Melbourne, Thursday 2 February 1939

[Mr. Gowans] You are a medical practitioner carrying on practice in Melbourne?
Yes.

I understand that in the first instance you have some knowledge of fire prevention and fire protection measures adopted in other countries, particularly in Canada?
That is so.

My first connection with bush fires was in 1901 at Apollo Bay. On going down for a swim on a hot day with a clear sky I noticed puffs of smoke arising all over the Otway Forest. In a short time the forest was an inferno. One old settler to whom I spoke at that time said that it was a fire started by the graziers. That fire burnt out the forest, and burnt out the humus, and in due course that area was opened for settlement.

I have not looked at the recent settlement figures, but I understand that 93,000 acres were ultimately abandoned. With a 70 inch rainfall that was an ideal forest. My next adventure with forest fires was at Mallacoota which we reached on horse back with pack horses in those days, and there I found men burning the forest in all directions with the object of inducing autumn feed. The men made no bones about it.

When I came back to Melbourne, I received information that Wilson's Promontory, supposed to be a reserve, was burning. I took a boat down and lived on it for a week. At that time Wilson's Promontory looked like a check board with black patches in every direction. The animals were burnt and there was general destruction as the result of that fire.

When I came back to Melbourne, I called on the Minister of Lands with Professor [Baldwin] Spencer, and as result the area was roaded and put under the control of a committee, but it seems to have got out of hand again. Each summer, for year after year, I have visited remote places.

When the bush nursing system developed, I went to the bush nursing areas, and there I came into contact with this problem. My next excursion was from Tallangatta to Sydenham Inlet. I found the country in the Mitta Valley burnt systematically. The people said that they had to do this.

They said, 'If you owned land, you would do it too.' I became profoundly interested in the systematic burning, and from time to time I drew attention publicly to this matter. I have been informed frequently that the fires could be started by cigarettes, by glass bottles, and by lightning, as well as in a number of other ways.

During two subsequent summer holidays, I tried to light fires with cigarettes, and found that I could not do it except with dry cow dung, but some of my friends told me that a fire could also be started with decayed barley grass. You can char the grass, but it will not light. I have yet to see the man who can produce a fire with a glass bottle. I have evidence that lightning will produce a fire, but usually the rain that follows puts it out.

Little by little, from my personal observation of people lighting and deliberately extending fires, and doing this on their own admission for purposes of grazing, I came to the conclusion that the fires were almost entirely set alight by graziers with the object of getting feed for stock. After seeing the burning and hearing the admissions, there was no other conclusion that one could come to.

We have three problems in connection with our forests, the first in connection with water conservation, the second in connection with timber getting - and consequently the protection of the forests - and thirdly, something that has been forgotten altogether, the native animals.

When you burn forests you destroy the native animals and some of the birds, and this has a detrimental effect in various directions. The tourist who comes to Australia does not come here to see the city; he wants to see the country as it was with the animals and birds in their native state.

Read more about Judge Stretton’s findings in the Aftermath Section