Family loved Evans Head | Northern Rivers News | Local News in Northern Rivers

16th March 2009

ASSOCIATE Professor Richard Zann, his wife Eileen and 25-year-old daughter Eva died at their home in Bald Spur Road, Kinglake, on the evening of February 7.

Richard was the son of former Casino optometrist, the late Leon Zann. He married British-born Kiwi Eileen Hodson at St John's Catholic Church at Evans Head on December 29, 1971, and their wedding reception was held at the Evans Head Bowling Club.

Despite moving to Melbourne to take up a teaching and research position at La Trobe University, Richard and Eileen celebrated every wedding anniversary but three at the family's Evans Head beach house. Richard and Eileen's son, Chris, and daughter, Eva, also loved Evans Head and made sure their parents' anniversary celebrations entailed a trip to the club for dinner in Eddie and Sue's restaurant, a drink at the bar and a flutter on the pokies.

Richard went on to world renown researching finch and lyrebird behaviour, and was part of an international team which studied the Indonesian super volcano Anak Krakatau.

Eileen was a former member of the New Zealand Ballet Company and taught many a little girl in the Kinglake district her first ballet steps through her own dance school.

Eva was a gorgeous, talented girl whose life was just beginning. She was a highly awarded student becoming a rising star in public relations.

The people of Kinglake are as prepared for bushfires as Lismore people are for floods, but nothing could prepare this town for February 7.

Like most at Kinglake, Richard kept a 38,000-litre fire tank full at all times, kicked over his diesel fire pump each month and kept a buffer zone free of fuel around the house. His fire plan entailed picking up a nearby friend in her late 80s.

Nobody will ever know for sure what happened on Black Saturday, but it was fast. A neighbour who survived said the only inkling of a fire in the area was a burning gumleaf that fluttered from the sky as he watered his garden minutes before the fire storm struck.

He survived by crawling into a culvert, where he sheltered for about 15 minutes. When he got out, he walked 2km before he saw another living thing. Nothing was left burning; there was no charcoal, only fine white ash.

Four sets of remains were found on Richard's property. Three were roughly where the bathroom used to be and one was outside, next to the fire hose. Alloy wheels on the cars were melted into puddles, bottles became blobs of glass, jewellery melted into nuggets of metal and pottery items showed indications of being re-fired, meaning temperatures well above 1100 degrees. Mercifully, it would have been quick.

Chris Zann says his father loved Evans Head so much he wanted to be buried here. After the Victorian Coroner releases their remains, Richard, Eileen and Eva will be brought back to the town they loved and their funeral will be held in the church where the couple was married. Afterwards, mourners will gather at the Evans Head Bowling Club to toast their lives.

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