Whiskey Au Go Go inquest told of owner’s shock prediction

A witness at the inquest into Brisbane’s infamous Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing has sensationally told of a comment by one of the owners prior to the tragedy.

A witness has sensationally claimed one of the owners of the doomed Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub told her “my club’s going to be bombed” before the deadly arson attack that killed 15 people.

Linette Davis worked at the Whiskey’s sister nightclub Chequers, both of which were owned by brothers Brian and Ken Little at the time of the 1973 firebombing.

Ms Davis told an inquest into the tragedy on Tuesday that she clearly remembered a conversation with Brian before the attack when he dropped her friend home after a night out and he appeared to be “very upset”.

“I said ‘what’s the matter’,” Ms David told the inquest.

“He said ‘oh the club’s going to be bombed’ and I said ‘what’ and he said ‘my club’s going to be bombed’ and I said ‘so what are you going to do’ and he said ‘there’s not much I can do’.”

Ms Davis said she was taken aback by his response.

“And I’m angry to this day because from my perspective if they thought it was a credible threat that it was going to be bombed, and he seemed determined that it was, why didn’t he close to the club or something?” she said.

“I mean at the Jet Club they had armed guards. He did nothing. I just don’t get it to this day why he did nothing.”

It came after a Whiskey Au Go Go waitress who survived the infamous firebombing told the inquest a lawyer told her a meeting was held to discuss the club’s “financial difficulties” just days before the deadly inferno killed 15 people.

Donna Phillips outside court on Tuesday. Picture: Josh Woning

Donna Phillips gave evidence on Tuesday that “Lawyer Y”, whose identity has been suppressed, told her in 2018 the nightclub’s owners met with police, bankers and insurance staff the Tuesday before the fire on March 8, 1973.

Lawyer Y will also be called to give evidence at the reopened inquest in the Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing which is exploring whether more people were involved in the deadly attack than those who were convicted and whether the police investigation was adequate.

Ms Phillips told the court that in October 2018 she was sitting outside a shop in Sandgate when the lawyer approached and asked “are you starring in the inquest”.

“I said ‘no’ and he said something like ‘I know who was behind it’,” she said.

“Then he went on to say words to this effect ‘I was told by my boss or employer at the time that there was a meeting at the Jet Club the Tuesday night before the fire. The discussion was around one or more clubs who were in financial difficulty and the people there to discuss that was the owner of the WAGG, the accountants for the firm or firms, police, people from banking it and was suggested at that time that is was the ANZ bank, and insurance.”

Ms Phillips said she met with Lawyer Y two more times to discuss that alleged meeting but conceded she had no independent knowledge of it herself outside of what he told her.

Ms Phillips was working as a waitress at the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub on the night of the fire and became emotional as she told the coroner about the firebombing.

“I saw the fire erupt through the upstairs front entrance,” she said,

Ms Phillips said the curtains caught alight and spread along the building as dense smoke filled the room.

Detectives comb the interior of the burnt-out Whiskey Au Go Go in 1973.

She became emotional as she described how she saw bartender Peter Marcus, 23, attempt to escape the fire but he collapsed to his knees and fell on the ground.

“I was standing in what I would describe as a frozen state looking at Peter,” she said.

Ms Phillips said two men urged her to flee down the fire escape stairs with one of the men asking; “’Are you coming?’ or ‘come now’ or words to that effect.”

“I followed the two men down the stairs.

‘I still don’t know to this day who those two men were.”

Her evidence followed a harrowing account from a fellow survivor of the tragedy Hunter Nicol who told the inquest about his experience, describing how he was on the verge of collapse and had accepted he was about to die when someone managed to smash a window for them to escape through.

Now retired police officer Mr Nicol said on the night of the arson attack in March 1973 he and two friends Leslie Palethorpe, 20, and William ‘Bill’ Nolan, 21, had gone to the Fortitude Valley nightclub – the first time any of them had ever been there.

After arriving about 11pm, the three men ran into Mr Palethorpe’s friend Faye Will and her brother Daniel and joined them at a table to watch the band.

Mr Nicol said he believed Daniel had left and Mr Palethorpe and Ms Will shared a dance and they had just sat back down when the chaos erupted.

Hunter Nicol outside court on Tuesday. Picture: Brad Fleet

He said he heard a “whoosh sound” and felt a blast come from the entrance that he felt like being “hit with a wall of heat”.

He said he turned to see smoke billowing in through the entrance and the lights went out, plunging the club into darkness. Someone yelled “fire”, prompting people to scatter in all directions.

Mr Nicol said by the time he stood up, he was overcome with thick smoke and he tried to call Les, Bill and Faye in the direction he was going but they went the opposite way and he lost sight of them.

He said a young woman was screaming “we’re all going to die, I’m going to die” and he grabbed her and dragged her through the dark with him to what he thought was a fire escape.

“I’ve hit the bar area like I said I was totally disorientated and I groped along until I felt the door,” Mr Nicol said.

“Literally you couldn’t see in front of your face, you couldn’t breathe.”

Mr Nicol found what he had believed was the door to the fire escape was actually what he now believes to be the male performer’s change room.

“When I’ve got in there I was on the point of collapse and I couldn’t breathe,” he said.

“I accepted the fact I was going to die and I was totally at peace with myself … on the point of collapse. “And then someone smashed a window. I felt this fresh air… I didn’t know if it was the air conditioning or sky or what, I could see a glimmer of light and felt fresh air blow in.”

An external view of the firebombed nightclub in 1973

Mr Nicol said he was able to get a few breaths of fresh air and he pushed about five or six people, including the girl he grabbed earlier, through the window and then followed himself.

After escaping the building the survivors from that room had to find their way off the roof and then scale a six foot fence to get away from the building.

Mr Nicol said he ran onto the street where he stopped a passing taxi, telling the driver to call emergency crews.

Tragically Mr Nicol discovered Les, Bill and Faye were all killed in the fire.

Mr Nicol said he had been left with mental and physical scars from the fire.

He still suffers from the impact of scarred lungs and throat and his doctor said he would live with that for the rest of his life.

Mr Nicol said after the fire every time he went to sleep he would wake up screaming and years later when at a family function, he had dived out of a window when the lights went out.

Mr Nicol also gave evidence of seeing a mystery man in a clean white shirt outside the club after the fire who he had seen inside earlier that night giving direction to staff which gave the impression he was in a management role.

He said it struck him as being odd the man was so clean when he and others who had escaped the fire were covered in black soot.

“They (the man) either got out of the fire very early or they weren’t in there,” he said.

“They were out early enough they weren’t covered in smoke and soot.

“That shirt stood out to me.”

The inquest continues.