In 1988, on the 70th anniversary of the disastrous 1918 bush fires on Willoughby, Saltern Creek and Rodney Downs, the members of the Barcaldine Historical Society placed a plague in the vicinity of the fires to honour the memory of the seven workers who perished.
They also put together a booklet of accounts of the fires in the newspapers and police records. The booklet also provides a summation of the actual events drawn from various sources. The following is what I have been able to derive from the evidence presented.
Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 October 1918
Saltern Creek fire
The fire on Saltern Creek, 36 miles from Barcaldine, seems to have been reported by the son of the owner of Willoughby station, T A (Thomas) Alexander, to Sgt Regan. He reported the fire was burning in Bumble paddock and moving towards Blackboy Creek. There were about 10 men fighting it.
It appears that men from Willoughby Station were attending the fire: Arthur Raymond Percival Burgess, Overseer; McDougall, Station hand; Sargood, Station hand; K W Alexander and Thomas Alexander (son of the owner of Willoughby).
Men from Rodney Downs were also attending this fire: J Y Shannon, Manager; Richmond, Overseer; and Alfred Hock, Station hand.
The Willoughby fire was in the Pennycoed paddock, burning onto the southern boundary with Rodney Downs.
At first this fire must have been burning in a northerly direction between Pennycoed Creek and the Rodney Downs boundary.
Willoughby fire
Over on Willoughby, another fire was noticed. The Saltern Creek men and the Willoughby and Rodney Downs men at the Saltern Creek fire rode over to the Willoughby fire: J Y Shannon, F J Richmond, Hock, Burgess, Sargood, McDougall, K W Alexander and T A Alexander.
Burgess, Sargood, Shannon, Richmond and Hock were on horses.
A party of about eight or ten men went out to extinguish a fire burning on Bumble Creek and extending towards Blackboy Creek.
After fighting the fire for some while, another fire was observed some distance away. During the afternoon, a strong north wind change took the fire onto the Willoughby southern boundary with the Rodney Downs Viena paddock boundary. Burgess, Hock, Richmond and Shannon went around the fire towards the new outbreak, riding to the southern edge of the fire to attempt to put it out.
After they’d circled the fire, the wind change blew the fire directly towards them. They were riding parallel to the fence.
Richmond, Burgess and Hock were caught between the fence and the fire. They tried to gallop off to escape the new fire front which by this time was at the boundary fence.
Richmond managed to gallop through the fire to safety.
Shannon, trying to get sheep away on the other side of the fire, also escaped.
Burgess was thrown when his horse shied or took fright – probably at the mob of sheep – and was thrown onto the fence and could not recover before the fire overtook him, and was thus seriously burnt.
Hock was some distance behind the other two, and didn’t stand a chance, being ultimately also overtaken by the fire and seriously burned.
The whole mob of sheep were burnt where they stood, and the skin, ears and tails of Hock’s and Burgess’s horses was burnt off each, and one was blinded. Even the hair in the saddles on the horses’ backs was burnt.
Burgess and Hock
Burgess and Hock were found in a very serious condition, both naked with their clothes burned off except for their burnt and hard boots and a bit of a singlet around Burgess’s neck. Hock was in a particularly bad way. His legs were partially drawn up and in lifting him, the flesh fell away. Burgess was still able to converse with his rescuers, telling them that he had dragged off his burning garments, and believed that he would have escaped had not his horse jumped the fence and fell, throwing him.
They were both transported on a waggonette to a hut on Pennycoed Creek adjacent to the large claypan where a cricket ground was marked out.
K W Alexander was left to look after the victims whilst Thomas Alexander and McDougall went to Willoughby to get the car so the burnt men could be taken to hospital in Barcaldine.
They left about 9:30 pm, arriving at the hospital with Burgess and Hock at midnight.
Arthur Hock died at 2:30 am on Wednesday 30 October.
Arthur Percival Burgess died at 4:00 am the same day.
Both men were buried in Barcaldine cemetery on the day of their deaths.
Jones and Knowles
The manager of Saltern Creek, Arthur King Jones, was in Barcaldine and did not arrive at the site of the fire until he was driven to No. 11 bore by Frank Hall in his car late on the afternoon of Tuesday 29th.
Harry Matthews, the Overseer of Saltern Station, had left Barcaldine with Jones for the scene of the fire, but he travelled there on a buggy.
P J Thorpe was reported to have been at the fire with the Willoughby and Rodney Downs men including Knowlton, Holmes, Gilchrist and Jack West, a Jackaroo.
When Matthews arrived at Saltern Creek, Jones had left about ten minutes before. Matthews went onto the wool shed and had tea there. He saw lightening start a fire in the home paddock, so he called the men – Arthur Neilson, Arthur Ross, George Bunn, Charlie Harrison, Tom Morgan and Morgan’s offsider – and they went to extinguish that fire. They got the sheep out of danger, burnt a break and the fire died down. A slight rain even fell. They returned to the shed and went to bed near midnight. Matthews watched the fire on and off during the night.
At 5:00 pm, Jones instructed Hall to stay at the bore with his motor car, and with Thorpe driving, took the waggonette with Gilchrist, Holmes and Knowlton as fire beaters to attempt to put out the fire.
When Jones arrived at No. 11 bore, he reportedly instructed two men (one of them possibly Jackaroo West) to shift sheep away from the path of the fire. The two men must have stayed in close proximity to Jones and his men (Thorpe, Gilchrist, Holmes and Knowlton) for some time as they were the ones who reported to Hall at 8:45 pm that when they had last seen the group, they were completely surrounded by fire.
