Tanjil Bren

"Ben Saxton, Dorothy Saxton and a young timber worker named Michael Gorey entered the smaller dugout. All three were found dead."

The Saxton brothers had erected a sawmill in remote Tanjil Bren in 1937. The brothers had been born and raised not far from the site of the 1926 disaster at Worlley's mill where fourteen had died. They were therefore favourably disposed towards dugouts and had constructed two at the Tanjil Bren sawmill. The first and largest of these consisted of a long tunnel into the hillside with an entrance facing south. It was intended for the mill workers. As fire approached on 13 January 1939, Jack Saxton and thirty mill workers entered the larger dugout. At the height of the fire, the six men holding the wet blankets across the entrance had to be relieved every two minutes due to the intense heat. There were sufficient men in the dugout to enable enough relays at the entrance for all to survive the fire relatively unscathed. In dugouts, there was apparently safety in numbers.

The second dugout was smaller and adjacent to the house occupied by mill manager Ben Saxton and his wife Dorothy. This dugout faced east. As the fire approached, Ben Saxton, Dorothy Saxton and a young timber worker named Michael Gorey entered the smaller dugout. When the worst of the fire had passed over, all three were found dead. Ben Saxton appeared to have sustained head injuries when the front of the dugout caught fire and collapsed, but the others appeared to have died from suffocation. There was still a supply of water in the dugout. Social pressure may have induced the mill manager and his wife to segregate themselves from the main body of workers and, if so, this probably resulted in their deaths. Just south of Tanjil Bren, paling splitter Frank Poynton, farmer Ben Rowley, his wife Agnes Rowley and their three children John, Ben and Mary all perished for want of shelter from the fire.

Read more about the Tanjil Bren fires in the Oral History Section