The Bilpin Newsletter in its October 2024 Edition published this interesting account of the 1944 fires. It was introduced by Gaynor Lawler (nee McMahon) and she and the Bilpin Newsletter have given their permission for us to publish the story.
Past, current and future – Have we learnt anything?
My dad’s family is from Kurrajong. There have been five generations of McMahons that were born in the area and grew up there.
Last week I met up with my cousin (who lives in Comleroy Road) to discuss an upcoming McMahon Reunion that I am organising. She was able to give me some written reflections from the past. Amongst these was an interview with her dad (my Uncle Vince McMahon, my dad Desmond’s younger brother) who grew up and lived in Kurrajong all his life, and was at one time the captain of the Blaxland Ridge Bush Fire Brigade.
Vince gave an account of the bush fires in Kurrajong Hills in 1939 and 1944. The destruction was devastating in so many ways to people, animals and farmland. I thought there could be some value in putting this encounter in the Bilpin Newsletter, particularly as we are approaching a fire season. I have permission from Vince’s children to publish this. Vince was also known by a number of the local Bilpin and Kurrajong community members.
I think it is a good read and will hopefully remind everyone that you cannot be complacent with your approach to preparation.
Gaynor Lawler (nee McMahon)
Interview with Mr Vince McMahon of Comleroy Road, Captain of Blaxlands Ridge Bush Fire Brigade
The things that have happened in Victoria are not unique to Victoria; they can happen here and have happened here before. Now that there is not so much stock grazing, in drought conditions, anything can burn, and the same situation can happen without warning. Even this year, if we get temperatures in the forties and the wrong wind there is the potential for a blow up. When that fire came over the Heights, the whole of Comleroy was lit up like a torch from nearly one end to the other, and there was nothing that could be done to stop it anywhere. No one could help anyone else because they were too busy trying to help themselves.
Q. What year was that?
1944. One of the reasons why it was so disastrous was the fact that all the men were away at war and there hadn’t been any hazard reduction done. The only thing that saved a lot of places was the fact that in those days there were still a lot of animals grazing. Most people had a few cows and all the work was still being done by horses so that generally the horses and cattle were in the paddocks around the house and they kept them fairly bare. But the heat was so intense from the bush further back that it just went straight across them as though it was petrol. The fire landed up near McMahons Road off the Heights.
Q. Where from the Heights roughly do you think? The top of the Mountain area?
The whole of the top of the mountain was alight. It came from a fire that was burning further back from a lightning strike and when the right conditions hit it, it just came straight out; it could have come from any distance further back. It came over the Heights from near the hotel and down into the Gap. It ignited here and went down through Garryowen this side of Dad’s place and followed the fence line down. It never even went through the fence: the tongues of flame simply picked their own course. When the fire got into the gully, it went down and lit up the whole of the side of the ridge. Even before it got to East Kurrajong Road, East Kurrajong Road itself was lit from the Heights. The wind was blowing at about 70 miles per hour. The cow manure ignited and lit across the road and down the slopes, and then floated in bits and pieces and lit everywhere it landed. Trying to drive was like trying to drive through fog. One of the old residents saw the fire come over the top of the hill and put his two youngest daughters, who were too young to do anything, in the middle of the cultivated paddock, leaving them there while he and his wife and eldest daughter battled to save his house. For five hours they battled the fire, but they couldn’t put anything out. Things were burning so fiercely that once everything was alight you couldn’t put anything out. Even the boards on top of the well that they were bailing the water out of were burning while they were bailing the water out. They didn’t have the advantages of pumps and things in those days. They just battled and battled, and they did save their house.
Q. Was that area much the same grazed area that it is now?
Yes. There was a citrus orchard on Slopes Road and the heat was so intense that this citrus orchard just exploded from tree to tree. It took about two minutes to go the full length of the orchard, which was just wiped out. If anything, there was a little bit more ground kept clear and cultivated in those days than there is now because in those days it was an intensive farming area, and everyone made their living off the land. Now everyone makes their living out of an office somewhere and just lives here. An hour and a half after the smoke came over the top of the Heights the fences were alight around Sinavin’s shop down on the corner of Grose Vale Road. All the stock were blazing as they crossed the road. Their fat was alight, but they still galloped until they dropped. There were about 27 houses burnt (including 8 down the Slopes), as well as the Wesley Church and a place on Comleroy Road this side of Blaxland’s Ridge corner which belonged to Pat McMahon. A man burnt to death in a paddock behind the Church of England at North Richmond. He was on his horse and the fire came up behind him and just passed him and left him and his horse dead.
Q. What was the worst fire in your opinion that you have been involved in?
1944 was the worst fire in my memory. It was horrific, totally unmanageable and totally uncontrollable. It just travelled like a fire ball and went where it wanted to. No one could do anything to stop it. It went over paddocks that had been ploughed for the first time and still had a little bit of grass. The heat was so intense and the wind was so strong – around 70 miles per hour. Vic Johns lost his house too. They were sitting at the table and Vic said to his son ‘Open the door and let some wind in’. They opened the door and the fire came straight in the back door and out the front; they didn’t even have time to let the dogs off their chains. They raced out their front door and dived into a cutting in front of their house. Everything went except the clothes they had on. Since then, we haven’t had the combination of the heat, the wind and the drought. We have been lucky, but there is no reason why it can’t come again, just like there is no reason why you can’t get a flood like the 1867 flood along the river.
Q. Don’t you think we have had the conditions?
We have had the conditions, but the fire hasn’t broken out at the critical time. The 1939 fire jumped the river at Wilberforce and it went from there right through the back of Castle Hill and literally thousands and thousands of poultry perished because that was the big poultry farming area. My two brothers were on their way to Sydney Cricket ground on their motor bike and the fire caught up with them at Castle Hill and they had to help with the fire there.
In the 1968 fire our backburn along Hurst’s Trail met the main fire at the junction of two gullies down in Wheeney and when it did at 11 o’clock at night it was just like a volcano. I had never been so scared in all my life. We thought we had the fires under control; some of the men had gone home. The next thing – bang! Everything was alight and it came across the grass paddocks down here just like the waves at Bondi. I’ve never seen anything like it. The fire could flare and roll and go about thirty feet at a time. I led the Grose Vale tanker into that. I have never been so scared in all my life. Flaming leaves and small branches picked up by the vortex of the air current just floated across Comleroy Road.
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