1979 Sydney Ghost Train fire

1979 Sydney Ghost Train fire

Memorial plaque at Luna Park Sydney in remembrance of those who died in the fire
Date	9 June 1979 (1979-06-09)
Venue	Luna Park Sydney
Location	Milsons Point, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates	33°50′54″S 151°12′35″E / 33.848343°S 151.209756°E / -33.848343; 151.209756
Type	Fire
Cause	Cause disputed: Electrical fault (June 1979 NSW Police investigation) Inconclusive, probable ignition of flammable litter by patron's discarded cigarette or match (September 1979 NSW Coroner's Court)
Casualties
7 killed

The Sydney Ghost Train fire at Luna Park Sydney in Milsons Point, New South Wales, Australia killed seven people (six children and one adult) on 9 June 1979. Inadequate fire-fighting measures and low staffing caused the fire to completely destroy the amusement park's ghost train.^[1]

The fire was originally blamed on electrical faults, but arson by known figures has also been claimed. The exact cause of the fire could not be determined by a coronial inquiry. The coroner also ruled that, while the actions of Luna Park's management and staff before and during the fire (in particular their decision not to follow advice on the installation of a fire sprinkler system in the ride) breached their duty of care, charges of criminal negligence should not be laid. The case was reopened in 1987 but no new findings were made, although the original police investigation and coronial inquiry were criticised.

Artist Martin Sharp, long associated with the park, obsessively collected evidence on the fire for decades until his death in 2013. He used the incident as the basis for his unreleased film, Street of Dreams.

In 2021, the ABC released the documentary Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire which used evidence collected by Sharp as well as freshly-obtained accounts of witnesses. The ABC's investigation concluded that Abe Saffron was responsible for the fire, and that the NSW Police had conspired with Saffron and Premier Neville Wran to cover it up. This led to public demand for a second formal investigation and the formation of Task Force Sedgeman. As of September 2024, the matter is back before the courts with the potential for a second coroner's inquest.

The Ghost Train was one of Luna Park's opening attractions. Located between Big Dipper's station and the River Caves, the building housing it was originally built as a storeroom for equipment awaiting installation after arriving from Luna Park Glenelg.^[2] Architectural plans of the Ghost Train are held at the State Library of New South Wales.^[3]

The looped recording that attracted guests to the ride promised "the creepiest spine-tingling ride of your life", adding:

You'll shiver and quake... on the Ghost Train!

Cars would enter through a door reading "Hell's Doorway." Many twists and turns in pitch black then followed, yanking passengers along a 180-metre electric track. Most of the ride was pitch black. The ride was lined with dancing skeletons, an ape monster, a dragon's head, Dracula in a graveyard and a skeleton in a box. The ride also featured a fake fireplace which, according to witnesses, is where the actual fire originated.^[4]

Fire broke out inside the ride at approximately 10:15 pm on 9 June 1979. Around thirty-five people were believed to have been on the ride when thick smoke began to escape from the tunnel doors.^[5] Staff raised the alarm and began to pull people from the ride as their cars exited the tunnel.^[5] Due to a combination of low water pressure, under-staffing within the park, and inadequate coverage of the Ghost Train by the park's fire hose system, the fire completely consumed the ride.^[1][6] It took an hour to bring the fire under control, but it was extinguished before any significant damage could be done to the adjacent River Caves and Big Dipper.^[6][5]

It was initially thought that everybody had escaped the fire, but the bodies of seven people were soon found inside: John Godson and his two children, Damien and Craig, and four Waverley College students, Jonathan Billings, Richard Carroll, Michael Johnson, and Seamus Rahilly.^[6][5] At the time of the fire, investigating police speculated that the seven had climbed out of their cars and unsuccessfully tried to find their way out of the tunnel; had they stayed in the cars, they might have survived.^[5] Other evacuated passengers reported seeing empty cars exit the tunnel on fire. When asked individually what chance the victims had of survival, each put it at "zero".^[7]

