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Contemporary reports indicate forty outbreaks raging along the coast from Kiama to Eden as well as on the neighbouring tablelands. The wind-driven flames swept across the region with terrifying speed, tearing through dry pastures and burning from the mountains to the sea. With eyewitnesses describing walls of flames thirty feet (about nine metres) high, entire settlements were encircled, cutting communication and access as telephone lines burned and roads became impassable. Townships including Bega, Pambula, Eden, Wonboyn, Quaama, Cobargo and Tilba Tilba were all threatened and as far away as Dunedin in New Zealand, smoke from the fires turned the sun a dull red.

 

Bega was “…licked by flames…” and was narrowly saved by heroic firefighting efforts. The failure of the town’s water supply added to the woes, with Senior-Constable R. Patterson reporting that “The fire brigade could not use its hoses. Each time the fire came to the edge of town, it was only held back by people using beaters.”

 

The local hospital, already treating burn victims, was nearly overrun by the inferno, with Dr. McKee, nurses, patients and other volunteers struggling to save the facility, using bags and floor rugs to beat out flames as they swept into the grounds. The gravity of the situation was clearly illustrated by blackened grass running right up to the building’s foundations.

 

With all phone lines down, Bermagui was isolated from both the north and south by flames. Eight NSW Surf Life Saving Association instructors touring the South Coast were surrounded by flames for six hours, losing one of their cars as well as equipment while they helped fight fires near the township.

 

New outbreaks flared up around Eden and at around midnight on the evening of 28 January, the town was practically ringed by flames. Eleven more homes were destroyed, including four at Wonboyn, six at Nullica and one at Shadrack’s Creek. Another five at Wonboyn were added to the count before the end of the month.

 

An outbreak about a mile from Pambula also threatened that town, with firefighters standing by on 29 January in the event that a change in the wind direction sent the flames racing towards the settlement. The heat from this fire was so intense that for some time firefighters were unable to get near it during the day, being forced instead to try to check it at nighttime.

 

Loss of life and property

Areas north of Bega were among the worst hit, particularly Upper Brogo and Quaama, where four people lost their lives. Sisters Marie (16) and Jennifer (14) Otton were overtaken by flames, attempting to flee while trying to save their horses. Their mother Ivy also suffered severe burns despite taking refuge in a well with their brother Max and the Reverend David Orange.

 

Also lost were Rudolph Ogilvie (66) of Upper Brogo, John Taylor (58) of Quaama, who died after fighting the flames for hours, and John Preo (75), of Bega, who collapsed and died from the heat of the bushfire.

 

Losses were equally tragic in other areas of the state, as well neighbouring Gippsland and the ACT, including three killed in the Riverina, two in Canberra and three in Victoria. At least sixty firefighters across NSW were also injured.

 

Contemporary newspaper reports estimated that at least one hundred homes were lost between Moruya and the Victorian border. More than two million acres of pastureland was burnt out, with farmers losing tens of thousands of head of livestock as well as fencing, sheds, farm infrastructure and equipment. The dairying industry, then the backbone of the economy across the broader local region, was particularly hard hit, not only with the loss of so many cattle, but also an almost complete lack of food, water or shelter for those that survived.

 

Survivor accounts

Letters and recollections from survivors provide firsthand insight into the catastrophe.

 

Mrs. Clarence Shearer reported that “The fire surrounded the whole of Bega last Friday [25 January]. The flames were fanned by a very hot northerly wind and stopped at the edge of town by the river. All the shops in the township closed and only women, children and invalid people were left. All the men went out fighting the fires. Many tourists and visitors to Bega assisted them. The whole of the township was frightened because the majority of the buildings in Bega are weatherboard.”

 

Clarence Shearer, her husband, recalled “The firefighters did a wonderful job of saving the town. Old men of 80 fought the blaze beside young men of 18.”

 

Sheila Jones, wife of the Lochiel schoolteacher, wrote to her mother two days after the fire. “By a miracle they saved our house and the school... Clarke’s and Bernie Smith’s were burnt out... I’m sitting on the front step writing this, and there’s a never-ending stream of cars up the road to view the damage. Harold [Gordon] lost all his sheds and garage... There’s hardly a fence left standing in all of Lochiel, and from up the back of our place, all you can see is burnt hills—not a patch of green grass anywhere.”

 

Touching on how apparently unimportant things can take on extra meaning in times of trouble she wrote, “"Poor Barb, she was worried about her glory box - she is getting married at Easter - 'I've never even used them' she said. The thing I was most concerned about was my show dress and all the work you'd put into it just to go up in flames. We laugh about that now, the way I worried about a blinking dress. Anyway we both had a cry and then felt better."

