In a statement tendered to the ACT Supreme Court yesterday, Mr West told how he ''knelt down and cried'' upon seeing his land burned and platypus washed up dead on the bank of a river that was ''choked with ash''.

''All I could hear were the cattle lowing,'' the 70-year-old said in the statement.

''At first light we returned and observed the total destruction of Wyora Station. The cattle were wandering on the flat where the fire had burnt. Apart from the cattle there was no life.''

Mr West is one of hundreds of plaintiffs alleging government negligence in response to the fire that started at McIntyre's Hut in the Brindabella National Park on January 8, 2003 and overwhelmed Canberra's southern suburbs 10 days later.

Mr West said in his statement that he brought the blaze to the attention of Rural Fire Service staff at Queanbeyan's Yarrlowlumla Fire Control Centre late on the night of January 8.

''I had observed the fire to be burning at a slow rate at a low flame height on the south-west perimeter of the fire. I was of the opinion that this perimeter of the fire could be tackled very easily,'' he said.

He wrote that he later called a senior Fire Control Centre staff member at home and said, ''You need to get crews to attend the fire straight away.''

Mr West told of repeatedly warning authorities as he watched the fire advance over the following days, and eventually pumping water from the Goodradigbee River so that firefighting helicopters could fill their buckets from a dam on his property.

He described fighting flames on a neighbour's property on January 16 without assistance from fire crews despite making ''20 calls'' for help to the Rural Fire Service.

The case continues today.

For more on this story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.