Luna Park was shut down immediately after the incident for a federal investigation.^[1][5] An inquest was held in the Coroner's Court of New South Wales from 13 to 29 August 1979 in the Sydney suburb of Glebe before coroner Kevin Sidney Anderson.^[8] Anderson issued his findings on 3 September 1979.^[8] He found that "The cause of the fire cannot conclusively be stated", and accepted expert testimony that the ride's permanent wiring and attractions were unlikely to be the source of ignition – but could not be completely excluded.^[8] Having heard from witnesses that ride patrons often ignored no smoking signs and "had the habit of discarding food wrapping and other litter", Anderson stated that while "the most probable cause of the fire was ignition of flammable litter by a cigarette or match... discarded by a person riding on the train", he reiterated that "how the fire was ignited, the evidence adduced does not allow me to say".^[8]

Anderson's inquiry examined issues beyond the source of ignition. He found that Luna Park's management had failed to develop an adequate fire suppression program despite recommendations by North Sydney Council and the fire department eighteen months earlier.^[1] Anderson's report stated that while the park's owners and management had failed in their duty of care towards patrons, the failure was not "that high degree of negligence necessary to support a charge of criminal negligence".^[9] The Government of New South Wales called for new tenders to operate the park on 31 July 1979.^[10]

Before the fire, a Sydney design consultant stated that he had advised Luna Park management to install a sprinkler system in the Ghost Train in December 1977, following an inspection of the park for potential renovations.^[5] The recommendation was not followed.^[1][5]

In 1987, a government inquiry by the National Crime Authority reopened an investigation into the fire.^[11] No new evidence was presented, but it was found that the police investigation into the incident had been inadequate, and the coronial inquiry ineffective.^[11]

Despite claims ranging from faulty wiring to sabotage in an attempt to have the park closed down and demolished, the cause of the fire has never been established.^[11]

In May 2007, Anne Buckingham, a niece of Sydney underworld figure Abe Saffron, claimed in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald that her uncle was responsible for the fire.^[12] Saffron had been associated with seven other arson attacks in the two years following the Ghost Train fire, although he had repeatedly denied involvement with the Ghost Train fire.^[6][12] Buckingham claimed the attack was part of a plan for Saffron to gain control of Luna Park's lease, although she stated her belief that the seven deaths were not intended.^[12]

Former park artist Martin Sharp claimed that Saffron had approached Luna Park's owner, Ted Hopkins, several years before the fire, offering to buy the park.^[6] In 1985, it was claimed by NSW MP Michael John Hatton that Saffron had beneficial ownership of the park, resulting in an inquiry which concluded that although people related to Saffron were involved in supplying pinball and arcade games to Luna Park, Saffron himself was not linked to the ownership of the park.^[6]

Buckingham later denied she made the comments attributed to her and demanded the story not be published, although the Herald claims her original statements were recorded on tape during a face-to-face interview.^[12] The NSW Attorney General has stated the coronial inquiry could be reopened, but that it would require the submission of new evidence to the police.^[13]

In 1995, a memorial was dedicated to the seven victims of the 1979 fire, with a tree planted next to an antique bench displaying the names of the victims.^[14] During the 2003 redevelopment, the tree was removed and the bench lost.^[14] Park director Warwick Doughty asserted that the memorial and events had little relevance, although North Sydney mayor Genia McCaffery, among others, disagreed and campaigned for the memorial to be reinstated.^[14] In 2004, a plaque listing the names of the victims was placed on an external wall of the Big Top Sydney, which was constructed on the site of the Ghost Train.^[15][16] The plaque was intended to be the centrepiece of a mural painted by Sharp,^[16] but this did not eventuate.

Just behind Luna Park is the Art Barton Park, named after the park's original resident artist. Along the Comic Way walking track is a series of small bronze sculptures that were unveiled in 2007, among them one dedicated to the fire's victims designed by Michael Leunig and carved by Peter Kingston.^[17] The pillar on which the sculpture stands is engraved with the names of those lost, and at the base of the pillar is a plaque reading:

To all those who take refuge in this place, to make a small commitment to the protection of children as they play.

The Chapel at Waverley College also features a plaque memorializing its four students who perished in the fire, with the photo and name of each boy.

