Melbourne, Thursday 2 February 1939

[Commissioner] If you misjudged it would go the wrong way?
If you misjudge it, you are gone.

[Mr Gowans] I suppose those tactics would only be justified in the last extremity?
Yes, absolutely. No man will burn back unless he has to, because he runs the risk of burning his own property.

[Commissioner] Will you tell the Commission of your preparations in the early spring?
What I am trying to convey is that if you get a day in the early part of the season you are a lucky man. You have no chance of burning anything except what is cut and dry, and if you get a day suitable in the early part of the season you know that it will not be followed by a spell of hot weather.

You can burn quite confidently and it is quite all right; but if you leave it until later that same stuff may burn you out. Any man in the bush knows there will be fires if the fodder is there to feed them.

Would you suggest that everybody should be permitted to do that, or only those people who are sufficiently expert to justify the confidence of the Forests Commission?
I would certainly not say that everybody should do it, because very few people have a chance to gain a knowledge of it.

I think that in every milling centre there should be a committee formed by the Forestry officers and the sawmillers, and that Committee should direct the people in that district when to burn and when not to burn.

When that committee stated it was time to stop burning I think it should be a criminal act for anyone to light a fire. However I think it is almost as criminal an act not to light a fire at the right time.

In my mind the only way to prevent fires is to burn at the right time. All you can do is to use fire to fight fire. It is only on very exceptional days that when the fire seems to travel in the tree tops. Mountain Ash is very poor burning timber. However, on a day like that Friday it was an exceptional day.

I do not know whether I am in order in telling you this, but I think you should know. My son and a bush manager told me before the Christmas holiday that if we did not get rain in the near future the whole bush would go up.

My son said 'I have never seen conditions so suitable for bush fires in my life as they are now. Any time you walk through the bush you can feel the soft springy matter underneath but right now when you walk through the bush your feet will cut right through. It is as brittle as cheese and dry as tinder.'

That was back in November or December and it just shows that anybody who was observant could see what was happening. The conditions were there. The bush fires are only caused when conditions to suit them are present.

I do not think anybody is to blame; I think fires are always with us. There is always somebody foolish enough to light fires. I have seen people burn snakes. The fire will always get away.