 

Jack, her husband, recalled “It started up near Bombala and burnt its way down, there was quite a stiffish breeze blowing up from the west and burnt its way down and we went out, maybe about twenty of us, out on the other side of Box Range and put in a fire break…a lot of us were going fishing down to Leonard’s Island the next day fishing, wives and all, and when we woke in the morning, the breeze was quite strong, and I said to Sheila, ‘There’ll be no fishing, that bloody fire,’ and we all went out to Six Mile and it had jumped the fire break, so we all headed back to Lochiel to look after our own places, and a group of people, like three or four, a car load, came out from Pambula and they went here and there depending on where the demand was, and Jev Bennett… he came out with the water truck, I can see him as plain as day, we’d not long put a footpath in…from the front gate up to the school and came into the playground with a truck load of water and because all we had was tank water, and straight over the path, crunch, crunch…”

 

Jack continued: “We lost a toilet, a school toilet, and we thought we were going to lose the school too, and the house, but we didn’t...”

 

After being separated during the drama, Sheila remembered "[We] found Jonesy and took him to the cafe for some tea. We sat in the gutter outside the cafe yarning to the different men as they came in from the fire."

 

Jack described how extended families and communities banded together to rebuild after the fire. “Bernie and them, all the family rallied around and they got their house fixed, I don’t know how they coped financially, but in those days of course, you didn’t expect to move into a house with wall-to-wall carpet and deep freezers and all the rest of it… I can never remember them getting around despondent and down in the dumps.”

 

In an effort to help with recovery efforts, a local sawmiller brought his equipment down from near Tathra, and local residents worked tirelessly to cut trees and rebuild homes for those who had lost everything. Jack remembered: “Harold Gordon had land out there… they brought in timber from off the property, I can’t think of the name of the saw miller, he had a sawmill as you turn down the Tathra road from the highway, and he came out and set it up, just what arrangements they made with him I don’t know, I went out there and threw in a bit of man hours, but we all pulled together… Apart from bridges and that being burnt, so were fences, you could just drive through the paddocks, you didn’t have to worry about fences or anything, just keep going. But it was really when you drove around afterwards, when you looked at it, you find it hard to believe that all the houses weren’t burnt down…”

 

The aftermath: relief and rebuilding

The disaster left the region in a desperate situation, with residents homeless, basic essentials in short supply and surviving livestock facing starvation. Emergency assistance efforts were swiftly put in place, with the Bega Bushfire Relief Committee established to provide clothing, blankets and food for victims. The Australian Red Cross and other organisations mobilised volunteers to assist affected communities and temporary housing and supplies were made available for displaced residents. The New South Wales Government contributed £20,000 in relief funds, a figure matched by the Federal government.

 

With at least three quarters of the rich Bega district farmland extending beyond Eden razed to a blackened smouldering mass, the security of livestock was a major concern. One man who saw the devastation reported “The whole countryside from the mountain range on the west of Bega to the coast, a distance of 30 miles, is almost one waste of blackened earth with no fences or pastures standing and very few farm houses.” Appeals broadcast over radio stations including 2BE and 2XL saw people in southern New South Wales contributing cash and fodder for starving livestock. Trucks, including semi-trailers owned by the Snowy Mountains Hydo-Electric Authority, carted the feed to the railhead, with transport operators from the local district then carrying it to affected areas on the coast.

 

Landholders in the Cooma region also stepped up, providing 2,000 acres of pastureland free of charge to farmers from the far south coast region who lost their own grazing country. Member for the South Coast Mr. J. G. Beale, said “An area more than 100 miles long and 30 miles wide has been blackened and laid to waste… Evacuation of all cattle from the area must be completed within a week. The cattle are starving now, and although they will be hand fed they will die in thousands unless they are moved quickly… I appeal to all dairy farmers in other parts of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland to make donations of dairy cattle to the Bega area to help replenish stock on the South Coast. A few trainloads of prime cattle could well save the position. I have already arranged for 50 tons of fencing to be sent here immediately. They are on the road. All fence material producing companies in the State are diverting their whole production to the South Coast.”

 

Rebuilding efforts also began, with donations of tools and household goods flowing into the district.

 

Sadly though, local police also found it necessary to issue warnings against looting, vowing to take strong action against anyone caught stealing from fire-damaged properties.

 

The economic and environmental toll

The economic loss caused by the inferno was staggering - milk and butter production in the Bega Valley region ceased for months, and the dairy industry was practically crippled. It took years for the region’s farming economy to fully recover, and some farmers opted to leave their properties and move elsewhere.

 

The environmental impact was equally severe. An area of more than 3,000 square miles (around 7,800 square kilometres) was reduced to ash. Surviving livestock were left without food, requiring large-scale evacuations to the Monaro for agistment. The native animal and habitat losses were immeasurable.

 

Long-term consequences and lessons learned

The 1952 bushfires led to significant changes in fire prevention and emergency management in rural Australia. Authorities recognised the need for better firebreaks, controlled burns to reduce fuel loads and increased community preparedness, with improved education on fire risks and response strategies. Stronger early warning systems, enhanced communication networks and improved firefighting coordination between local brigades and state agencies was also highlighted.

 

For those who lived through it though, the fire remained a defining moment in their lives. As one survivor put it, “You never forget something like that. It changes how you see the land, the weather, and what it means to be part of a community.” And while modern firefighting techniques and equipment may now give residents some sense of security, the passing of time has perhaps also dulled the memories and lessons learned from that fateful summer.