COLIN MARGERY was 26 years old back in 1952. When the fire struck he was on his family’s property north of Barnawartha up between the
“What it really reminded me of for those first ten minutes was a huge bomb going off. Just the noise of it and the rolling black smoke. All the trees and all the greenery just seemed to go up as if it were dry grass.
“It was panic in Barnawartha, the people were told to get away, and half of them had no vehicle. Most of us didn’t even have a telephone in those days. People went to Wodonga, they went everywhere. They went to friends and relatives and come morning the whereabouts of many was unknown.
“I had a T model Ford myself, and as soon as I heard about the fire coming in towards Barny I drove straight towards the town. In fact we were racing the fire – it came from about 7 miles to the West and we were about 7 miles out to the North– but the fire moved quicker than we did. It hit town within half an hour.
“We got nearly all the way into Barny intending to fight the fire but it was clear there was nothing we could do, so we turned back.
“Save the house, that was the big thing. We’d lived in that house for quite a few years.
“It looked like we were going to dodge the worst of the fire, but in the middle of the night the wind changed and a fresh fire front started - it was 10 or 15 miles long and heading straight down to our place.
“The fire was around our place at about 4 o’clock in the morning and all we had to fight it with were branches and wet bags.
“We lost all our sheds, our shearing sheds, yards, everything went.
“To make matters worse I was due to get married in a couple of months. My fiancée was 19 at the time and working in the Barnawartha Post office. We nearly had to put the wedding off! But we carried on and were married just the same.”
Colin is a sixty year CFA member who was secretary with Barnawartha brigade for many years and a Deputy Group Officer (Wodonga Group) for six years.
See also: Major Wodonga fire: 60 years on
Subscribe to this comment's feed
