Childers backpacker fire 25-year anniversary: Town’s darkest day tainted further by mass killer’s latest move

As Childers prepares to mark 25 years since the darkest day in its history, survivors and relatives of the 15 victims say their memories remain as dark as the hostel’s ashes, made worse by the latest move by the killer behind the fatal fire.

It’s 25 years since the Childers Palace hostel fire but for some the memories remain as dark as the blackened ashes which shook a Queensland community to its core.

Fifteen people, mostly young travellers in the prime of their lives, died in the tragedy which shocked Australia and sent aftershocks around the globe.

Seven of the victims were British, two were from the Netherlands; while others hailed from Ireland, Japan and South Korea.

Three were Australian.

Ten died in a single dormitory, a bunk bed blocking an emergency exit door and bars on the windows effectively consigning them to a death sentence.

SPECIAL REPORT: HOW EVERYTHING CHANGED AFTER THE FIRE

Robert Paul Long, a strange man with an unsettling effect on the fellow fruit pickers he lived and worked with until he was booted out of the hostel a week before the blaze, was handed a life sentence over two counts of murder – for the deaths of WA twins Kelly and Stacey Slarke.

Twins Stacey and Kelly Slarke. Long was found guilty of their murder, but not of the other 13 victims of the fire.

He became eligible for parole in 2020 and launched a failed attempt for freedom, and angered many when news of a fresh application surfaced just weeks ago.

The timing of the latest application is not lost on those who lived through the tragedy and live with it still.

Monday marks the 25th anniversary of the disaster, with many survivors, grieving families and locals forever linked to the tragedy set to gather to commemorate the dark day.

England’s Karen Webb lost her younger sister Claire in the fire.

She has flown out to Australia from West Sussex for the anniversary to pay tribute to the girl she calls her “twin soul” whose life was cruelly cut short at just 24.

On her lengthy plane journey she penned a heartwrenching homage to her sister and the impact the tragedy has had on her life.

“When Childers happened, it doesn’t just destroy your loved one,” she explains.

“It spreads to extended family like a demon disease.

“I miss her dearly. Every day. She is still my twin soul.

“It’s a life sentence.”

Robert Long was jailed for 20 years.

Fellow Brit Richard Tempest, then aged 25, arrived at the Palace less than 12 hours before the hostel burnt down.

He woke to what he thought was the sound of smashing plates.

Mr Tempest, who says he can still relive the moment, looked through a small internal glass window and could see orange flames.

He was in room 12 with three others.

He remembers waking up Moulay Lalaoui-Kamal and Peter Yeung who were in the room.

Holding on to the shirt of Mr Yeung to help guide him through the smoky darkness, Mr Tempest remembers crawling for many metres until getting out.

Mr Lalaoui-Kamal died in the room.

Childers victim Claire Webb. Photo Supplied

Now living in Queensland, Mr Tempest plans to attend Monday’s vigil and says it is about paying tribute to the victims.

“It will never go away – how I woke up, what I woke up to, what we had to do to get out of the hostel … it never leaves you,” he says.

“We are survivors, the 69 of us, you think how 25 years on we have moved on with our lives, we’ve got kids, have partners and had careers.

“But they weren’t lucky enough to have all of that, and it was taken away from them.”

Richard Tempest is a survivor of the Childers Palace backpackers fire in 2000. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

Mr Tempest says survivors and victims’ families were disappointed about Long’s parole application and not being notified when it was made.

Queensland Correctives Services says Long’s application will not be considered until the parole board determines whether to make a “restricted prisoner declaration” against Long.

This special declaration – which can be made for people convicted of multiple murders or murdering a child – could prevent him for applying for parole for up to 10 years.

Mr Tempest plans to make submissions to the board relating to the declaration.

“It’s a sad state of affairs that we’ve come to learn recently that Long the perpetrator has applied for parole which is ironic that it’s coincided with this time of year,” he says.

“He does not deserve to walk in society anymore, despite him being in there 25 years.

“I’ll do anything humanly possible to keep him inside.

“He’s a psycho. Keep him in there for the rest of his life.”

Former Isis Shire mayor Bill Trevor is also planning to make a submission on why Long should remain behind bars and has an equally blunt message for the parole board.

“I hope he rots in jail,” he says.

“I hope he is never released.”

Now a city councillor in the expanded Bundaberg Regional Council, Mr Trevor still vividly remembers the day he was woken by a pre-dawn phone call telling him there had been a fire at the hostel.

Without knowing the full extent of the tragedy, he arrived to find survivors, some still in their pyjamas or underpants, huddled together across the road while the hostel still smouldered.

“Bill,” said one of the first responders at the scene.

“It’s real bad.”

And while Childers has been forever linked to the tragedy – to the point the fire is the first thing many people think of when discussing the quaint Queensland town, Mr Trevor says there was some good that came of it.

“It was instrumental in changing laws about fire safety and if that hadn’t happened, then another fire at a hostel in Bundaberg a few years later might have been just as bad, but everyone made it out of that one alive,” he says.

“We were concerned it would leave a dark stain on Childers, but the way the community responded afterwards, the way they looked after the survivors … when those people went home they became champions of Childers and told their families how well they were looked after and that is something I am really proud of.

Bundaberg councillor and former mayor of Childers, Bill Trevor. Photo: Alistair Brightman

“I still get phone calls from survivors or family members from time to time saying they are coming to Childers to pay their respects.”

A memorial service will be held at the Childers cultural centre, which served as a makeshift hotel for the survivors in the fire’s aftermath.

For many, the centre offered a small ray of light after an event which cast such a dark shadow.

Originally published as Childers backpacker fire 25-year anniversary: Town’s darkest day tainted further by mass killer’s latest move