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.
