Name: Margaret Marslen

Age: 79
Occupation during 1939: Was living at her parent’s farm when two fire fronts converged over Willow Grove. She barely survived as she took shelter in the Tanjil River.
Age at time of fire: 15
Location of interview: Traralgon

"The lady across the road, her house just went up like a big bomb. And that lady was a widow, and she had young children."

I was in the Willow Grove fire in 1939, and I was only 15. I can remember my dad coming home from work and saying to my mum, “Why are you people still here?” He said to leave the house now, because if we don’t leave now we’re going to be burned alive. And so we left.

This was at lunchtime and he said the fire would be there by one o’clock, so we had to pack up and go. We got to the top of the hill, just where the Blue Rock Dam starts, and the lady across on the other road, her house just went up like a big bomb. And that lady was a widowed lady, and she had young children. Their entire home, everything was all burned, plus their animals as well. Everything.

The first thing you really know about a fire is smoke, but it didn’t really occur to us that it was coming from Noojee towards us. We were watching the opposite side of the town. My Dad was a council worker, so he was coming home at lunchtime, just to see that we were alright. They were all told to go home, actually, but there was no indication that we were going to be burned out at that stage. And as luck would have it, we weren’t burned out. We were the only ones on the ridge whose house didn’t burn down.

"The river was the only place we could go. We were cut off from the helpers, because no one could get through. We had no other choice."

The river was the only place we could go. There was nowhere else for us to go. We were actually cut off from the helpers who were meant to come and pick us up, because no one could get through. So we had no other choice but to go into the river.

You couldn’t see very much. All you could see was the red and the smoke, which I suppose was a blackish red, plus these pieces of bark and stuff flying through the air.

The velocity of the wind was unbelievable. I wouldn’t know how fast it was, I just know it was very hot. I mean the day itself, the temperature was over 100, and they reckon it was about 114 with the fire, so that was a bit warm.

"All you could see was the red and the smoke, plus these pieces of bark and stuff flying through the air. The velocity of the wind was unbelievable."

So we walked down the road, which was about a 20-minute walk, and sat in the river. That was at about two o’clock, and we were still there at about five o’clock with the fire going over the top. You weren’t allowed to stand because the ferocity of the wind was blowing big pieces of bark toward us, so you had to keep around in the water in case any of it landed on you or close to you.

I remember thinking, I can’t swim and I’ve got to get into this deep, cold water with a towel over my head, so that it keeps the smoke away from your nose and your eyes and everything. So you’ve got that in mind as well, as you’ve got this fire going over the top of you, coming down to you and then going over the top of you. You’ve got all this debris around the side which you know is going to catch on fire, so you’ve got to think, what am I going to do, and how am I going to survive? But you survive.

The noise is just unbelievable. It was like a huge roar.

I was in the river with my dad, my mum, my uncle, 10 cows and a dog for about three hours. That was the Tanjil River.

"You’ve got all this debris that you know is going to catch on fire, so you’ve got to think, what am I going to do, and how am I going to survive?"

And I remember my body being very cold. The Tanjil River is one of the very cold rivers in Gippsland, and it’s fairly deep in a lot of places, so it was cold as well as the heat going over the top of you. It’s a dreadful feeling, I can assure you, and it’s something that you never ever forget. When you know there’s a fire coming like in this last fire season, that’s one fear you always have - am I going to go through it all again? It’s just a fear, it’s just a terrible frightening thing, but I can’t really describe it other than to say it’s scary.

When we got out of the river, we all left together because the fire had gone right over the top of us and all the debris had burned away. We had to find our way back to the road, which was confusing because everything was just black and burning. We made our way home only to find that our house was still standing, which was amazing. Nobody got to us ‘til about eight o’clock that night to find out if we were still alive. When they found us alive they were just amazed, because two fire fronts had met over Noojee and Willow Grove, and everything else was gone.

I can remember sitting outside at night looking at all the trees burning. It was like a fairy land. It’s not fairy land the next day, though, when you wake up and look at the devastation. It’s horrible, it’s burned trees, and burned animals, burned birds. It’s just a mess and the ground is no longer green or anything like that. Even if it was before, it’s just black - everything is black.

You just wondered if anybody else was alive. Because you knew the whole area was just black and burned. Houses were burned and you didn’t know where people were until these people came to see if we were alive that night. Until they came we had no idea whether there was anyone else alive in the area, even the lady whose house we saw go up in fire as we were going to the river. We didn’t know whether her and her children been rescued or not, but we found out they had been taken away at about 12 o’clock.

"It’s an eerie feeling when you wake up and you’re still here, but there are a lot of others gone. At Tanjil Bren there was a family. They were burned in the fire."

Waking up on the morning of the 14th of January was just a wakeup call really, to the blackness. You had animals on your farm - if they had survived, which ours did because we chased them to the river with us - and then, of course, on the 14th of January, we had to go back and try and find them. They had been in the water further up from us and they were still around, but they didn’t have any grass to eat when they got home. We had to hand feed them for quite a while.

It’s a scary, eerie sort of feeling when you wake up and find out that you’re still here, but there are a lot of others gone. There was a man not far from where we lived at Hill End. He wouldn’t leave his property and he was either suffocated or burned to death. I mean, that was just one person. And then at Tanjil Bren there was a family. They were burned in the fire.

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Read more about the Tanjil Bren tragedy in the Map Section