The Enchanting Existential Dread of Aussie Theme Parks - Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire

ABC gets a sure-fire true crime hit with this three-part documentary series.

I’ll get around to reviewing Luna Park when it reopens and has a new Big Dipper constructed, because I want to experience the place in person rather than just reminiscing about its glorious past. But this year something happened that I couldn’t ignore both as a theme park fan and as a person whose extended family is tied into this debacle dating back to the seventies. When it comes to Sydney based theme parks, all paths lead past the King Cole face into the Big Top where the Ghost Train once stood, and any attempt to avoid this elephant in the room would be dishonest and even ahistorical. It’d be like writing a history of New York City and leaving out 9/11. On June 9th, 1979 the Ghost Train ride at Luna Park erupted into an inferno and claimed the lives of Damien, Craig, and John Godson; plus four young Waverley College students including Jonathan Billings, Michael Johnson, Richard Carroll and Seamus Rahilly. These seven deaths have cast a dark shadow over Luna Park Sydney for decades, with a lot of unanswered questions after the police blamed an electrical fault for the blaze whilst other witnesses to the fire blamed arson. It’s an old, old story in Sydney that’s tied up in political and police corruption, proof to many as to how rotten this city can get when real estate speculators get involved. The official line from the cops called it an accident, but Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire hints that it might’ve been murder. Police cleaned up the crime scene before evidence could be examined, and there is a prevailing feeling that justice has not been done. Interviews with bereaved family members who survived the Ghost Train fire are hard to sit through, and you get the impression these broken people still haven’t healed from the trauma of what happened that fateful night. Plenty of people have tackled the subject of the Ghost Train fire both in art with Martin Sharp’s Street of Dreams movie starring Tiny Tim of all entertainers, and in brilliant essays like Hellfire by Richard Cooke. When you approach the subject of the Ghost Train fire, it’s easy to get superstitious and read into the omens attached to the incident like that spread-by-tabloids photograph of the horned man next to one of the Godson children who died taken at Circular Quay. This haunting red herring distracts from the likelihood of organised crime being to blame rather than apparent occult activity where Moloch worship and child sacrifice is somehow responsible. Martin Sharp didn’t help his case when he started to believe funfairs like Luna Park were hotbeds for the demonic, his biography Sharp implies Martin thought Buddha wasn’t strong enough to ward off the dark forces of the King Cole face looming over Sydney. As a Taoist and ordained Dudeist priest, I know that Buddha has this buddy named Guan Yu, the Chinese god of war and literature who is feared and respected by the Triads. If any entity is capable of delivering Abe Saffron’s ghost a well-deserved supernatural ass-beating, it’s Guan Yu. However, my dabbling in Taoist witchcraft went awry and sooner or later I was then diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I saw unexplainable things which I couldn’t dismiss as coincidence when I was out of my gourd struggling with mental illness, perhaps in desperation I petitioned higher powers to solve this cold case forever because I lost faith in mere humans doing what was right. Those of us who are religious tend to cling to justice being done after death, which is unsatisfactory to hardline atheists who demand it being done on Earth because according to them you only get one life to live. Perhaps I should leave ghost-busting to the professionals, as my magic wasn’t strong enough to achieve the desired results, but something didn’t sit right with me when I found out the legendary thrash metal band Slayer performed at Luna Park in 2013. Slayer are known for serenading history’s monsters with their discography, however due to a variety of factors like Dave Lombardo jumping ship and Jeff Hanneman being about to die from spider-bite complications, they were unaware of the history of the haunted theme park they desecrated by accident by playing song after blasphemous song in a venue where children burned to death. I can’t imagine Slayer would cancel their gig if they knew what went down in the Big Top, they often joked about performing Angel of Death in Israel, however their lack of acknowledgement of the Ghost Train fire in live footage I’ve seen of that concert disturbs me because of how un-Slayer this predicament is. So they just played Bloodline and Hell Awaits as well as other hits such as Altar of Sacrifice like it was no big deal. I went to see Slayer live at Download Festival back in 2019 to prove to Jeff Hanneman’s ghost I wasn’t a poser, and I have no problem with Slayer performing these songs in any other venue, but this is the Luna Park Big Top we’re talking about here. People died in what is now that arena, and I doubt Slayer shredding their guitars singing about murder helped lay those departed souls to rest. It was very inappropriate of them to do that, but all they had on their minds was Dave Lombardo’s absence and Jeff Hanneman’s impending demise. Tom Araya probably would’ve recorded a song about Luna Park’s Ghost Train fire with Kerry King if he knew about the tragedy, which won’t happen now that Slayer is retired after their End of Days tour, I really hoped there was some way to bring the band back together before they called it quits.

In Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire we see footage of this guy dancing with the Folkloric Festival parade, whilst this guy was “never seen again”, you can chalk that up to the corrupt cops not wanting to look too deep into the cause of the fire in the first place.

Slayer’s original lineup, captured in the Reign In Blood era during better times.

Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire avoids the potential for paranormal investigation into the matter of the incident, sticking to Occam’s Razor and hard hitting investigative journalism based on facts rather than chasing spectres of the distant past with a ouija board. There is an argument to be made that the Big Top at Luna Park needs an exorcism pronto, however Caro Meldrum-Hanna is much more interested in talking to real survivors of the event and bringing justice for those left behind. I would definitely watch an ordained Catholic priest sprinkle holy water onto the Big Top stage to protect performers who wander into the venue unaware of what transpired in this place (I have particular issue with Luna Park Sydney allowing Slayer to perform song after blasphemous song inside a site where children burned to death back in 2013), but Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire isn’t that sort of program. It’s probably the most depressing work of documentary involving arson allegations I’ve seen since Until The Light Takes Us tackled the Norwegian black metal scene, it’s brutal to sit through. The first episode’s re-enactment of the Ghost Train fire is distressing to watch, more-so for the interviewees who have to revisit that chapter in their lives. The series opens with Ghost Train fire survivor Jason Holman walking in a cemetery full of graves, to give you an idea of the grim proceedings. True crime documentaries are often accused of sensationalising events rather than giving airtime to the victims, but Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire is a masterclass in doing the opposite of that. The series conveys the sense of loss suffered by the survivors and the bereaved parents who had to bury their kids. You hear about what sort of people the victims of the Ghost Train fire were when they were alive, who was a ladies-man, academic and sports achievements of the boys who perished.

Part of what makes this documentary so credible is the extensive use of the Martin Sharp Street of Dreams Trust archival material, hoarded away by Martin Sharp whilst he was still alive to expose the true cause of the fire. There’s a mountain of cassette tapes and newspaper clippings from yesteryear in Martin’s conspiracy room, and Caro Meldrum-Hanna makes the most of it by using it to contact eyewitnesses like Les Dowd, who says he was pressured by police to change his story when he was questioned for a statement. The section of the documentary where he mentions seeing bikies near the Ghost Train that night is well re-enacted just like the rest of those scenes, and illuminates the situation when so little footage of the night of the blaze is available.

The third part of the documentary really delves into the dirt regarding Jim Black, Bill Allen and their alleged mob connections to kingpin Abe Saffron, subjecting us to a cavalcade of corruption and shredded evidence, incriminating tapes are sunk to the bottom of the sea in a bag. This is by far the most depressing chapter of the series, as injustice reigns over the city of Sydney and corrupt deeds go unquestioned by officers of the law who knew better. The chain of command above detective Douglas Knight was rotten all the way to the top, receiving payment from Jack Rooklyn, and most of the crooked cops are long dead so people can finally break their silence. The Grundy Corporation was in the running to win the lease for Luna Park until new tenders were called by Harbourside Amusements who were meant to maintain the rides. The auctioning off of park memorabilia and rides like the carousel was sacrilege to the Friends of Luna Park who saw it as the looting of history, so much of Luna Park’s heart and soul was gone. Martin Sharp fought against the redevelopment of Luna Park by interested parties, including Abe Saffron who was at the time the kingpin behind King’s Cross’s strip joints and other sinful businesses. We see a lot of archived footage of Abe Saffron denying any criminal activity, despite his now obvious criminal underworld empire. He was known for blackmail, extortion and bribing of cops, as well as his use of fire for real estate purposes. As Sydney’s best known mafioso, his considerable influence had its tentacles all over the city and weakened the justice system. A string of arsons including that of a gay disco and ladies only restaurant are linked to Saffron’s involvement, and one of the most disturbing allegations link him to the deliberate lighting of the fire at Luna Park. Anne Buckingham stated “people weren’t meant to die” in that fire, implicating Saffron as the secret owner of Luna Park. His cousins Hal and Col Goldstein are accused by Martin Sharp’s tapes of acquiring the lease through criminal means. Sam Cowper, Abe Saffron’s nephew, was in control of Harbourside Amusements with a secret Saffron Trust managing the money. Saffron installed his own Arcadia game machines which funnelled profits back to Saffron’s personal trust.

