1939 'Black Friday' fires.

We have just passed the 80th anniversary, and Melbourne 'Age' has published two major articles reliving the history.
The construction of logging roads was an outcome of 1939.

There had been similar fires in 1926, and forest communities were rebuilt. 1939 eclipsed them, and road transport had improved, hence the decision to relocate mills out of forests, and bringing an end to most timber tramways. One casualty was VR's Mt Hotham Chalet. This had been a CRB hostel for workers building the road. VR took it over for tourism. VR's refreshment manager, Mr A W Keown, was a keen skier. He arranged for a prefabricated new chalet to be built at Newport Workshops; it was erected in time for the June start of the new season. In later years, VR's day chalet at Dingo Dell (Mt Buffalo) was named in his honour.

Lessons learnt (and perhaps forgotten) from Australia's 'worst fires' 11 January 2019.
"The worst disaster in Australia's history," and "Terrible climax to heat wave," were just two of the screaming headlines greeting readers of The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald 80 years ago this week.
The Black Friday bushfires of 1939 devoured some two million hectares of Victoria, as much of the state ignited on January 13.
For NSW, the fury was mainly endured as a spell of heat so extreme that it set records in some places that are yet to be toppled. Still, the state was scorched too, as the Herald reported: "From Palm Beach to Port Hacking, and as far up the Blue Mountains as Mt Victoria, a complete ring of bushfires surrounded Sydney."
Locals and swimmers assist exhausted firemen in Sylvania in Sydney on January 14, 1939. At the time it was the hottest day on record in NSW.Credit:Beau Leonard/SMH
Eight decades on, the fires still fascinate not just in tales of tragedy and heroism but also in some of the changes they prompted in a nation soon to be at war.
They also help illustrate how technology has advanced to improve fire readiness and suppression, but also how some approaches have remained fundamentally the same, even as climate change is making a repeat of 1939's fire storms more likely.
The Black Friday death toll was shocking enough (at least 71) to prompt a royal commission in Victoria led by Judge Leonard Stretton. The commission's report ran to 35 pages and was completed in less than four months – rather more concise and speedy that its recent counterparts.
'Shadow of dread'
Today the report appeals as much for its lyricism as the sober judgements that would lead to the creation of Victoria's Country Fire Authority by 1945, when the war's end turned attention back to local priorities.
"The soft carpet of the forest floor was gone; the bone-dry litter crackled underfoot; dry heat and hot dry winds worked upon a land already dry, to suck from it the last, least drop of moisture," the report's introduction reads.
“Men who had lived their lives in the bush went their ways in the shadow of dread expectancy," it said before detailing the impacts of the "devastating confluence of flame” that had been "lit by the hand of man".
The results included whole townships "obliterated in a few minutes", while the monstrous winds accompanying the flames uprooted huge trees that were consumed by fire. "[F]ormer forest monarchs were laid in confusion ... piled one upon another as if strewn by a giant hand,” Stretton wrote.
Norm Goldings used his trusty DeSoto to rescue nearly 100 people near Noojee in Gippsland during the 1939 Black Friday bushfires.
"In my view, Black Friday remains Australia's largest fire in terms of its size – especially in Victoria, ACT and South Australia – and its impact on the population, proportionally," says Tom Griffiths, emeritus professor of history at Australian National University.
"Most of the deaths were people living and working in the bush at remote sawmills, for the interwar years were a period of intensive milling of mountain ash in the rugged Victorian ranges," he says. "Stretton recommended that sawmills be moved out of the bush and into the towns."
But moving the mills out of the forests only took them so far from harm's way. Narbethong was one such town destroyed in 1939. Fast forward to Victoria's Black Saturday fires in 2009 (which has its 10th anniversary next month) and the town was again among those hardest hit, with its sawmill torched.
Killer heatwaves
Just as in the 2009 fires – perhaps the closest analogue to 1939 – the death toll in the accompanying heatwave easily exceeded that of those who burned to death.
Lucinda Coates, a senior risk scientist at Risk Frontiers and a researcher at the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Co-operative Research Centre, estimates at least 420 people died in the 1939 event across Australia. More than three in four of those were in NSW
"The series of heatwaves were accompanied by strong northerly winds, and followed a very dry six months," Coates says.
