Melbourne, Thursday 2 February 1939

There comes a time when people who have lived all their lives in the bush know that it is dangerous almost to strike a match. The last couple of months of this season have been such a period. There is a feeling that everything is ready for a big flare-up, given a small fire and the right wind.

[Mr. Gowans] In 1926 there were very serious bush fires in Victoria, and again in 1932. Now we have the most disastrous fires in our history. Does not that suggest to you that there is something wrong with the methods that have been used during the last twenty years at all events in the way of either preventing or curbing the fires?
My experience in 1932 awakened me to something I had not known before and it changed my opinions about the fires considerably.

At that time we were operating on the same area but we were at the top of the mountain three miles away at a mill which I had constructed there. There were no fires in our area or within miles of it so far as we could see.

A wind got up and started to carry a fire. It was reported at Warburton at about 2 am. That fire was at our mill at 5 am. It came from Old Warburton and it swept a tract of country eight or ten miles wide. I think it just about struck Powelltown also.

A place was burnt out at Drouin on the main Gippsland line at 8 o'clock in the morning by the same fire. That fire travelled approximately 20 miles as the crow flies between 2 o'clock and 8 o'clock. I think no fire break that could be cut would stop a fire like it.

You emphasised the word 'cut'. What about a fire break that could be burnt?
Within reason, either cut or burnt. I have no hesitation in saying that that fire was leaping from one hill to another more than a mile at a time.

You say that that fire affected your views. What conclusion did you come to - that it was not worth while doing anything?
No, not that at all. Before that time, not having that experience, I may have thought that it was possible to control a fire by a fire break and lighting back to meet it but in the case of a fire that travels at that rate it is impossible to light back so as to do any good. It is over you before there is time.

That is what I term a head fire. There are fires that creep along the ground and then there is another type of fire that will rage through the scrub and timber, perhaps 50 or 100 feet high. There is this sort of fire with rolls and rolls of black smoke suddenly bursting into flame as it travels along. That is the kind of fire that does the damage in the forests and causes so much loss of life in those areas.

Is that the type of fire that has been termed a crown fire?
Yes, if I may suggest a method to minimise the danger it would be to burn considerable areas of the low-lying and messmate country, especially on the northern slopes. I suggest that consideration be given to that method of protection and of minimising danger.

Read more about crown fires in 1939 in the Oral History section