The web of intrigue surrounding the Luna Park Ghost Train fire is Sydney urban legend at this point, up there with the Dismissal of Gough Whitlam and the disappearance of prime minister Harold Holt as one of Australia’s greatest conspiracies. Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire covers a lot of ground establishing how interconnected this mobster’s network of crime and fraud gets, helping the viewer at home understand the scope of this land grab heist on Luna Park. Powerful men wanted control of it for their nefarious purposes, and only when those men are dead are the tongues of the living allowed to talk. The cops didn’t investigate further because they were in the pocket of gangsters, and a whitewash of mounting evidence took place when a report was made. Carol Meldrum-Hanna interviews Rosemary Opitz, a former friend of Saffron’s, to get to the bottom of what life in his inner circle was like. Police commissioners like Bill Allen and politicians wined and dined with him, and the top of society associated with him. Abe Saffron and Jack Rooklyn were business associates, on the night of the fire a group of girls was told by one of their fathers that something was happening at Luna Park and they couldn’t go with the boys. The National Crime Authority said they found no evidence of bikies lighting the fire, despite eye-witness accounts. High Court Judge Lionel Murphy was having drinks with Saffron and his cronies, which wasn’t a good look and the inquiry probe into organised crime was shelved following Murphy’s death. NSW Premier Neville Wran is alleged to have colluded with Lionel Murphy to acquire the lease for Luna Park, and when Wran threatened to jail police involved in the Luna Park case, evidence tapes were destroyed by barbecue. There were apparently three “Humpty Dumptys” who could take a great fall if they were caught according to surviving police. Jason Holman has a final revelation where he was told by the leader of a bikie gang, off the phone so he wouldn’t be tapped, that Abe Saffron gave the order to burn Luna Park down. The conclusion of the series features Caro Meldrum-Hanna breaking the news of their investigation’s findings to the families of those children who died, it’s upsetting to reveal that Abe Saffron got away with it and there is a demand for a Royal Commission into the Ghost Train fire despite the length of time that has elapsed since 1979.

I watched the final episode when it aired with my Dad, who said that the documentary was quite sad, and we shared the moment together. Luna Park has always been a subject of interest for me and my extended family, and I’m glad Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire has called attention to the vast conspiracy behind the blaze. I met Martin Sharp before he died, at the Museum of Sydney where his art was being exhibited, and I shook his hand and said I enjoyed his Street of Dreams movie that was screening at the event. I can’t say I truly knew the man, but I was in his proximity for a brief glimmer, and he seemed haunted by the events of 1979 for the twilight chapter of his life. He left behind a legacy of both pop art and striving against police corruption to bring the truth into the light. As my parents’ generation passes away, the hippie dream of the sixties appears to erode with it even if places like Nimbin and Byron Bay keep it alive in their hearts. Luna Park Sydney is a shadow of its former self at present, but is currently being renovated to add new rides like the Big Dipper successor with the latest single rail technology. Its King Cole face remains grinning and defiant against the Abe Saffrons of Sydney’s property developers, laughing in the face of those who seek to destroy it. Whatever force or entity protecting it is very powerful indeed, and it should not be trifled with at any cost. Luna Park survived the extinction burst of arguably better theme parks like Sega World Sydney and Wonderland Sydney, the last funfair standing tall when so many others perished. It remains a monument to Martin Sharp’s dedication, even if very little of his vision is part of the amusement park’s current aesthetic, the fact it’s there at all is a small miracle.