AS bushfires swept towards the Sydney City Mission Home for girls at Mount Gibraltar in January, 1939, staff and firefighters tried to persuade the frightened children to leave.
Faced with flames and smoke, the blackened faces of the firefighters and the screaming of the horses in the stables, the children refused to follow the matron out.
Suddenly, a little voice was heard singing: "Jesus loves all the children, all the children of the world..."
The singer was Dorothy, an eight-year-old girl who throughout her stay at the home had sat by herself in the weathershed, refusing to join the other girls' games.
With the words 'Come on girls', Dorothy led the others through the cheering men to lorry.
The children and staff climbed on board and were taken to Bowral, where they townspeople cheered when as they came through.
This story, told by former Sydney City Mission employee Clarice Boyd, came to mind for historian Marie Chalker when she read about the 1939 bushfires in the Highlands Post recently.
Mrs Chalker interviewed Mrs Boyd and many other local identities for her book, A Chapter in the History of Mittagong, The Bush Fire of 1939.
In January, 1939, fires were blazing through a vast area of Victoria and NSW and by January 14, fires had reached the northern area of the Southern Highlands.
Newspapers of the day reported that the fire originated near Berrima and spread east. It was joined by another fire which started near Mandemar and soon the whole area along the Berrima-Mittagong Road was in flames. A careless tourist started a third fire on The Gib.
First published in 1993 as an assignment for a University of New England Local and Applied History course, Mrs Chalker's book follows the course of the fire from Cut-Away Hill to Aylmerton (Lower Mittagong) through the stories told by those who lived through the fires.
In compiling her history, Mrs Chalker was impressed by the heroism of women and children, often left alone with their menfolk fighting the fires elsewhere.
Arthur Thompson, who was 23 at the time of the fire, recalled how an old gentleman called Henry Olive became caught in a fence as he fled from the fire.
"The next thing I saw was a young fellow on horse back race up beside and pick this man up, threw him of the back of the horse and carried him to safety," Mr Thompson told Mrs Chalker.
"That man was Laurie Delamont."
At Aylmerton, near the Chalker family's home of for eight generations, the little general store owned by Mrs Simons was destroyed.
"Well, we had a hot time - burnt out and lost everything, but still have plenty of life in me," Mrs Simons wrote in a letter from a neighbour's house the following day. "...Everybody had to fight for their homes - lost all their sheds, hay, bails etc.
"About 40 houses burnt out in Mittagong and Fitzroy. Frensham was badly hit, about £1200 damage, but so far no lives lost."
(Fresham lost three complete buildings and outhouses).
Mrs Chalker became interested in the 1939 fires after documenting the family history and hearing her husband Bryce's stories of the time.
The Chalkers saved their home but lost their fences, outbuildings, crops and much of their stock.
"Bryce's stories about the fire made me decide to research the fire - and I'm so glad now that I did!"
* A Chapter in the History of Mittagong, The Bush Fire of 1939 is available for $7.50 from Mittagong Newsagency and local historical societies. All proceeds go to the Mittagong Bushfire Brigade.
BREAKOUT
BURRADO O resident Leonie Gilfillan has vivid memories of a childhood adventure in the 1939 bushfires.
Leonie and her aunt were travelling by train from Sydney to Bowral on Friday, January 13, as fires rages throughout Victoria and NSW.
"The temperature topped 114 degrees - it was 104 degrees at 8 o'clock in the morning," Mrs Gilfillan recalled.
"I do remember being at Central Station and being terribly hot in there."
Leonie and her aunt were on their way to visit Leonie's grandparents, Mr and Mrs Walter Devereux, who were living in Bowral during one of their regular visits from England.
Somewhere between Yerrinbool and Bargo, the guard's van caught fire and the train came a halt.
"I can remember seeing all the men running around with primitive fire trucks and putting the flames out," Mrs Gilfillan said.
As a child, the event was exciting for Mrs Gilfillan, but she now realizes that being stranded in a train with wooden carriages, while bushfires raged around, must have been frightening for her aunt.
"I had already locked myself in the lavatory that day, so my poor aunt was probably a bit frazzled by then," she said.
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