Tributes to victims of Brisbane’s 1973 Whiskey Au Go Go blaze
The 15 men and women who perished in the Whiskey Au Go Go blaze on March 8, 1973 were more than just a statistic of a terrible crime. Read their heartbreaking stories.
QLD News
Don't miss out on the headlines from QLD News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Talented young musicians. A country girl embarking on a new life in the big city. A heroic big brother adored by his sister. A young man on the cusp of getting engaged. A dad enjoying a rare night out with mates.
Soldiers, students, travellers, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.
The 15 men and women who perished in the Whiskey Au Go Go blaze on March 8, 1973 were more than just a statistic of a terrible crime.
Their senseless deaths were like an earthquake for their loved ones, shattering families and derailing happy futures for dozens of people across multiple generations in a devastating domino effect.
For people like Susan Hartley, the Whiskey Au Go Go fire in Fortitude Valley didn’t just claim the life of her brother David Westren.
Ms Hartley said such was her mother’s grief, she felt she lost both her mum and brother in the nightclub blaze.
Other loved ones of victims have been haunted by the tragedy, unable to move on from what many consider to still be an unsolved crime.
Depression, suicide, bankruptcy and broken families just some of sad tales to emerge from the ashes of the Whiskey.
These are the stories of the 15 people who died in the fire and the loved ones left behind.
Wendy Leanne Drew, 24, Whiskey patron
It’s been five decades, but Denise Koch still vividly remembers scrubbing the black soot from her sister Wendy’s handbag, desperate to erase the smell of petrol before she gave it to their mother.
Country girl Wendy Leanne Drew had been thrilled to arrive in Brisbane in 1973, determined to make a life for herself in the city.
She was staying with her big sister Denise and her husband John at Norman Park while she looked for a job.
“She felt safe in our home while she searched for work, and one night she went out with a girlfriend and never came home,” Denise Koch wrote.
“We couldn’t keep Wendy safe. I let my family down.
“It was a gruesome death for Wendy and the 14 others who perished with her.”
Wendy’s tragic death reverberated through her family and the generations that came after her.
“It just never goes away,” Ms Koch said in a statement to the coronial inquest.
“There has been no resolution regarding responsibility for this awful tragedy.
“They say time heals – no it doesn’t.”
Her greatest hope is that the coroner will provide some answers “however uncomfortable or unpalatable for some”.
“I want to go to gravesite of my parents, of my sister Wendy, of my brother Paul and of my beloved husband John and tell them they can now rest easy because the story of Wendy has been told in truth.”
Decima Selma Carroll, 29, Whiskey Au Go Go barmaid.
A man and woman beam at the camera, their arms wrapped around each other, a jug of beer on the table in front of them.
That black and white photo is how Sonya Lewis wants to remember her parents – happy, carefree and in love.
Decima Carroll would have celebrated her 80th birthday this June.
The mother-of-three was only 29 when she was killed in the Whiskey Au Go Go blaze.
The outgoing barmaid was well known for her habit of taking her shoes off behind the bar as she worked.
One of the most poignant crime scene photos taken after the deadly blaze shows a detective holding one of Decima’s lone shoes discovered inside the charred nightclub.
“Our mum was cheeky and loving and full of life,” Mrs Lewis said.
She was nine when her mum died, her brothers Kim and Todd aged eight and six.
Life was never the same for the Carroll children after the loss of their mum.
Their father was overcome with grief and struggled with depression, alcoholism and went bankrupt. He died in 1994 aged 54.
“He was buried with his soulmate, our mum,” Mrs Lewis said.
“We do not have a lot of memories of mum as we were all young when she died.”
In the few photos they do have, they can see what a happy family they had been.
“We can also see how happy and in love our parents were,” Mrs Lewis said.
“This is how we would like to remember them.”
Paul Ferdinand Zoller, 26, Whiskey patron
Talented chef Paul Ferdinand Zoller was only days away from returning home to his family in Switzerland when his life was cut short in the Whiskey Au Go Go fire.
He had resigned his position as the chef at the National Hotel in Queen Street and was enjoying travelling Australia while he waited for his visa.
It was expected to arrive in mid-February but delays meant he was still in Brisbane on March 8 when he was killed.
His sister Elisabeth von Bueren-Zoller said her family had been anxiously awaiting Paul’s return in 1973 – it was to be the first time they had seen each other in two years.
“We were shocked when we heard the news about the attack on the radio and heartbroken when we were notified by the police that Paul had died,” she wrote in a statement to the inquest.
