Listed below are selected extracts from the Royal Commission report written by Judge Leonard Stretton, who was selected to lead the inquiry into the 1939 Victoria bushfires.

You can read about the cause of the fires, the evidence given, the role of the Forest Commission, and other general findings in the Report.

Judge Stretton’s was instructed to specifically inquire into the causes of and measures taken to prevent the 1939 bushfires, and to protect life and property and the measures to be taken to prevent bushfires in Victoria and to protect life and property in the event of future bushfires.

The final report into the 1939 bushfires was presented to both Houses of Parliament by His Excellency’s Command in Victoria in 1939.

The truth was hard to find. Accordingly, your Commissioner sometimes sought it (as he was entitled to do) in places other than the witness box. Much of the evidence was coloured by self-interest. Much of it was quite false. Little of it was wholly truthful.