Name: Niel Ross

Age: 91
Occupation during 1939: Trained in Melbourne as a teacher but moved to Woods Point to work in his parents’ hotel.
Age at time of fire: 27
Location of interview: Melbourne

"Unfortunately nature provides a huge wind and when I look at where people live up in the Dandenongs, I’m horrified to think how complacent they are when I know what can happen to them."

Well, I had the misfortune of having to live through 1939 in Woods Point. I can only say that it will happen again in Victoria as it has already done and it’s just a matter of whether the bushfire occurs with a hurricane at the same time. Unfortunately nature provides a huge wind and when I look at where people live up in the Dandenongs I’m horrified to think how complacent they are when I know what can happen to them.

The most remarkable thing I saw this fire do was, in front of the hotel a telephone post was standing intact until about 25 feet above the ground, a yard of it was burned out and the rest of it was hanging from the wire.

And opposite, the old lady Polly Morgan who ran the savings bank, her picket fence, was burned all along the top, but the bottom part wasn’t marked. It was a horizontal fire.

"I could see a hill two miles away set fire to a hospital; it must have blown off the top."

All of us, with one exception only, barely survived in the trickle of warm water in the Goulburn River or in tunnels. And with few exceptions, all buildings in the town were burned in a matter of minutes. There were holes burned in our clothing and our eyes were in agony from smoke and cinders, a ferocious gale and exploding gas from the eucalypts had destroyed a quarter of Victoria and 71 lives. I will not forget Black Friday.

Eucalyptus, when it is heated in the trees, turns into an explosive gas like petrol and the updraft sucks all the petrol from underneath and it goes up into the air in a tremendous blast and it's roaring and exploding up hundreds of feet.

I could see a hill two miles away set fire to a hospital; it must have blown off the top.

There were sheets of galvanised iron, red hot, lifted off roofs and blown hundreds of yards away from a house. They must have travelled 150 yards or more before they wrapped themselves round a tree.

"That would be about 9 o’clock on Thursday night, the night before Black Friday. A lot of the people from Fitzpatrick’s mill, 15 of them were burned to death just the next day."

On the Thursday the 14th, the day before Black Friday, I had driven a truck to Melbourne for supplies. We drove over through Matlock and along the top of the ranges, and it was a very exciting time because we had to put on our headlights to go through Warburton. So much smoke and ashes and bark were falling in the town, and I’d filled up with supplies in Melbourne, both for the hotel and the baker’s shop and we had a petrol pump, so I had to get a petrol drums.

On the way home, along the top of the mountains that night, the people from Yelland’s Mill and Fitzpatrick’s Mill opposite on each side of the road, pulled me up on the road. They were very worried about the bushfires. They wanted to know had I come through any fires, which I had not, but I told them there was an awful lot of debris falling on the place.

There were about 20 or 30 of them out on the road and they asked me, about the conditions because they were in the heart of the bush. That would be about 9 o’clock on Thursday night, the night before Black Friday. A lot of the people from Fitzpatrick’s Mill, 15 of them were burned to death just the next day.

"Some were charred beyond recognition – spread-eagled and others looking as though they were just a bit sunburnt. A whole row of coffins were brought up and they were put into coffins in full view of anybody."

We pulled up with a fully loaded truck and told them that we hadn’t seen any fires and they said that the information received from the forestry was if the wind came up the next day they had to get out. Well they never got the chance to get out. There were 15 on one side, Fitzpatrick’s Mill, and only one survived. And on the other side they were in a brick house and managed to survive, except one lady.

In those days we were apparently a bit callous because their bodies were brought into Woods Point two days later on an open truck, and parked in the main street. And there they were. I’ve got very vivid memories of going over to the truck with the 15 bodies on it and looking at them.

Some were charred beyond recognition – spread-eagled and others looking as though they were just a bit sunburnt. A whole row of coffins were brought up and they were put into coffins in full view of anybody.

"I saw the hospital burning and I thought, “My God, how the hell did that get on fire?” Little did I know that the whole town was going to be burned in the next half hour."

They were spread-eagled, so in order to put them into their coffins they had to cut up their bodies with an axe to fit them into the coffins. And what amuses me, is if that had happened nowadays, there would be all sorts of advisers and counselling and so forth; and obviously there were no psychiatric diseases that we could suffer from because they hadn’t invented them yet!

We went on to Woods Point, and partly unloaded the truck and of course the next day the whole world blew up on us.

We didn’t think it was any threat at all. It wasn’t until about three o’clock in the afternoon that we were concerned and then the roaring wind came up and blew the fire off the mountains and set the hospital on fire and that was a calamity. I saw the hospital burning and I thought, “My God, how the hell did that get on fire?” Little did I know that the whole town was going to be burned in the next half hour.

"Well, there was a horrible roaring tornado of fire coming down. We just bolted. We got into the Goulburn River, which was a tiny stream at the time, and every now and again I’d find myself burning with hot embers."

Well, our hotel was supplied with quite a number of fire hoses, and we had a fellow out on the hill with the fire hose - but it was futile. He had to drop the hose and run and the whole place burned. A lot of people came to the hotel thinking it would be a safe place to be, but we told them it wouldn’t be safe because of the way things were shaping. “Get into the river or get into the tunnels” we told them, and this is what they did.

A group of them got under the main bridge in the main street at Woods Point with a very small trickle of water in the river, which later became quite hot because the magazine at the mine blew up and all the burning firewood fell into the river and charcoal and hot water came down from them. They were sheltering under blankets and the tar was dripping out of the bridge and falling on them.

Well, there was a horrible roaring tornado of fire coming down. We just bolted. We got into the Goulburn River, which was a tiny stream at the time, and every now and again I’d find myself burning with hot embers. So I’d lie down in the sandy water and within a few seconds of standing back up I was dry again.

There were a few people there, in particular, my sister with her baby son, and she said “Put some water on me”, so I promptly poured the bucket of water all over her year-old son.

"We slept on the side of the river that night and my most vivid memory was it felt as though somebody had rubbed sand into your eyes."

Woods Point was in a little valley, and the fire came along the top of the hill and then descended into the town, and just went right through the town. You didn’t have much time, you were bolting. See, I tried to park the car, my truck partly loaded where it would be safe, but it still burned. And I parked it yards and yards away from every other place.

I reckon it took four or five minutes to come down that hill. It was all for yourself.

Well, my father, realising that the hotel was at risk, found a wheelbarrow and put some cash out of the safe into the wheelbarrow, and managed to get that down into the river. I don’t remember my mother, who was bedridden and terminally ill at the time, but she must have got help from my fiancé and my sister to get under the bridge.

I was about 50 yards further down the river near the junction of the two streams. We slept on the side of the river that night and my most vivid memory was it felt as though somebody had rubbed sand into your eyes.

When the nurse came around with the torch and flashed it on you, you recoiled, because the light hurt. See the wind was blowing cinders and ash into your eyes all the time and burned them - next day for some reason or other she had a chemical called Argerol which she dripped into our eyes and we were running around with black tears running down our faces.

There was a tremendous roaring and fire and ashes, and cinders and wind. There was a fellow named George Stackpoole, realising that the fire was going to burn his place, put his luggage out in an empty paddock across the road and managed to get into the river. When he came back, his house was intact and his luggage was burned out in the open paddock.

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Read more about the devastation of Woods Point in the Map section

Read more about the devastation of Woods Point in the Royal Commission section