Name: Cyril Lyons

Age: 83
Occupation during 1939: Winch driver with his dad and a team of timber fallers who were caught in a gully at Powelltown as the fire came through.
Age at time of fire: 18
Location of interview: Traralgon

"I saw a fern, a black fern land on the ground in front of me. I looked at it and thought, ‘Hell!’ "

On Friday the 13th, Black Friday, we were up on the ridge between what is known as Powelltown, and Yarra Junction. There are several ridges up there, because it is mountain ash country. We were about five miles off a gravel road, deep in the bush. We only worked this area in the summertime, but this was a real hot summer’s day. Today you wouldn’t be allowed to work in that heat, and rightly so. If we’d known there was a fire coming, well, we wouldn’t have been there. It just sprung out of nowhere and it travelled fast.

I was driving a logging winch. In those days we used to use a whistle string, which was a piece of wire that would go out as far as the logging ropes would go, half a mile or something like that. A bell would ring to start the motor to winch the log in.

As I walked towards the winch to start it up, I saw a fern, a black fern land on the ground in front of me. I looked at it and thought, ‘Hell!’, and I looked up, and you could see this cloud of smoke coming up over the mountain. I knew we were in trouble.

So, not answering the bell, I ran out about a couple of hundred yards and yelled out to my father, who had rung several times. Of course, he was coming up to see what I was doing, and I ran out, and yelled out to him that there was a fire coming. He didn’t argue the point, he just turned around and yelled out to the men who were down in this gully, in steep ash country. He yelled out to them and they knocked off falling timber.

"The fire was travelling towards east Gippsland, and I think it averaged about 40 miles per hour over the time it was burning. It wasn’t taking any bends either."

The fire was coming from the west and so I looked westward, which was a hill a couple of miles behind us. The fire was travelling towards east Gippsland, and I think it averaged about 40 miles per hour over the time it was burning. It wasn’t taking any bends either.

My brother-in-law had a three-horse team who were snigging small logs into a heap that we would have then pulled in. He turned the horses loose, which meant they would go home. Then all of the men hung on to the wire rope. I’d gone back to the winch and the next time the bell rang, I put the winch into high gear and wound the men up the hill out of this gully.

While I was waiting for the men to ring, to let me know they were ready for me to pull them up, one of our trucks turned up. I pointed to the smoke coming and the driver took a look and he admitted later, he felt like driving away, but he waited, naturally.

The fire had by this time come over the top of the hill, so we all quickly got onto the truck to get out of there but we had to drive back into a gully, toward the direction the fire was coming from as we were only on a narrow logging road that went no-where. So we drove back into this gully and out to where we knew there was an opening. Then that fire got pretty close.

"What I thought had just been smoke was the actual fire coming towards us. And of course it was carrying these embers on the wind."

I suppose it was no more than a quarter of an hour from the time I first saw the smoke, to when I ran out along the ridge to yell out to my father and the men. I yelled, “Get out of the bush and get back to the truck and drive out”. What I thought had just been smoke was the actual fire coming towards us. I don’t know how far the smoke was away in the first place, but of course it was carrying these embers on the wind. The wind wasn’t there at that stage; the wind came with the fire.

The horses started off, but they turned back and they burned, the three horses burned. The men - I think there were three or four fallers, a horse driver and my father and myself - got onto this truck and he took us down. We went down the road, a mile or so to a potato paddock that was on a ridge, drove the truck out onto the ridge and sat there and watched the fire. Well, we didn’t sit up watching it, we were hammered right down close to the ground. Nobody talking, we just lay down in the grooves of the potato paddock. We kept our heads down and put our coats over our heads, because you’ve got to protect your head in those cases. The fire was not a long way away from us, but seeing as this land had been cleared, this is what saved our lives.

"A spark must have got in, and it just went ‘boom’, and the whole valley was on fire. It was just like an explosion."

I remember at one stage looking down into a valley close by us. The fire didn’t even get to it, but with the eucalyptus from the trees, the heat and the fierce wind that was blowing, a spark must have got in, and it just went ‘boom’, and the whole valley was on fire. It was just like an explosion.

Watching that valley go ‘boom’ with the approaching fire, it was terribly frightening. Well, we were frightened in any case.

As the evening came on and nighttime came, you could see all the forest in the fire. It wasn’t actually burning, it was just the trees, the dried trees and their limbs. It was just like a giant city to look at it, all these trees on fire. On 90 per cent of the trees, the leaves didn’t even come off; they just shrivelled where they were, just stayed there. It was a terribly fierce, 40- to 50-miles-an-hour wind, and the heat was terrific. We could really feel the heat. We kept our head down and stopped down for quite a long time.

It was well into the evening before we started to move around, and we stopped in that potato patch for the night. It was the next day before we tried to get out, but of course a lot of trees had fallen across the road and we had to cut our way out.

" When the heat and the wind had hit those trees, it had bent them over and the extreme heat just stopped them in position. Those trees never ever straightened."

After the fire was over, a few days later, one of the things that brought it back to me was when we went out a bit further in the bush, for some reason. There was a patch of young ash about a foot through at the butt, and probably 60 feet high. When the heat and the wind had hit those trees, it had bent them over and the extreme heat just froze them in that position. Those trees never ever straightened. That was the ’39 fire.

WATCH MOVIE

Read more about eucalyptus gas exploding as a result of bushfires in the Aftermath Section

Read more about the 1939 Black Friday bushfires in the Powelltown region in the Newspaper Section