“The January 1939 event was notable for its longevity and record daily temperature maxima."
While Melbourne hit 45.6 degrees and Adelaide 46.1, Bourke in north-western NSW sweltered through 37 consecutive days above 38 degrees. Menindee, site of this week's huge fish kill due to stagnant Darling River flows and extreme heat, reached 49.7 degrees on January 10, 1939 – a statewide record that stands to this day.
“Home refrigerators were rare and air-conditioned buildings were unknown," Coates says. "Relief was sought at the beaches and baths; there were by then no inhibitions about mixed bathing.”
Workers leaving the Noojee area in Gippsland after the 1939 Black Friday bushfires.
Record-setting heat and drought.
Linden Ashcroft, a researcher of climate history at the Bureau of Meteorology, says the weather in early 1939 was notably severe.
Four of the five hottest days on record for New South Wales as a whole were in January 1939, and two of the five hottest days in Victoria, she says. Victoria's hottest day is now February 7, 2009, just before the Black Saturday blazes.
Melbourne hit a record high of 46.4 degrees in the late afternoon.
"The second week in January [1939] is generally regarded as the most extreme heatwave to affect south-eastern Australia during the 20th century," Ashcroft says.
Dry conditions played an important role, too, with the fires coming at the end of two dry years that would later be known as the World War II drought, one of the worst on record for south-eastern Australia.
"January 1937 to December 1938 were much drier than average across almost all of Victoria and NSW, and remain the driest two-year period on record for much of Victoria's eastern ranges where the Black Friday bushfires caused so much destruction," Ashcroft says.
"December 1938, in particular, was very dry across almost all of eastern Australia, which would have helped to really crisp up any fuel.
"Things were so dry that the topsoil blew up into dust storms easily, and did so for much of the summer until much-needed rain fell in February 1939."
Scorched trees line the Black Spur between Healesville and Marysville after Black Friday in January 1939.Credit:Department of Primary Industries
Lighting up.
With a hot air mass forming over the continent, the missing ingredient was a strong cold front from a low-pressure system off the south-west coast of Victoria.
With forest workers, graziers and even campers busy lighting fires as normal – the latter "burning to facilitate passage through the bush”, according to Stretton – the flames were ready to be fanned into an inferno.
Even without sophisticated weather modelling or satellite imagery to guide forecasters and the public alike, the "shadow of dread" Stretton reported was real, ANU's Griffiths says.
"The whole week leading into Black Friday was terrifying in the bush," he says. "No one living in the bush at that time thought their homes were safe – they fled to rivers, creeks, dugouts, mining tunnels and public buildings where they existed."
Stretton notes the calamity that befell those who were unable to flee, in particular one mill where all but one of the workers died “while trying to bury [themselves] in the imagined safety of the sawdust heap”.
Making progress.
Some long-standing good would come out of the inquiry, as Joelle Gergis, climate scientist, notes in her book, Sunburnt Country.
Apart from the CFA's creation, recommendations acted upon included "construction of a network of access trails, towers for early detection of fires, the implementation of controlled burns during spring and autumn to reduce fuel loads, and improved fire prevention education", she writes.
Those gains were important, not just for humans, given the impact fires had the environment.
Mountain ash in the Yarra Ranges, a region burnt out in 1939 leaving a forest largely of a similar vintage. (Image taken 12 January 2019.)Credit:Peter Hannam
"Large tree hollows and other important habitats for mammals and birds, such as the Leadbeater's possum and powerful owl, were destroyed when the mature mountain ash forests burned," Gergis writes, noting that reports state the ash from the burning forests fell as far away as New Zealand.
"Local soils took decades to recover from the damage, and in some areas, water supplies were contaminated for years afterwards due to ash and debris washing into catchment areas."
Travellers up the Maroondah Highway beyond Healesville on Melbourne's north-eastern edge can see some of the evidence of the 1939 fires to this day. The battalion-like formations of towering mountain ash trees of similar shining white girth bear witness to their common vintage, all circa 1939.
Mountain ash logs piled up at a site in the Yarra Ranges, north-east of Melbourne. Ring-counters would get close to 80 on most of them.Credit:Peter Hannam
Scientific leaps
Richard Thornton, chief executive of the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, said Stretton's report "was the first real attempt to gain a deep understanding of the causes and consequences of a major bushfire".