At 11:00 pm, Hall was told by the two men (Jack West and William Atkins) that they had not seen Jones or his men since seven o’clock the night before. They had looked for them through the night as they worked their way back to No. 11 bore to beat out another fire that started up on the left (probably in the west).
This prompted Hall to go for help. He had made two unsuccessful attempts himself through the night to establish the position and safety of the party in the waggonette. So he returned to the station early Wednesday morning to advise Matthews of his concern for Jones and his party.
Matthews went with Hall in his car, with Ross and Bunn following on horse back. At the bore, Matthews rode with Bunn down along the bore drain, leaving him about two miles from the bore to bear a fire to a break running on to Bumble Hut.
Matthews went to Bumble Hut along the edge of the burning fire in search of Jones and his men. At Bumble Hut he met Aitkins and West. They said the last they saw of Jones and his men was the night before burning a break around the waggonette. Matthews returned to No. 11 bore with Aitkins and West, Bunn joining them on the road. Hall was waiting at the bore. Kerrigan and Neilson came there with a buggy from Saltern Creek.
Atkins then led the way to the waggonette where they found a saddle horse and buggy horse badly burnt.
Matthews rode on with Aitkins, Bunn and West down Bumble Creek, while Neilson and Kerrigan went in the opposite direction. Matthews found a burnt boot which he recognised as belonging to Roy Holmes, one of Jones’ men, and at the water he found the track of a man with one boot on. He cooeed and called out and heard a faint reply so he went in that direction and found all together Roy Holmes, B J Thorpe, H G Gilchrist and Harry Knowlton alive but badly burnt as well as the dead body of Jones.
Gilchrist spoke and asked Matthews to get a car, and said Mr Jones is dead.
Matthews returned to the wool shed and reported the matter by telephone to Mr Carson.
Arthur King Jones was dead when the party was found.
Harry Knowlton, Roy Holmes, Gilchrist and Mick Thorpe were alive but severely burned.
Knowlton died when being lifted onto the vehicle that took the victims to the shearing shed from the creek.
Getting the survivors to the hospital
Mr Carson, Manager of the Bank of New South Wales, informed Constable Taylor at Barcaldine Police Station that he had received a telephone message from Saltern Creek Station that five men had been seriously injured by a bush fire at the Station.
Constable Taylor, Matron Green and a Mr Carson were driven to the wool shed at Saltern Creek, five miles past the Station at noon on Wednesday by Mr N K Munro. Mr J R Rigby had driven Dr Cook and Mr Phillip Graham (from Pearson’s office) to the wool shed.
Matron Green stayed at the shed, and Munro drove Dr Cook, Cons. Taylor and Matthews (to guide them) in the direction of the fire in an attempt to assist the victims.
They met Hall with three of the men – Knowlton was dead, Holmes and Thorpe badly burnt. Hall drove them on to the shed.
They met William Kerrigan driving the station buggy with the deceased Jones and badly burnt Gilchrist on board. He directed them to where the other men were, meeting up with Hall and his car. In it were Thorpe and Holmes, alive but severely burnt and the deceased body of Harry Knowlton.
Dr Cook attended to the injured men and returned with them to the wool shed where Matron Green had prepared stretchers for them.
Everything possible was reportedly done for the injured before proceeding to Barcaldine hospital. The dead bodies were left at the wool shed.
The injured arrived at the hospital at 6:00 pm Wednesday evening.
Messrs J and Gordon Meacham and A A Dyer went to Saltern Creek at 8 pm with wood coffins, returning at 2 am with the corpses which were first taken to the hospital and subsequently placed in St Peter’s Church of England to wait internment.
Gilchrist, Holmes and Thorpe
Constable Taylor interviewed the father of Holmes who had been talking to his son in the hospital. He informed him that the men had been beating out the fire when Jones warned them that it had them beat, and said to come away and save their lives.
They got into the wagonette and drove off but struck a stump. The horses broke clear of the vehicle and bolted and the men were left to face the fire. It caught them and swept over them and they were all badly burnt. As only the bottom of the wheels of the wagon were burnt, they may have survived if they had time to get underneath the wagon
Arthur Jones died towards morning. Holmes walked some distance with one boot on and gave the others some water and brandy that was in the waggonette. They all remained there until Matthews arrived.
Harold Gilchrist passed away on Sunday 3 November and William Roy Holmes passed away on Monday 4 November, and their funerals took place the same day. Mick Thorpe died of his injuries in the hospital on Sunday 10 November and his funeral also took place the same day.
Arthur King Jones
Arthur King Jones was a son of the late A B Jones, the well-known Queensland pioneer pastoralist. Arthur was born on Brunel Downs in 1870, educated in NSW, and after a brilliant university career in Sydney came to Queensland to join his father. He managed properties, entered the service of the Scottish Australian Investment Co, before becoming manager of Corella Station in NSW, an appointment he retained until he was made manager of Saltern Creek Station about 18 months or two years before the 1918 fire.
Mr Jones married Miss Armstrong, daughter of Mr Armstrong of Milroy Station on the Darling River. He was survived by Mrs Jones and three young sons.
‘Seven deaths in one week has been our unhappy toll. Little wonder that people could not become enthusiastic over the gratifying news received from the centre of hostilities on Friday, the unconditional surrender of Turkey. The news was received naturally with satisfaction but perfect calm prevailed, and there was no outward sign of jubilation. The week has been one which will live ling in the memories of those residing in the west and it is hoped the opportunity will not occur again of us having to record such a calamity from fire’.
Western Champion, 9 November 1918
