Name: Ray Dafter

Age: 72
Occupation during 1939: Child – talking about his Uncle Bill Dafter, one of only two people who came out of Matlock alive.
Age at time of fire: 8
Location of interview: Warburton

"He was driving an old 1924 model car and as he got out to check it, he noticed there was a thin blue flame coming out of the vent hole - the petrol tank - and he thought, Oh well, this is it."

My Uncle, Bill Dafter, was working at Matlock, and they decided that they had to get out. The fires were getting really bad and a lot of the men at Matlock at this particular timber mill left earlier than Bill. Bill had an old car with a canvas top on it and he was one of the later ones to leave the mill, the others came through to Warburton.

He got about half way down and the crown fire went over the top of him, going through the air, on top of the trees - and he stopped his car and he thought to himself, this is not too bad. So he brushed a few embers off the canvas so it wouldn’t catch on fire and got going again.

"At one stage there, it says in an interview he gave to Noble, that if he could have got up he would have ended his life because of the pain from the burns."

Now about a mile further on, he met the ground fire which, you know, they call the grim reaper, and he had no option but to leave the car because he had no hope in the car. He was driving an old 1924 model car and as he got out to check it, he noticed there was a thin blue flame coming out of the vent hole - the petrol tank - and he thought, “Oh well, this is it”.

So he got away from the car and lay in the table drain by the side of the road and apparently he went through hell there, his hands and his head and his back were badly burned.

He lay in that drain, and of course all the debris and embers were getting blown on to him and anyway that’s how he survived - he wouldn’t get up. But he was so mentally tough and physically tough. At one stage there, it says in an interview he gave to Noble, that if he could have got up he would have ended his life because of the pain from the burns.

"But he told me himself later on that it was his military training that saved his life, he said that had he got up there would have been no hope."

The next day, my father and uncle were in a gang that went out looking for survivors, expecting to find none, because there were a lot dead. Anyhow, they were eventually going through the road to Matlock and they saw what they thought was an animal, but it wasn’t an animal, it was Bill.

He had an old billy-can in his hand and he was wondering around picking up rubbish and putting it into the billy-can. Dad said to him, “What are you doing Bill?” And he said, “I’ve got to stop the water getting out.” There was no bottom in the billy-can - delirious you see, and they said to him “But there’s no bottom in it Bill.”

Well they eventually got him to hospital in Warburton, and he was in hospital for many, many weeks. But he told me himself later on that it was his military training that saved his life. He said that had he got up there would have been no hope.

He was in the army in both wars. He took a little while to get repaired because he was quite badly burned, but he enlisted again and he was back in the army in the Second World War. He told me that it was - well, he actually told me that Gallipoli was nothing, absolutely nothing compared to the ‘39 fire when he was trapped.

"... and the fire went straight down through here and that mountain, Mount Little Joe, I’ll never forget it, it just literally exploded."

I was only eight and a half at the time of the 1939 fires and can tell you about the experience at Warburton here. I was living on Brisbane Hill in Warburton with my mother and father, and my father was out fighting the fires. He was a bushman, a faller working out in the bush falling trees for a mill.

He was working in the local area here and in those days they were all out fighting the fires, but it was a pretty hopeless task. They didn’t have the equipment and things that they have now. All they had were beaters made from the branch of a tree. It was just a miracle that this town survived.

It came very close and it came from the north-west. And this area here behind the golf course was just open grassland, and the fire went straight down through here and that mountain, Mount Little Joe, I’ll never forget it, it just literally exploded.

I was eight and a half and we were on Brisbane Hill. It was quite a good view, it was very smoky and extremely hot, and I remember being concerned about my father and eventually he arrived and said, “Right, into the river because there’s no hope.”

I grabbed my little dog and off we went down to the river with my mother. When we got to the river there were lots and lots of people with suitcases and all sorts of things. The fire got within 500 metres of where we were in the river but we were quite safe. You could see the fire. You could see flames.

" The fire got within 500 metres of where we were in the river but we were quite safe. You could see the fire. You could see flames."

Embers were flying everywhere, and they would start a fire there and someone would put it out and all the debris was coming over and clouds of smoke. At some stages the smoke would be so thick you could hardly see. It took about two hours ’til the danger had passed and then fortunately, we went back and our house was still there. It’s hard to explain because it was so long ago but the noise was terrible, it was awful.

Once you hear a bush fire crowning, it’s a spooky noise, it’s a noise that you never forget. It’s hard to explain because on Ash Wednesday (16 February 1983) we were sitting in the kitchen having our evening meal, and we had the television on and I said there’s a fire and we looked out and it was coming up the valley there and it was crowning.

But the noise - it’s unbelievable; it’s something that you never, ever forget, and Margie (my wife) said, “What are you doing?” And I locked the door and said, “There’s a fire”, and she said, “There’s not”, and I said “There is”. I could hear it.

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Read more about the extreme danger of crown fires in the Royal Commission section