"This approach continues today as we study fires to learn how to better keep people and property safe in future fires,” he says.
Scientific advances means technology available now and in 1939 are almost incomparable. "Not just in firefighting equipment like more protective clothing and vehicles, but in analysing the weather and the land with satellites and aircraft, before, during and after bushfires," Thornton says.
"Today we have a much better understanding of extreme bushfire behaviour, and how large bushfires interact with the atmosphere and create their own weather," he says.
"There is software to predict the path of a bushfire, and more experts trained to provide more accurate warnings to threatened communities."
Human factors.
Researchers also provide expert advice on building standards to ensure that new buildings are safer and more likely to survive a bushfire, provided human psychology is taken into account.
"That’s one thing that hasn’t changed since 1939," Thornton says, noting that people will continue to want to build on ridges and at the end of one-way roads deep in the bush even with the attendant risks.
Griffiths agrees, adding that in terms of research gaps about fire, "they are overwhelmingly cultural".
"We know a lot about the physical behaviour of fire, less about the ecological effects of fire, and least of all about the cultural, human dimensions of fire," he says, citing international fire historian, Stephen Pyne: "The cultural paradigm is both the most obvious and the least developed [in fire research]".
'Beyond our imagination'.
Thornton from the bushfire research centre adds that studying events like the 1939 and 2009 conflagrations, or the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires in South Australia and Victoria, also have their limitations because historical precedents are only so helpful.
“At the time, the 1939 conditions were beyond the imagination of everyone, even those who had lived their whole lives in the bush," he says.
"What does the next bushfire that is beyond our imagination look like? What will its impacts be?
"Climate change is causing more severe weather more frequently, but demographic changes are having an equal impact and deserve just as much of our attention," Thornton says.
"Since 1939, our population has grown from around 7 million to more than 24 million, with more people living, working and playing in at-risk areas."
Climate signals.
The Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO biennial State of the Climate report, released late last year, singled out extreme bushfire conditions as among the clearest changes under way as the country's (and world's) climate warms.
The most extreme 10 per cent of fire weather days – based on temperature, rainfall, humidity and wind speed – has increased in recent decades across many regions of Australia, especially in southern and eastern Australia, the report said.
One consequence is an associated increase in the length of the fire weather season, a view supported by 2018's late-season fires in March and late winter in NSW and Victoria. The trend is particularly notable in spring.
"The 1939 heatwave remains a very significant event, but observations show that extreme heat events, from hot days to heatwaves to a warmer-than-average month, are happening more often," Ashcroft says.
She cites the example of 86 extreme hot days (when the Australia-wide maximum temperature was in the top 1 per cent of temperatures recorded) observed during the five-year period from 2013 to 2017.
"This is more than double the number of extreme heat days recorded during the 50-year period from 1911 to 1960," she says.
One degree headstart.
Unlike 1939, when Stretton concluded that much of the evidence put to him was "quite false" and "little of it was wholly truthful", researchers have a wealth of data open to scrutiny and cross-checking (even by deniers of climate change).
That means they can compare how sea-breezes eased the 1939 heatwave but were largely missing in the belter that swept across south-eastern Australia ahead of Black Saturday.
"Black Friday was the culmination of several dry years plus the perfect synoptic set-up for a heatwave and then catastrophic fire conditions," Ashcroft says. Conditions would need to be "just right" for a similar event to repeat.
"But if it did, the average temperatures across Australia have increased by around a degree since 1939," Ashcroft says. "If and when these ingredients do come together, they would occur against a warmer backdrop than that of 80 years ago."
< www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-ch...20190108-p50qol.html >

Five of the six from this article. I'll post the sixth when I post the second article.

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 >

One more from the first article, plus four from the second.
Roderick

The final four, all from the second article.
Roderick.