heard of.
Remains of the Winding House at the High Level Sumit near Noojee.
Cattlemen, who came to Omeo on Saturday, stated that the flames from fires on the Bogongs were hundreds of feet above the mountain tops.
The fires at Benambra today are being held in check, and are being watched closely.
Thousands of cattle have been burned to death in the shocking fires.
Omeo Hospital Destroyed
Omeo – The fires swept over the mount at 8.30pm on Friday into Omeo. The hospital, from which two men and three woman patients were removed to safety at Bairnsdale, was destroyed. Because of the heat the car which removed them could not be started, and Matron Lee played a hose on the car. When fear of the fire was greatest the matron was preparing morphine for patients. The historic Golden Age Hotel, 22 homes and 11 shops were destroyed.
The engine of the car in which the hospital patients were being removed once stalled, and there were moments of terrifying suspense until the driver succeeded in restarting it. The patients were taken to the Hill Top Hotel, a concrete
building in course of construction.
Dr Little and Matron Lee were in attendance here to Mrs. Charles McNamara, of Cohungra, who gave birth to a baby girl within an hour of being transported from the burning hospital.
The brick house at Yelland's Mill from where the survivors rushed out of when the roof collapsed. Credit: Age Archives
SIXTEEN PERISH IN MATLOCK FOREST
Women’s Epic Courage
Fifteen men perished and one man miraculously escaped at one mill, and one woman lost her life while 26 of her comrades escaped at another mill on Friday, when the heights of the Matlock Forest were swept with flames, the fury of which was unprecedented in the experience of millers in the district
Borne across the mountain tops on a tornado-like wind, fire demolished the five mills in the area – James Fitzpatrick’s, where fifteen men lost their lives; Yelland’s, at which the woman died; Porter’s, from which all men had been
evacuated the day before; Richards’ and W.P Fitzpatrick’s mill, at which some small salvage of plant may be possible.
Courage almost past belief was displayed by the four women who survived at Yelland’s. Aided by the men, they dashed through flame from a brick house when the roof collapsed, and were forced to stand on the fire-blasted ground, tending three terrified children, until the heat had subsided sufficiently for them to find other shelter.
An hour before the fire reached the mills, men from Fitzpatrick’s, a mile away, tried to induce the 27 souls at Yelland’s to join them at their mill for greater safety. They refused, preferring to stand by their own homes.
Survivors from the Yelland's mill, in the Matlock Forest. Credit: Age Archives
By time the fury of the fire broke, after half an hour of almost complete darkness, the entire company at Yelland’s had assembled on the veranda of the one brick house, where they had collected their most precious belongings.
The flames seemed to break upon them from all quarters, and forced them into the four-roomed building. Through the windows they watched, terror-stricken, as the fire struck the first wooden home of Mr. H. J. Henderson, managing director for the owners, Yelland Brothers, adjoining; a large motor truck standing nearby, then 24 drums of fuel oil and petrol, all of which burst into flames and created such intense heat that after an hour and three-quarters had passed they were terrified to see the roof above them cracking.
Smashing the windows, the men seized the women and children, and thrusting them into the open, except Mrs. Maynard, a cook, who, in a state of collapse, refused to leave. Every second of delay endangered the rest of the party, and as the roof collapsed they fled to a small clearing over which the fire had already swept. After remaining in this precarious situation for more than an hour it was considered safe to try to procure water from a spring nearby, but the
water proved too hot to be used, and the survivors, sought to pacify the three screaming children – a 20-months-old baby girl, a 4-year-old boy (neither of whom was seriously harmed, and a 3-year-old girl, who was suffering acutely from severe burns on both legs.
The remains of James Fitzpatrick's mill, in the Matlock Forest. Credit: Age Archives
The only provisions which the 26 survivors had saved were ½ lb. of tea and a piece of fruit cake, brought to them the day before from Fitzpatrick’s Mill.
As night approached the women and children were made as comfortable as was possible in a small shelter improvised from galvanised iron and odd pieces of timber, into which had been placed, before the fire occurred, the camp’s medical supplied and a few blankets and personal belongings. Here they remained for the night, while great logs smouldered around them and burning trees crashed dangerously nearby.
Appalling Spectacle
Once the immediate danger was over two of the mill hands – Messrs. E. Silver and C. Sutherland – crossed to James Fitzpatrick’s mill, a mile away. There they discovered the appalling calamity that had befallen their comrades.
Mr G Sellers, the sole survivor of sixteen men who were at James Fitpatrick's mill.Credit:The Age Archives
As they approached the smouldering sawdust heap they were astounded to see the figure of a man wrapped in a blanket. Running towards him, they found George Sellers, the sole survivor of one of the most tragic episodes that the mountain has ever known. Around him in the debris lay the bodies of all but four of his workmates, who had perished in a frantic endeavour to escape.