“Stunned and absolutely helpless, we were left alone with the message from the Swiss Embassy.”
Ms von Bueren-Zoller said her brother, the third of six children, was a sensitive boy growing up and often had to endure injustices.
“Fortunately, he could get over it with his humour and wit,” she said.
Always an avid cook, he completed an apprenticeship after finishing school and went on to work in kitchens in Canada and Australia.
“Paul was a very social and helpful person with a great sense of humour,” Ms von Bueren-Zoller said.
“He liked hanging out with friends and very much enjoyed his time travelling in Australia.”
The family said they had little information about what happened to Paul.
“This inquest is the first opportunity that we have had in the almost 50 years since Paul’s death to understand what occurred,” she said.
“We siblings Elisabeth, Marlis, Luzia, Claire and Marcus, miss Paul very much to this day.”
Jennifer Denise Davie, 17, Whiskey Au Go Go waitress
Jennifer Denise Davie was only 17 when she embarked on the adventure of a lifetime.
She left home, started travelling Australia and took a job as a waitress at the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub.
“She was very proud of herself and she wrote multiple letters telling us of her achievements,” her sister Lorraine Ellingham said.
“She had a lifetime of adventures to look forward to and apart from paying her way, she was looking forward to buying a car.”
Ms Davie, known to loved ones as Jenny, would become the youngest victim of the Whiskey inferno.
Hers was the only name on the indictment when John Andrew Stuart and James Richard Finch were charged with murder.
In a statement to the coronial inquiry, Ms Ellingham said her family was robbed of a happy future when they lost Jenny.
“I will never have a sister, nieces or nephews – that right was taken from me,” she said.
“I can never buy a sister a birthday card or receive one – that was taken from me.
“She wanted to travel and live until she got old, she never got to have children of her own – that was taken from her.”
Ms Ellingham said the tragedy became too painful for her family to speak about.
She called her parents every year on the anniversary of the fire but they would never speak of the significance of the day.
“My parents took it very hard and eventually found it difficult to speak about Jenny and even harder to discuss the ongoing events that were constantly in the paper,” she said.
“It was obviously too hard for them to speak of their heartache.”
Ms Ellingham said she believed those responsible for her sister’s death had never been held to account.
Carol Anne Green, 26, Whiskey waitress
“Don’t worry Mum, I’ll be all right.”
Those were reportedly the last words of Carol Ann Green as she left her Camp Hill home for a night out on the evening of March 7, 1973.
In a report in The Courier-Mail two days later on March 9, the 26-year-old secretary’s mother May Green said her only child left home “really happy”.
“She loved life right up to the last,” Mrs Green told reporters.
“She went out to see The Delltones at the National Hotel.”
Mrs Green said Carol and her cousin missed the band at the National so they went on to see them play at the Whiskey.
“She had been so happy all day that I was starting a job for the first time in 31 years,” Mrs Green said.
“She was thrilled by it all. She got up early to cut my lunch and in her own lunch break went out and bought me a new pair of shoes.
“She said, ‘Mum, I’m proud of you’. I’ll never forget that.”
Mrs Green told journalists that as she left home, her daughter told her: “Don’t worry mum, I’ll be all right. I’ll be back at half-past ten.”
Ernest John Peters, 51, and his son Desmond John Peters, 31, Whiskey patrons
Father and son Ernest and Desmond Peters were at the Whiskey Au Go Go to celebrate on the night of the fire.
Earlier on March 7, they had bought their first racehorse and toasted with a few beers at the Exhibition Ground sale ring.
Mr Peters senior was the owner of the Royal Hotel at Goovigen, a small township about 100km from Rockhampton in Central Queensland.
His married son Desmond was a farmer in the area.
During the inquest last year, Jennifer Louise Mahony gave evidence about a chance meeting her father Patrick Vincent Mahony had with the Peters on the night of the fire.
Mr Mahony, known as Vince, had finished his shift as a police officer and was getting a lift home when two other officers said they had to drop into the Whiskey.
Mr Mahony went inside to wait for them when he spotted the Peters.
“He’s run into two gentlemen that he knew from my mother’s home town Goovigen,” Ms Mahoney told the inquest.
“Ernie and Desmond Peters, they owned the pub at Goovigen so dad said I’ll stay for a drink with them.”
She said her father had recollected being inside the club when it went up in flames and using a handkerchief he always carried to cover his face against the thick black smoke that filled the room.
Ms Mahony said her father recalled having a hold on Ernest, known as Ernie, as they tried to escape but they were separated in the chaos.
