Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub fire: new inquest ordered
UPDATE: A man who survived the historic Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub fire that claimed 15 lives in Brisbane says an inquest into the blaze may finally bring closure for others like him — and dispel rumours. WATCH VIDEO SPECIAL
Crime & Justice
Don't miss out on the headlines from Crime & Justice. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Queensland Government has today ordered an inquest into the historic Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub fire that claimed 15 lives in 1973.
Following revelations in The Courier-Mail that convicted McCulkin murderer Vince O’Dempsey may have had a role in the tragedy, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Yvette D’Ath has called on the state coroner to reopen the case.
Hunter Nicol felt the Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing before he saw it.
“I felt this almighty heat,” the 66-year-old survivor says.
“I turned when I felt it, and then saw all the smoke and flames billowing. It all happened in a few seconds.”
FIVE-PART SPECIAL REPORT BY MATTHEW CONDON
CHAPTER 1: The gangster’s wife
CHAPTER 2: Mass murder at Whiskey Au Go Go
CHAPTER 3: The night a family vanished
CHAPTER 4: The murder of Mrs X and her children
CHAPTER 5: Return to Dorchester Street
It was a Thursday night. He was 21, an off-duty constable out in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley with some friends.
They’d wanted to go to a different venue to see a popular singer but the gig was sold out.
So they’d changed plans and found themselves huddled near the dance floor of the ill-fated nightclub.
And then came a “bang”.
“I had a hanky with me and I put that over my face, but I couldn’t see where I was going,” Mr Nicol recalls.
“I was on the point of collapse. I totally believed I was going to die.” But then, he spied a lighter patch of smoke after stumbling into the kitchen and followed it until he felt a slight reprieve from the stifling heat. Luckily, he found a window, which allowed him to escape.
That discovery means that more than 40 years later the now retired policeman is here to see Queensland’s attorney-general order a new inquest into the fatal firebombing.
“There is no doubt there is significant public interest in getting answers,” Yvette D’Ath said in a statement announcing the decision.
It’s a move Mr Nicol welcomes because it could finally bring closure for survivors and those linked to the deadly event, which killed 15 people. “I think it will give a lot of people a lot of peace,” he tells AAP. Moreover, he hopes the upcoming probe will dispel some rumours and conspiracies surrounding the notorious blaze, likening the enduring speculation to the JFK assassination.
But he says any further light shed on that night can’t hurt and may even reveal important details for those touched by the tragedy.
“My own gut feeling is that there is more to come out.”
After announcing the inquest, Ms D’Ath hoped witnesses may now be willing to come forward and speak of the tragedy.
“There is no doubt there is significant public interest in getting answers in relation to the Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing in 1973 in which 15 people died,” she said today.
“Given recent events, witnesses who have previously not been willing to come forward, might now be willing to provide new information that will give us those answers.
“I had been awaiting the outcome of recent court proceedings, and will now write to the State Coroner instructing him to hold an inquest into the Whiskey Au Go Go case.”
The announcement comes decades after the initial coronial inquest into the firebombing which lasted less than two days prior to the arrest of suspects John Andrew Stuart and James Finch.
Both men were convicted of the crime but for years rumours circulated that there were other criminals behind the Whiskey bombing.
In the Supreme Court yesterday it emerged that convicted McCulkin killer Vince O’Dempsey may have also had a hand in the tragedy that at one point was Australia’s worst mass killing.
There had been calls to reopen the probe following the convictions of O’Dempsey and Garry Dubois for the killings of Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters 43 years ago.
O’Dempsey’s recent trial heard he may have been motivated to kill Mrs McCulkin over fears she would try to implicate him in the firebombing.
O’Dempsey has denied any involvement in the Whiskey Au Go Go fire.
Fifteen people were killed when two 23-litre drums of diesel fuel were thrown into the foyer of the nightclub in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, setting it ablaze.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Ms D’Ath had been considering the Whiskey Au Go Go matter during the recent court case.
“The Whiskey Au Go Go tragedy is etched in the memory of many Queenslanders,” she said.
“We should take this opportunity to find any answers we can.
“I think a lot of people want closure and this is the right steps that the Attorney-General has made.”
Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls welcomed the inquest announcement.
“This is something that’s been shrouded in controversy for a long time,” he said.
“I think a coronial investigation into the events surrounding it will, I hope, finally put to rest all of the theories and all of the speculation around the event.
“I think people do want to know what happened back in 1974 and hopefully this will do that.”
THE WHISKEY AU GO GO NIGHTCLUB BOMBING
WHEN?
• March 8, 1973
WHERE?
• Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley
WHAT HAPPENED?
• 15 people perished when the club was firebombed. Most suffocated in the inferno, which erupted when two drums of petrol were thrown into the foyer and set alight
• Reports surfaced that grease was smeared on the fire escape stairs and the door handle of an emergency exit, trapping victims
• At the time, it was the worst case of mass killing in Australian history
• The crime occurred amid a turf war among criminal gangs fighting for control of the valley’s illegal gambling and prostitution dens
WHO WAS CHARGED?
• John Andrew Stuart and James Richard Finch were arrested soon after the attack
• They pleaded not guilty but were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment
• Stuart was found dead in his Brisbane jail cell in 1979
• Finch was deported to England in 1988 after 15 years in jail. That year, he confessed to the crime but later retracted it
• On August 5, 2014, police raided two rural properties thought to be linked to the murders of Barbara McCulkin and her two young daughters in 1974
WHY IS IT BACK IN THE NEWS?
• On June 1, 2017, Vincent O’Dempsey and Garry Dubois sentenced to life in prison after being convicted over the McCulkin killings in separate trials.
• On June 2, 2017, Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath announces she will write to the state coroner instructing him to hold an inquest into the firebombing — saying she had been “awaiting the outcome of recent court proceedings”.
‘You’ve lost two licences, and you’re only a learner’
A learner driver copped an earful from an Ipswich magistrate over his astonishing accumulation of demerit points.
‘Night beautiful’: Mum accused of attempted murder
A mum accused of trying to murder her four-year-old daughter - by 'gassing' her in a car - has been sentenced for breaching her bail conditions by spending time with the girl.