Later two other bodies were found lying on a skid track leading from the mill. The third was discovered in a 13-foot water tank, where, apparently he had been scolded to death; and a fourth, that of Harry Illingworth, who had gone to
the mill from W P Fitzpatrick’s mill, three miles distant to visit his father, William Illingworth. His body was found within a few hundred yards of a cleared paddock known as the Oaks, a mile and a half away, to which he had raced in
an effort to reach safety.
Sellers was taken to Yelland’s mill, where he told an astonishing story of fortitude. “When the flames struck the mill,” he said, “we raced for safety. Most of the men ran behind the boiler house. I picked up a blanket and soaked it in
a tub of water, and shouted to Gladigo to share it with me. Gladigo tried to run for it and the flames caught him. With the blanket wrapped closely round me, and one corner held in my mouth to prevent me from inhaling smoke, I stood in the open while the flames swept overhead. When the blanket began to dry I had to rush to the tub to wet it again. For nearly two hours I kept this up until most of the danger had passed. It was the most terrible experience of my life. I would not part with that blanket now for anything.”
FIRE RACES OVER HILL TOPS
Tragedy At Saxon’s Mill
Eight Persons Dead
Warragul – The tragic, but unbroken figures of 37 survivors of the fire at Saxon’s mill, Fumina North, arrived at Moe and Warragul on Saturday night. All were exhausted. Some had burnt hands, and two were totally blind. All were without possessions.
The bodies of eight persons who were suffocated or burnt near the mill have been taken to Warragul, and have been identified.
In front of the Rowley homestead was a mass of burning, impenetrable debris. It is thought Poynton died while running to Saxton’s dugout for shelter. Fire came upon the mill through the tops of the tall timber at 1.30 pm on Friday. By
2.10 pm 37 mill hands had collected in two dugouts near the mill. Gorey had left to help Mrs Saxton to take valuables from their beautiful home to a small dugout near the house. When the fire cut off communications, 31 men were in the big dugout, six in a smaller one nearby and Mr and Mrs Saxton and Gorey were in the dugout near the house. Impelled by a roaring north-west wind flames leaped across the clearing. Big lumps of wood flaming against a sky as dark as night ignited everything they touched.
The sign for the town of Narbethong on the Healesville Marysville road. Credit:Les Dory
Collapse After Fight
Squads of picked men with wet bags sallied outside in relays, keeping the timbering of the dugout, which supported the earthen roof, from catching fire. After a minute they would return and lie on the ground in a semi-conscious state.
Four mill horses and a pony, which were free, dashed round the clearing screaming with pain, but after enduring the heat for half an hour they went mad and galloped off into the timer, where their charred remains were found later. Two of the men broke down under the terrible strain, and blindness came to others.
According to George Maxfield, in a small dugout nearby, the wind and noise were so tremendous that it seemed like the concussion of great trees falling all around. The heat became unbearable and the roof of the smaller dugout caught fire, but luckily a tank over the roof fell when the roof gave way, filling the hole and pouring water over the burning supports. Scooping up the mud the men filled up the cracks and kept out the flames. By 4:30pm, when the wind changed, the men were able to issue from both dugouts and rush through smoke and burning trees to Saxton’s dugout. They immediately saw that the inmates had been suffocated.
Grim Scene in Ruins
What a few hours before had been a fine mill, situated in tall, mountain ash country, had been turned into a ruin, and not a blade of green grass existed. Skeletons of three motor cars, a motor cycle and mill machinery were all the
remained at the mill. All that was left of the house were two chimneys, a bath and a wash basin.
Burnt out Post Office at Narbethong Credit: Les Dory
Ben Rowley had been warned to vacate his property and come to the big dugout in case of fire. On the previous day he had started to dig his own dugout, on this advice, but when, after a walk of two miles, mill hands came to the
homestead they found his pick and shovel in the hole where he left them on Thursday. He saved his house in the fire of 1926, and thought he could do so again. The party found the house in ruins. Skeletons and heaps of ash were all that remained of the couple and three children, who had evidently been trapped in the house before they could do anything, and who met death without a hope.
FAMILY TRAPPED AT HALL’S GAP
Boy Dead; Mother and Brothers In Hospital
Stalwell – A boy is dead and his mother and two brothers are in hospital, as a result of burns received at Hall’s Gap. The family was trapped on the road when a tyre of their trailer blew out.
Eric Habel Saddle, of Nhill, with his wife and three sons, were spending a holiday at Hall’s Gap, when, owing to the bush fire, they decided to leave on Friday evening. Near the water channel, three miles from the entrance to the Gap, a tyre on the trailer blew out. Mr. Habel and the family got out of the car, and while standing on the roadway the fire swept across the road, badly burning the children and Mrs. Habel.
Assistance was rendered by other motorists, and the injured woman and children were conveyed to Stawell Hospital, where all were found to be badly burned.
