Over the past couple of weeks I’ve appreciated the ABC’s Exposed documentary series on the 1979 Luna Park fire, which killed seven. Having been born sometime afterwards I hadn’t heard about it before, but the accounts of the blaze from the first episode were harrowing, and then the second made it clear that NSW police had done a huge cover-up after eyewitnesses suggested it was arson . The final episode finally implicated Sydney crime boss Abe Saffron , who was hoping to get control over the land and redevelop it (and not long afterwards did buy and clear the land, fwiw, although Luna Park was rebuilt afterwards), but I felt like it still left some open questions. Like I understand the police leadership were all in Saffron’s pocket, but it didn’t really spell out what all these other powerful people – including then-premier Neville Wran – were supposed to have got out of helping Saffron seize the site. I suppose that’s part of why they’re calling for a fresh inquiry, something which NSW Labor is now supporting too. Regardless, it was a gripping documentary and you can’t help but feel enraged at the complete lack of justice when one woman lost her whole family and four young boys all died…
Something else I might add which I found pretty shit – in 1995, a memorial was put up at Luna Park to honour the seven who were killed in 1979. Just eight years later, management at the park decided to destroy that memorial , calling it “irrelevant”. Seems awfully insensitive when loved ones of the victims are still around and no thorough investigation, let alone justice, was ever done.
