Late in the evening of April 24, 1987, a 43-year-old man by the name of Kenneth George Gosschalk went on an arson spree, setting fire to four churches and the Christian Literature Centre in Queen St.
With jerry can in hand, Gosschalk started his trail of devastation at the Anglican Church in Currie St followed by the Catholic church (now St Joseph’s) opposite. From there, he moved on to the Uniting church in Maud St, the one church that was completely destroyed, never to be restored. The Lutheran church in Sydney St was next and, along with the destruction of the altar, was vandalised with obscene, anti-Nazi graffiti.
The blaze from the Literature Centre spread to the adjacent shops and bank, causing more destruction.
Emergency services were stretched to the limit to contain what were the worst town fires that Nambour had seen in decades. The arsonist was apprehended before he could reach St Andrew’s church in Coronation Ave.
Following his arrest, Gosschalk somehow managed to set fire to his watchhouse cell and his hearing was brought forward to the following day, Anzac Day, where he sought bail to attend memorial services.
His request was denied and three days later, he was taken to Brisbane Jail. Following his incarceration, Gosschalk spent part of his life in the Solomon Islands before returning to Australia where he eventually found himself homeless and estranged from his family.
I became interested in this story when I learned that the building where my wife and I have operated our business, Nambour Acupuncture, for the past 14 years is the site of the gutted Maud St Uniting Church.
I began asking questions of who this man was and why he committed such a terrible act.
Gosschalk, a returned serviceman from the Vietnam War, was homeless and likely a sufferer of mental illness. In my mind, I had painted a picture of him as the stereotypical war veteran who, psychologically broken by the ravages of war, subsequently neglected by the country he was supposed to have served, was triggered into an act of violence by the proximity of Anzac Day commemorations.
I could not reach members of his family and Gosschalk himself died in the late 1990s. However, after speaking with a couple of veterans who served with him, I learned that he was an engineer, not a soldier, and was likely already quite “troubled” when he volunteered for the army.
Unusually, he volunteered for a second consecutive year of service without coming home despite being married and having fathered two children.
In 1976, Gosschalk was court-martialled for attempting to take his girlfriend on a military-issued plane ticket, issued in his wife’s name, to travel with him to the United Kingdom as part of a military exchange program. His sentence was a reduction in rank from Major to Captain.
I interviewed Rosemarie Joyce who operated Rosemarie’s Hair Salon at the time of the fires. Her salon was located on the corner of Currie and Maud streets, next to where the Uniting Church stood at the time.
The day before the fires were started, Gosschalk had entered the salon and aggressively asked for money from one of the staff who was quite shaken by the encounter. Mrs Joyce also believed that Gosschalk had waited for a children’s dance class to finish in one of the churches before starting the fire. Apparently he was not interested in causing loss of life, only to property associated with religious symbolism. This would explain why he waited until the evening to commit his crimes.
One of the staff members at the Nambour and District Historical Museum told me that some time after the incident, Gosschalk issued a public apology although I could not locate any written record of this.
I also spoke with Bill Crews who graduated with Gosschalk from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1965.
Bill knew Kenneth Gosschalk better than anyone I spoke to and told me the story of how the two reconnected when Gosschalk was a permanent resident at an emergency shelter for war veterans in Auchenflower, Brisbane.
At this point in his life, Kenneth Gosschalk was a self-described “manic-depressive” and medicated to the point of relative mental stability. Crews also relayed a story to me of how, when a fire broke out at the shelter, Gosschalk’s actions were instrumental in saving that building from destruction.
Those most affected by the fires that night were naturally angry and devastated by the actions of an obviously disturbed individual.
In remembering that fateful night, perhaps we would do well to consider the consequences of what can happen when those most in need of our help are left neglected and pushed to the margins of society.