Tamborine Mountain bus crash 1990: Bulletin journalists reveal how crash scene affected their lives

The 1990 Tamborine Mountain bus crash cast a long shadow over the journalists who were sent to cover the aftermath. This is their story.

HOW do you tell the story of a traumatic event? It’s the challenge journalists face every day, particularly during horror accidents such as the Tamborine Mountain crash.

The events of September 25 1990 have never left the journalists and photographers of the Bulletin who witnessed the aftermath of the bus crash.

News of it came across the police scanner just before 3pm. Debra Graham and photographer Paul Trezise immediately made the treacherous drive up Henri Robert Drive towards the scene.

One of the devastated passengers at the scene of the crash. Former Bulletin reporter Debra Graham says she has never forgotten the faces of the passengers.

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The pair were soon followed by Grahame Long, the Bulletin’s long-serving chief photographer.

They arrived at the same time as the ambulances and saw the bus “torn open like a sardine tin”.

Ms Graham, one of the paper’s police reporters, said her experiences on the side of the road were seared into her memory: “There were bodies everywhere and people were either stuck in their seats or had passed. The passengers were comforting their loved ones. Their faces showed a range of emotions from shock to grief to calm.

“I recall one man who despite his calm, his gentle eyes were seeking comfort. All he wanted was for someone to hold his hand and comfort him. His face has never left me.”

Photographer Paul Tresize

Mr Trezise, who today drives buses in Melbourne, went on to win an award for his photos from the scene and vividly remembers the scene.

“The bus had been opened like a sardine can. The top of the roof had come up and the front was gone too like it had been ripped open. It was an eventful day and it was something where you wish you’d never see something like that ever again.

“I’ve never forgotten it and as a bus driver now I would never want to be in a situation like that.”

Grahame Long

Mr Long recalls the crash being the worst incident he attended in his 30-year career.

“You don’t expect something like that to happen on the Gold Coast,” he said. “I remember it so vividly, seeing the elderly who were suffering.

“I remember thinking how lucky the survivors were to have made it.”

The Bulletin coverage was award-winning but the events of the day cast a long shadow, Ms Graham said.

The Gold Coast Bulletin’s coverage of the bus crash.

“You never forget something as traumatic as this. On returning to the office, the newsroom was buzzing - and we were just expected to continue to work a double shift to put the paper to bed with this front page news, she said. “There were no debriefs in those days. Just returning to work the next day.

“To be honest I had never thought about getting to this day 30 years on, where I was forced to look back on what I had seen. But the day’s event has never left me.”