In January 1979, Sharp brought musician Tiny Tim to Australia to set the world record for the longest non-stop professional singing marathon during a show at Luna Park. When the Ghost Train fire occurred five months later, Sharp became convinced that the two events were somehow linked. He then began to document what he perceived as the many synchronicities and theological connections between Tiny Tim's performance and the fire, while also gathering evidence that the fire had been deliberately lit, for a new documentary to be entitled Street of Dreams.

Sharp worked on the film obsessively for many years and never completed it in his lifetime. In 1988, a rough cut ("The Brighton Cut") was compiled for film festival screenings, but Sharp still considered this version a work in progress and not a final product. Street of Dreams remains unfinished and has never been officially released in any form, though the Brighton Cut has surfaced online as a low-quality bootleg.

In March 2021, Australia's national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), screened a three-part investigative series by journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire.^[18][19] The series investigated potential – but unconfirmed – evidence around the fire and the personalities involved, and interviewed surviving family of the fire's victims, along with many judicial figures and police investigators of the time, and some former park staff. Witnesses were interviewed, including three who rode the Ghost Train just minutes earlier. These first witnesses believed the artificial fire display (using coloured lights and a fan to make flapping strips of material look like flames) seemed to include actual flames, but did not immediately recognize the severity of the threat and thus did not notify ride operators when they disembarked. Other witnesses who entered the Ghost Train soon after, smelled smoke straightaway and saw an uncontained fire spreading rapidly within the narrow confines of the ride. These witnesses frantically tried to warn a ride operator to stop further cars from entering the ride, just as he was permitting the final few cars to proceed, joining others that were already inside.

The program also brought to light much of Sharp's personal collection of files and taped interviews gathered during his own investigation of the incident over the years. In a 2010 discussion of his artwork for the park’s restoration in the early 1970s, Sharp revealed that the fire and the circumstances surrounding it had exerted a profound effect on his spiritual outlook.^[20] Much of this had been documented in Sharp's unfinished Street of Dreams film project, although the EXPOSED documentary did not mention this, nor did it mention how Sharp's fixation on Tiny Tim and various theological elements played a role in his view of the fire.

The television investigation concluded that a web of criminality connected Saffron, former NSW Premier Neville Wran and former High Court Justice Lionel Murphy. It was alleged that Saffron ordered the setting of the fire by an outlaw motorcycle club so he could gain control of the lease on the crown land (public land protected by the government of New South Wales) on which Luna Park stood. The "fresh claims of foul play and a cover-up" in the television program led to a call by Jodi McKay, then-leader of the NSW official opposition, for the government to instigate a new coronial inquiry or Royal Commission into the case.^[21]

There was strident criticism of the programme's allegations against the late premier Wran by former premiers Bob Carr and Barrie Unsworth, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, former ABC managing director David Hill, and former editor Milton Cockburn and journalist Troy Bramston of the Sydney Morning Herald.^[22]

This resulted in the ABC Board establishing an enquiry into the programme. In their report, Professor Rodney Tiffin and journalist Chris Masters characterized the programme as overstating the allegations against Wran, whilst concluding that overall "the program makers uncovered much suspicious evidence around arson being the cause of the fire, exposed the incompetence of the police investigation, reported on the inadequacies of earlier investigations, revealed the way policy making by the NSW government benefited Saffron, and the corrupt circle of influence around Saffron. They mounted a compelling case for a new investigation."^[23]

In April 2021, following the release of Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire and the subsequent public outcry, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that "relevant agencies in NSW are considering [a fresh inquest]".^[24] At the request of New South Wales state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan,^[25] the NSW Police Force reopened their investigation and its homicide division established Strike Force Sedgeman to conduct the review. A reward of AUD $1 million for 'fresh and significant information' has been offered to encourage witnesses to come forward. The reward remains active.^[26]

In September 2024, Strike Force Sedgeman completed their review of the evidence. After some deliberation, a redacted version of the report was made available to family members of victims as well as relevant counsel. O'Sullivan will review the report in making a decision as to whether or not a second inquest will be held, and has requested that it not yet be released to the public or the media. The matter will return to court on 28 October 2024.^[27]

• List of disasters in Australia by death toll