RUSTY FISHER was only 16 at the time the fire and a member of a private fire fighting unit which made a stand at the Chiltern/Howlong Road. His recollection of the fire is as follows:
"I don’t think I’ve seen a worse day.
“The wind was blowing dust storms from the Mallee, and it was one of the worst days for a fire to start, a real Code Red day.
“While we positioned the truck, another bloke was driving about looking for sheep. He saw the fire first and came back and started banging on the roof saying, “get us out of here, we’re going to burn to death.” At first I didn’t believe him – it never even occurred to me that a fire could kill you. In those days we put them all out.
“The fire, when it came, was 70 or 80 foot high, twice as high as the gum trees. It was a shock to see it going over burnt country, which on any other day would have been a natural fire break.
A couple of the boys tore off back to Barny. The rest of us had a couple of goes before the fire got too fair dinkum, then followed ‘em back.
“As we drove back we saw a guy up ahead trying to outrun the fire on foot. We saw him run, fall, get up then fall again. We put him in the tray of the truck and poured water on him, but the poor ___ just couldn’t talk from the smoke and the dehydration and the exhaustion. Even after we got him inside and gave him cool drinks, he couldn’t talk - couldn’t even say who he was.
“He didn’t have long, that much was for sure, since the fire was not far away when we picked him up.
“Later on we found out that the bloke was called Newlands, and he had about 600 stud ewes up there and a big wool shed. We got in a bit of trouble later on for not telling anyone we had him – back in Chiltern his family thought he was dead, but in actual fact my mum was looking after him at our place.
“There was a lady in Barnawartha who should have been knighted – that was Mrs Draper at the Draper’s store. While everyone else panicked she calmly told everyone to fill all their buckets and basins and containers with water and get inside. I reckon she saved a few lives that day.
“What did we learn looking back? Most of the buildings that burnt weren’t houses. They were mills and boarding houses and the shops. That just devastated the town and shows you gotta look after the infrastructure."
Rusty is a 60 year CFA member who was a lieutenant with Browns Plains Brigade in their early days. He was part of a private firefighting unit in the 1950s.
See also: Major Wodonga fire: 60 years on
Subscribe to this comment's feed
