A tourist town in Victoria’s central highlands is spending the public holiday reflecting, one year since five people died in a horror crash at its main intersection.
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00:00One year ago, at this beer garden in Dalesford, a car crashed into people just enjoying their
00:08long weekend, and sadly five lives were lost and several others were injured.
00:13At 9 o'clock this morning, the town of Dalesford, the first responders, the council and others
00:18who live here came together, as well as the family of the five who died, the families
00:23I should say, to remember not only those who died, but also the incredibly brave efforts
00:29of the first people on scene here. Among those speaking at the event before wreaths were
00:33laid was the local captain of the CFA, Glen Webster, and he spoke to us a short time ago.
00:40I don't want them to wonder what it was like for their loved ones. I want them to know
00:46that they were with another human being who was caring for them, looking after them as
00:52best we could.
00:53We've been really mindful through the whole 12 months to be really respectful of the families
00:59and the cultures involved as well, so at different stages we've reached out to them
01:03and hopefully they've been supportive of the events that we've undertaken. Our thoughts
01:08are absolutely with them. What they've had to go through, you don't wish upon anyone,
01:13and we just hope today is that 1% or that little bit that just helps them a little bit,
01:17but it was lovely for them to make the journey here and be supported as well.
01:22While today was about healing in Dalesford, it's been a difficult week and the legal process
01:27has arguably added to the trauma that people here in town feel. Mount Macedon man William
01:33Herbert Swale was accused of driving into the Dalesford Beer Garden and he was initially
01:40charged with five counts of culpable driving causing death, two of negligently causing
01:45serious injury and seven counts of reckless conduct endangering life. But in September
01:50this year a magistrate dismissed all the charges relating to Mr Swale after his lawyers successfully
01:55argued that his hypoglycemic attack was so bad that he was not in control of his actions.
02:01So yes, just to recap, Mr Swale in his car was driving down Albert Street which has a
02:07steep decline and suffered this hypoglycemic attack behind the wheel and this is what caused
02:13him to plough into the people in the beer garden here. We've also heard from the local
02:18council here that while they had this commemoration today, there are no plans for a permanent
02:24monument to the crash here in Dalesford. Everyone is quite keen to move on from this
02:29if they can. But it's also been a difficult week in Dalesford because last Friday we heard
02:35that the Office of Public Prosecutions will not seek to press charges against Mr Swale
02:40again. So the legal process has really had an effect on the people's trauma here in town.
02:47But as I mentioned there's also a great desire for people to move on. In the past year since
02:53this crash, Dalesford has also won the Tiny Town Tourism Award for being the best one
02:58in Victoria and its local football and netball grand finals took out drought-breaking premierships
03:02in September. So there is a desire for Dalesford to be defined by much more than this tragedy.