NSW Police resist new inquiry into 1979 Luna Park ghost train fire

NSW Police will not open a fresh inquiry into the tragic 1979 Luna Park Ghost Train fire, despite new revelations in an ABC investigation and an allegation that the senior officer in charge of the original investigation was “criminally negligent” and potentially corrupt.

The ABC’s three-part documentary about the Saturday 9th June 1979 Luna Park tragedy, Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire, broadcast on 16th, 23rd and 30th March, unveiled both new and previously hidden evidence around the 42-year-old incident in which seven people, including six children, were killed.

The Exposed program was guided by investigative journalist Caro Meldrum-Hanna, who presided over an 18-month re-examination of the Ghost Train fir for the documentary.

It alleged that the fire was deliberately lit by a small group of ‘bikers’ under orders of Sydney crime figure Abe Saffron, in a reported move to take control of the heritage amusement park.

The 1979 Ghost Train fire forced the immediate closure of the attraction, which did not reopen until 1982, when it reopened under new management - as a result of an alleged a corrupt tender process - to a company called Australian Amusements Associates, controlled by Saffron’s nephew, Sam Cowper, and two cousins, Hal & Col Goldstein.

This process was aided by then NSW Premier Neville Wran who was later investigated (and ‘exonerated’) for alleged connections to Saffron and multiple underworld crime figures.

Wran later ordered the destruction of tape-recorded evidence detailing Saffron’s involvement in the Luna Park property negotiations, which ultimately shielded Saffron from further NSW Police investigation.

NSW Police Detective Douglas Knight - who led the investigation into the fire - had in 1974 been condemned for “dishonesty” by NSW Supreme Court Judge Athol Moffitt at the Moffit Royal Commission (1973-74) into Organised Crime in Clubs.

However, in the early hours of Sunday 10th January 1979 then Detective Inspector Douglas Knight was appointed by NSW Police as the lead investigator into the Luna Park fire.

In 1981, two years after the fire, Knight and two other officers were publicly accused of receiving bribes from Abe Saffron and his business associate Jack Rooklyn.

Rooklyn, was the father of a girl who was among a group of school friends due to go to Luna Park on the night of the fateful fire. She was also close friends with four of the young male victims. The girl was strongly advised by Rooklyn to stay home instead, with a warning something untoward was about to happen to the amusement park - something she withheld for decades until the Exposed program.

ABC investigative journalist Meldrum-Hanna summarised the Exposed program’s focus on NSW Police and, in particular, their senior officer’s the inquiry into the deathly inferno, explaining “Detective Inspector Knight is the architect of all of this. He is the guy in charge. The buck stops with him.

“He is the one who oversaw the hasty clearance of the site. And Detective Knight is the one who fronts the cameras and tells the world the fire was caused as a result of an electrical fault in the building. And he’s the one who also released this official written statement claiming that the police have found witnesses to prove it.”

However, there were no witnesses to an electrical fault.

Instead, multiple eyewitnesses interviewed by the Exposed program described scenes and actions that contradicted this theory. Several gave corroborating accounts of a group of five men in distinctive ‘biker’ clothes seen loitering beside the Ghost Train (one claimed they had ridden it) just prior to it going up in flames. The five made a hasty exit from Luna Park as the fire took hold and were never caught or pursued.

None of these eyewitnesses were invited to address the subsequent NSW Coronial inquiry, despite giving statements to NSW Police at the time.

On 31st March, after the last instalment of the Exposed program, NSW Opposition Leader Jodi McKay called for a Special Commission of Inquiry to launch a new investigation into the Luna Park Ghost Train fire saying she was “deeply disturbed” by the revelations in the ABC-TV program and “backed the families” of the victims also calling for a new Inquiry.

However, NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman has not committed to taking any action; instead he released a statement on 31st March claiming he had “asked the Department of Communities and Justice for advice on any appropriate action”.

The Sydney Sentinel news website independently contacted NSW Police to enquire whether they will undertake a fresh investigation of the Luna Park fire, considering the new evidence and allegations of criminality that came to light in the Exposed documentary.

In response, a NSW Police spokeswoman provided a statement that advised “the NSW Police Force is aware of the program and has engaged with the ABC. We will continue to monitor the content and any fresh and compelling evidentiary material presented throughout the series will be assessed and reviewed by specialist investigators.

“As recently as 2019, investigators from the Arson Unit conducted various inquiries after receiving information in relation to the matter.”