Most of us know little or nothing of the massive fires that reigned down on the Walmer area in 1969, the fire taking with it large portions of the Maldon – Shelbourne Line including 5 bridges and 3000+ sleepers. One man who experienced the events that occurred that day was Bendigo Driver David Bernoth.
As it happened it was the day that the Weekly Castlemaine – Shelbourne Goods was scheduled to operate. On this day it was hauled by a T-Class locomotive with Bendigo Drivers Adrian Long & David Bernoth on the footplate.
The weather at lunchtime had already reached 36.7c with winds gusting up to 60mph, a recipe for disaster. The fire was already well advanced as they were heading towards the Shelbourne area, the crew were aware and alert to the impeding danger. On arrival they made a decision to escape from the path of the fire and return to Maldon / Castlemaine as soon as possible leaving the loading at Shelbourne.
Dave Bernoth’s recollections of that day, which appeared in our book, “A History of the Maldon & Shelbourne Railways” are shared here; –
‘We were lucky to escape with our lives that day. We saw the fire starting when we were at Shelbourne. The wind was coming from that direction, and it was blowing it our way, so it wouldn’t take long in the grass to get to us, so we decided, “We’re getting out of here.”
I said to the Guard not to get back in the van, we’re leaving now. There were about 8–10 wagons loaded with wheat and covered by tarps ready to be shipped to port which we left behind. The Guard rode in the Cab with us, the T-Class was running long end leading. The speed limit was 20mph (I think), I didn’t do 20mph, but I tell you that it was very rough as the loco and van bounced and lurched around.
I was looking back as we hit a particularly rough spot and I saw two of the windows in the trailing Guards Van fall out. I said to the Guard that he was lucky he was riding up here with us, not as rough as in the Van where the windows had just fallen out.
The fire was lapping the line on the Fireman’s side, mainly the eucalyptus leaves burning in the trees. Our lives were in danger, the fire was fast approaching from the whole right-hand side of the line, we wanted to stay ahead of it, we didn’t want it to get in front of us. Visibility was pretty poor, you couldn’t see much in front of you for smoke, I didn’t have to, I knew the tracks were there, well they should be there. We just drove flat out and hoped for the best.
We drove straight into Maldon, parts of the line and bridges behind us were already burning. When we arrived back at Maldon, we said to the ASM, “Just give us the Staff, we’re going back to Castlemaine.” We ran back to Castlemaine, and we told them we wanted to get back home to Bendigo before the line was closed.
I went for a drive the next day in my car to see the damage first-hand, there was dead sheep everywhere, fortunately we never hit any that I was aware of.’
Sadly Dave Bernoth and Adrian Long have both now passed away, but fortunately thanks to Dave’s recorded recollections of that day, we have a first-hand account of what the crew of the Weekly Goods service faced that day.
In the accompanying photo, the burnt out remains of the Bradford Creek Bridge, on the up side of Maldon-Shelbourne Road PCR.
Photo: Des Jowett