She said her father, who slipped and sprained his wrist while escaping the fire, did not talk much about the events of that night.
“I always felt like dad was under a lot of stress, being young at the time I wish I’d asked him more about it really,” she said.
“But I would say it would have caused him a lot of stress and the fact that he lost his two friends and he couldn’t get them out.”
In the March 9, 1973 edition of The Courier-Mail, Len Stevenson, a neighbour of Mr Peters senior told a journalist he had run into the pair by chance after they bought their racehorse – a yearling colt purchased for $550.
“We had a few drinks with Brisbane trainer Claude Watts who has been a close friend of Ernie’s for a long time,” he said at the time.
“I often called in at the Goovigen pub and had a few beers with Ernie.
“He was a very well likeable and well-respected bloke. His hand was always in his pocket for charity appeals.”
Fay Ellen Will, also known as Fay Ellen Baker, 19, Whiskey patron
Nineteen-year-old Fay Ellen Will and her work friends would frequent the Whiskey Au Go Go every Wednesday night.
They decided to take a break from their favourite Wednesday haunt after a bomb scare at another Brisbane nightclub, bypassing the club scene until they thought the threat had passed.
But on Wednesday, March 7, 1973, Fay and her brother Daniel decided to go out.
They went to the Whiskey where they ran into Les Palethorpe who they had grown up with in the Redcliffe area.
During a recent inquest, survivor Hunter Nicol said he had gone to the club with his friend Mr Palethorpe and William “Bill” Nolan on the night of the fire.
“We went to sit down and Les Palethorpe recognised a male and female.
“He went over to speak to them and we got invited to sit with them.
“That was Faye Will and I think her brother was Daniel.”
The group socialised for some time, Bill and Faye shared a dance and then Daniel headed off home.
Five minutes after he left, the Whiskey was on fire. His sister never escaped.
“I saw Les and Bill and Faye heading towards back bar area and I said ‘no come this way, come this way’ because I thought there was a back door I was going to aim for which was away from the fire,” Mr Nicol told the inquest.
“I lost sight of them and I didn’t know what happened to them until later I found out they died.”
Days after the fire, Ms Will’s Nundah roommate and co-worker at the Queensland Railway refreshment rooms Irene Wallace paid tribute to her friend.
“Fay was a happy young girl, whose main interest was enjoying herself,” Ms Wallace told a Courier-Mail journalist.
“I cannot understand the type of mongrels who would do a thing like this.”
William ‘Bill’ David Nolan, 21, Whiskey patron
Military police officer William David Nolan had never been to the Whiskey Au Go Go.
The 21-year-old met with his friends Hunter Nicol and Leslie Palethorpe at Indooroopilly’s Witton Barracks on the evening of March 7.
They had a few beers and then decided to head out at about 10.30pm but the first club they went to was packed, no one else was allowed in.
“Bill then suggested we go to the Whiskey Au Go Go because The Delltones were playing there, none of us had ever been there before,” Mr Nicol told the reopened inquest in 2021.
Mr Nicol met Mr Nolan, affectionately known as Bill, when he was a rifle company lieutenant at the Canundra Training Centre – they were fast friends.
When they arrived at the Whiskey, the trio sat at a trestle table near the stage with Faye and Daniel Will – a brother and sister that Mr Palethorpe had grown up with.
It was a happy night for the group – Bill and Faye shared a dance, the group chatted and laughed and had a few drinks.
Mr Nicol said when the fire broke out, he quickly lost sight of his friends.
Mr Nolan, Mr Palethorpe and Ms Will were unable to escape.
“I’d known Bill a long time,” Mr Nicol told the inquest.
“For quite some time we’d been good friends.
“I had only just met Les and I was in deep shock.”
Peter Morcus, 23, Whiskey Au Go Go barman
It has long been accepted that the firebombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go did not come as a surprise to many.
Witness statements gathered over the years and evidence heard at the most recent inquest suggest threats had been made against the club in the weeks leading up to the attack.
Many believe it was an insurance rort, designed to help pull the struggling business out of financial difficulty.
Among those who perished in the blaze were 23-year-old barman Peter Morcus.
His brother Willem gave evidence that his brother Al, a bouncer at the Whiskey, had warned Peter not to go to work the night of the fire.
“He was warned not to go in because something was going to happen,” Mr Morcus said.
“And yeah, he went to work that night and the place got burnt down.”
Mr Morcus, who was 14 when his brother died, said that warning given from Al had become something of a legend in their family.
Asked at the inquest what his brother had been like, Mr Morcus described Peter as “a really nice guy” and “a loving brother”.
