Melbourne, Thursday 2 February 1939

[Mr. Gowans]: You are a storekeeper living at Wood's Point?
Yes.

You were here on the 13th of January?
Yes.

Were there any conditions around this township on the 13th of January that made the fires worse than they otherwise would have been?
Yes - the wind on that particular day.

Apart from the wind and the pressure of timber, were there any other circumstances which you considered added to the danger?
They were really psychological effects. There seemed to be explosions in the air, accompanied by little tongues of flame.

Was it gas?
I really do not know what it was.

Did the fire come down at any place?
Yes. In previous years our experience of fires, especially in the mountains, has been that they burn very slowly down hill. On other occasions, we would simply stand and watch them until we thought they were dangerously close.

Then we would go out and fight them off. On the day particularly mentioned, the fires swooped over the town.

[The Commissioner]: What did you see of the start of the fire?
A huge pall of smoke came over the north eastern portion of the hill, and probably about an hour afterwards another huge pall came over the north western side of the township...

What effect did that have?
As a matter of fact, as old residents, we did not take particular notice. We simply observed that the fire was coming closer.

We had seen the same on numerous other occasions, and we really did not think that there was any particular danger. From the moment the wind rose, the fire gained in intensity and pace.

There are numerous old mining tunnels in the town. I venture to say that had it not been for those tunnels on the day of the fire, the death roll would have been much larger than it was.

About 2 o'clock the flames were visible, coming at a tremendous rate, and backed by the awful hurricane behind us.

The sky became overcast, and I venture to suggest that a person wishing to see anything in a house would have had to use a torch.

While the fire was at its worst, it was only by the light from the flames that you could see anything.

I was delivering goods at about a quarter past 1 o'clock, and all the women folk at the top end of the town - perhaps half a mile away from here - were panic stricken. I was trying to calm them.

By that time the flames were scarcely visible, but were coming rapidly. I think that the first fire was up at what we call the cricket ground.

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