One of the victims, the oldest son, Eric, 13 years, died this morning. The mother and other two sons, Rex and Leon, are expected to recover.
Scorched trees line Black's Spur road between Healesville and Marysville.Credit:The Department of Primary Industries.
The bush fire at Hall’s Gap is under control. The change of wind on Saturday night obviated further immediate danger. On Saturday morning portion of the fluming at the head works of the Stawell water supply was destroyed, cutting off the supply to the town’s reservoir.
The fire from Hall’s Gap on Saturday afternoon reached Fyan’s Creek, and for a time the pines planation was seriously endangered.
The public is generously responding to an appeal for clothes and food for destitute families at Pomonal, where 26 persons are billeted at the two homes not destroyed.
WOOD’S POINT HOLOCAUST
Elderly Woman’s Death
Seymour – Tired and worn out after their fearful experience, 115 survivors from Wood’s Point were brought to Seymour by special relief train from Mansfield at 4.15 am yesterday, and were quartered at Seymour military camp.
All survivors told a heart-rending story of a long period of anxiety as four fires swept over, destroying all but nine of the 150 dwellings which comprised the mining township.
A copy of a picture of the Woods Point fire.
The mine tunnels proved a valuable haven when the terrible fire rolled over the town, otherwise the death roll would have been considerable. Miss Nellie O’Keefe, 60 years, whose brother is a partner in O’Keefe and Carey’s store, met a shocking death.
When the fire started to rage over the town, Miss O’Keefe was seen by Mrs M Harty and some other women in the swimming pool, running up the street towards her brother’s home, three-quarters of a mile away. Those in the swimming pool, who were standing up to their necks in the water and were compelled by the heat to submerge every few moments, called to Miss O’Keefe, who, however, could not hear through the mighty roaring of the flames. She ran on until her clothing caught alight, and she was seen to fall unconscious on the roadway. Those in the swimming pool, helpless to assist, were horrified to see the blazing top panel of a post and rail fence fall across Miss O’Keefe’s body.
Mine Magazine Explodes
A gripping story of the ordeal undergone by the Wood’s Point people who lost everything in the flames was told by Mr. Charles McKay, driver of the air compressor at the Morning Star mine, and who lives in Clarendon Street, South
Melbourne.
The ruins of a home at Big Pat's Creek. Credit: Age Archives
Fires had been burning in the heavily timbered forest around the town for a week, he said, but with the scorching hot northerly on Friday, with a shade temperature of 120 degrees, matters became desperate. The mining manager (Mr P Clarke) was away in Melbourne seeking medical attention, so Mr J Mahoney, underground boss, called all the men from the mine at 2pm.
In the meantime all the women and children had been ordered into the tunnels and mining insets in the hillside.
Mr Mahoney then directed a gang of volunteers to shift the mine explosives into the mine, but eventually the task had to be abandoned with 150 cases still left in the magazine.
“It was then a case of every man for himself,” Mr. McKay continued. “Many reached the tunnels but some men had time just to jump into the Goulburn River under the bridge. I ran for an inset and helped along two mates who had collapsed.
Four of us stuck to the inset. We were safe, although the heat was almost unbearable. I saw the battery catch alight. Large lumps of red charcoal and large sheets of flame from burning gases floated over the open ground. Then above the terrific roaring of the flames came a tremendous ‘Bang!’. Up went the magazine about 4pm with the 150 cases of explosives. We thought we had born as much heat as human endurance could stand, but it was a Melbourne cool change compared
to the blast from the magazine. A hole 25 feet wide by 20 feet deep was left where the magazine had stood. After consuming the hospital, the post office, the hotel and most of the houses, the fire travelled over the forest to the south
after four hours of hell.”
Families In Tunnels
The Age, January 16, 1939. Credit: Age Archives
The many women and children in the tunnels, who were joined later by their menfolk, underwent a terrifying ordeal of mental anxiety, but escaped unscathed. Mrs. H. Hecker, whose husband had a contract carting wood for the mine, was one of a large group seeking refuge in the tunnel at the back of the post office. “It was cool enough in the tunnel,” she said. “But the air was almost suffocating as the fire burnt up the oxygen outside. Now and then we had awful glimpses of the inferno outside as the blanket over the mouth of the tunnel moved with the heavy draught. We had three patients from the hospital in our tunnel. They were three men, including Mr. Dick Dargue, whose care was used to bring them to the tunnel. The car caught alight just after they were helped from it.”
ABERFELDY WIPED OUT?
Alarming Reports
Wood Point – Two men have been despatched on pack horses to Aberfeldy, 22 miles distant, to investigate a report that the township has been destroyed and that fifteen people are stranded.
News of the disaster was brought to Wood Point by Thos E Adamson, 69, who arrived from Kid Jacket in a state of collapse.
Other reports have reached here that either three or five are missing, but these are unconfirmed.
< www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/flas...20190111-p50quv.html >
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