Mr Morcus said he believed his brother Al had been warned about the attack by club manager John Hannay
He said Al had blamed Mr Hannay for Peter’s death.
“John Hannay knew about it apparently and could have done something to stop it, I’m not sure, but my brother was quite upset about it actually,” Mr Morcus said.
Asked if he wanted the coroner to know anything else, Mr Morcus said he had been told his brother had tried to smash his way out of the club.
“Peter died of asphyxiation with a chair in hand trying to break the window,” he said.
“But I think they only had those plastic chairs.
“He couldn’t break window and died of asphyxiation apparently.”
In a Courier-Mail article written days after the fire in 1973, it was reported that Peter had been planning to leave his job at the Whiskey five weeks after the fire to set up his own restaurant.
Leslie Gordon Palethorpe, 20, Whiskey patron
HELEN Palethorpe vividly remembers the day her “hero” big brother Leslie became her “Guardian Angel”.
It was the day before her 14th birthday, she had been excitedly waiting to celebrate the day with her beloved brother, a soldier who had travelled from Townville for training at the Enoggera Army Base.
It would be more than four decades before she ever enjoyed a birthday again.
“I was very excited to be seeing Les again and that we were doing something for my birthday,” Ms Palethorpe said.
“My two cousins and I were at school that morning and we were all pulled from class by the headmistress and told that a cab was coming to pick us up and take us to my auntie’s place, nothing else was said even though I was asking what was wrong.”
Ms Palethorpe remembers being taken to her mother who was “hysterical” with grief.
They rushed to Caloundra to tell her father the news but it was too late – he had already learned of his son’s death on the radio.
“When we arrived at Dad’s, he was slumped on the front steps with his head in his hands crying,” she said.
“He never recovered from hearing this horrible news this way.
“Seeing both my parents in this state is forever etched in my mind.”
Ms Palethorpe said her 20-year-old brother had been her hero.
“He was always looking out for me,” she wrote in a statement to the coroner.
“If he ever saw me in trouble, he would defend and save me.”
Ms Palethorpe said her brother’s death shattered their family and she and her remaining brother were sent to live with other relatives.
“I felt like I was homeless and had no one,” she said.
“I had lost my complete support system in one fell swoop.
“I missed the opportunity of experiencing my teenage years as I should have.”
Ms Palethorpe said every year on the whiskey anniversary of March 8, she would call her mother.
“Then the following day March 9, on my birthday she would phone me every year and sing to me Happy Birthday.
“And it was always bittersweet. I never had another happy birthday again until my five children threw me a surprise 60th party.
“It is a constant that Leslie is on my mind every day.”
Ms Palethorpe said her mother died holding a photo of Leslie in her hand, she never recovered from the pain of losing her eldest son.
“I have never found closure or recovered because of this to the point that the question why it has occurred has never been answered,” she said.
“It has broken me.”
Darcy Thomas Day, 19, Trinity saxophone player
March 7, 1973 was a big night for the six-piece band Trinity.
The Whiskey Au Go Go was to be their first paying gig and 19-year-old saxophone player Darcy Day was thrilled to be taking the stage.
His sister Dianna still remembers the sound of the band practising under her mum and dad’s house at Holland Park.
“I can still hear the song Jackie Wilson Said by Van Morrison beating out,” Ms Day wrote.
“Darcy would play his sax, blowing those notes like he was in Van Morrison’s band.”
In a letter to the coroner, Ms Day said she had no doubt her brother would have made a big mark on Brisbane’s music scene.
“I recall Darcy being very excited to be playing at the Whiskey Au Go Go as it was the band’s first paying gig,” she said.
“Unfortunately that was to be the last time the band would play together.”
Their mother Dulcie was one of Brisbane’s first ever rock and roll promoters in the late 1950s and it was no surprise that her son Darcy became a musician.
For Dulcie and Tom Day, the loss of their son weighed heavily.
Tom, a firefighter, made it his mission to find out who was responsible for the attack and kept digging until he was warned to stop.
“I remember dad saying what was told to him: ‘Give up Tom, you’re getting too close’,” Ms Day said.
“Fearing for his safety and his family’s, he stopped looking. It was heartbreaking for Tom.
“I only wish mum and dad here to see the inquest has started. I hope they are watching from above and smiling.”
Ms Day said she hoped the inquest could help answer some of the many questions still unanswered about the Whiskey.
“Darcy was a handsome fit young man,” she said.
“His life cut short in a terrible tragedy that should never have happened.
