Woods Point

"Those who managed to reach shelter in time survived while the town was destroyed around them."

In December 1938, several small fires were already burning in the hills around Woods Point. A bad wind now would be a disaster. Sometime after 1:00 p.m. on Friday 13 January, a large pall of smoke climbed into the sky from the direction of the Big River Valley. By 2.30 pm there was a strong north wind blowing and the sky was dark with smoke. North of Woods Point, the Big River fire that had come out of the Rubicon joined up with another fire from Gaffneys Creek and swept down on Woods Point.

The residents of Woods Point had been nervous all morning. As the afternoon wore on, it became very dark. Around 3:00 p.m. the fire roared over the hill to the east of the town and set the hospital alight. For a moment it looked as if the town might be spared as the fire swung from the north side of the town around to the east, but then it roared back through the centre of Woods Point driven by winds estimated to reach eighty miles per hour. The magazine at the mine exploded, blowing the already-burning firewood stacks into Morning Star Creek and depriving the small group sheltering under the bridge in the centre of town of their vital supply of water. The tar on the bridge above their heads melted and dripped between the planks onto them.

Those who took shelter in mine tunnels around the town seemed to have fared the best. Others took refuge in a small pool in the Goulburn River. Those who had managed to reach such shelter in time survived while the town was destroyed around them. Miss Nellie O'Keefe did not. She was making her way into the town and had reached the steep hill leading to the hospital when she collapsed. As she lay on the road a burning fence fell on top of her. Her body was recovered later that afternoon. Not far from Woods Point, prospectors Thomas Rusden and William Bolton perished separately in the bush in their quest for gold. Rusden died running from the flames at Frenchman's Creek. Bolton was prospecting at Aberfeldy and was badly burnt as he and his son Frank fled to a creek. The pair stayed all night in the creek until the fire had passed. William Bolton died of his injuries while being transported to Warragul Hospital.

Read more about the devastation of Woods Point in 1939 in the Oral History section