“He is loved and missed terribly by his family.”
David John Westren, 19, Whiskey patron
Nineteen-year-old David John Westren was on the cusp of proposing to his girlfriend.
He had moved to Brisbane a year ahead of his little sister Susan and their mother who was a teacher in the Pacific Islands
The tight-knit family had been apart for a 12 months but days before Christmas in December 1972, they were all reunited in Brisbane, thrilled to be back together again.
Their mother, who had taught at schools in Samoa and Fiji, took a job teaching in Townsville until the job she had been promised in Brisbane became available.
“David was about to get engaged and was paying off the ring,” Susan Hartley wrote in a statement to the coroner.
“He was doing a course in hotel and motel management and needed experience in bar management, hence he took the job at the Whiskey Au Go Go.”
David was never meant to be at the club the night of the fire. He wasn’t rostered on but was called in at the last minute.
Ms Hartley was only 17 when she was forced to identify her brother’s body at the morgue the day of the fire.
“I was 17 years old when I stood in front of David who was my only brother, father, protector and friend and identified him,” she said.
“I then came home and had to tell my mother that her one and only beloved son was dead.
“She flew back to Brisbane but I could not face her. Her pain was very raw.”
Ms Hartley said the following years were a nightmare.
“I can’t begin to express the pain that we woke up to every day hoping it had just been a bad dream,” she said.
“Several times I ran after a blonde man in the street with the same build as David, sure that it was him and we’d made a mistake. Only to find of course that it wasn’t.
“My mother never got over the death of David and there was a sadness with her until the day she passed away.”
Ms Hartley said her brother had been full of life and cared for his family and all those around him.
“I often think of what he missed out on in life,” she said.
“He was only 19-years-old. He had only just begun to live.”
Ms Hartley said she was told her brother almost made it out of the building but went back to help his friends.
“He was found trying to drag his friend out when he was overcome with smoke,” she said.
“This is who David was, this is how people remember him.”
Ms Hartley said David’s name lived on with her son and grandson both named after him.
“My brother is dead and nothing can bring him back,” she said.
“I don’t want vengeance, I can’t afford to live with that, the price is too high.”
Colin William Folster, 22, Trinity band member
CREAM and white shirts adorned with coloured swirls, black trouser and black shoes.
That was the uniform the six-piece band Trinity wore to their first ever paying gig.
It would be the final show the six young musicians ever played together – two of their members never escaped the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub on March 8, 1973.
Drummer Colin William Folster, 22, and saxophonist Darcy Thomas Day, 19 were killed when the popular Foritude Valley nightclub was targeted in an arson attack.
According to a Courier-Mail article days after the fire in 1973, the band was not even meant to be there that night.
Band manager Larry Kuhlmann said the group had learned on Saturday, March 3 that their gig scheduled to start on March 12 would be moved forward to March 7.
He said a cancellation of the previously booked act meant the band was asked to play on the night of the fatal fire.
Trinity was a hit at the club, their playlist including tunes by Elton John, Chicago and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Mr Kuhlmann told reporters that Mr Folster, a 22-year-old from Red Hill, may have become tangled in his equipment on stage, preventing his escape from the building.
Brian William Watson, 32, Whiskey patron
Of all of the victims of the Whiskey Au Go Go tragedy, the least is known about 32-year-old Brian William Watson.
It’s understood at the time of his death, Mr Watson lived at Audrey Street, Goodna, on the eastern edge of Ipswich with his wife Carla and their two children.
In a Courier-Mail article published on March 9, 1973, Mr Watson’s wife issued a plea to help find the family car which he had driven to the nightclub for a “boys night”.
Mrs Watson told a journalist she did not know where the family’s two-tone blue 1959 Holden station wagon was parked.
“He asked me whether it was all right to have a night out with the boys,” Mrs Watson told a reporter.
She said she last saw her husband about 7pm on Wednesday, March 7 when he left to socialise with friends.
Like all of the victims, subsequent autopsy results showed Mr Watson and others trapped in the building died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
His body was discovered at the top of the nightclub’s rear fire escape stairs.
More Coverage
Job cuts, hiring freeze not ruled out as first LNP budget looms
Treasurer David Janetzki won’t reveal what cuts will be made in Tuesday’s state budget to cover the black hole left by a massive cut in GST revenue, but promised “budget improvement”.
1300 dead: Worst road toll in 15 years a national ‘crisis’
Australia has recorded its highest road death toll in 15 years, as a national motoring peak body warns an upcoming review must identify how to reverse this worsening crisis.