The sister of a soldier who died in the firebombing of Brisbane's Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub says her birthday has been bittersweet since the attack almost half a century ago.
Leslie Palethorpe was one of 15 people who died from carbon monoxide poisoning after two drums of fuel were thrown into the downstairs foyer of the Fortitude Valley nightclub and set alight about 2am on March 8, 1973.
The following day was his sister Helen's 14th birthday.
Her statement was read in the Coroners Court in Brisbane where the third sitting of the inquest into the attack started on Monday.
Disgraced former police detective Roger Rogerson and murderer Vincent O'Dempsey who has been accused of involvement in the firebombing are expected to be called to give evidence.
Ms Palethorpe said she was excited in the lead-up to her birthday about the prospect of seeing her brother, a soldier then based in Townsville, who was coming for training at the Enogerra army base.
She last saw him in January as he left Brisbane after visiting for Christmas and his son's christening.
"I have the vision still of him hanging out the window waving goodbye, beeping all the way down Anzac Avenue," she said in a statement read out to the court on her behalf.
On the day of the firebombing Ms Palethorpe was pulled from class without being told why and taken in a cab to her aunt's house.
She continues to have flashbacks of her devastated parents finding out their first child was dead.
Her mother was "hysterical and beside herself", while Ms Palethorpe's father heard of his son's death on the radio.
"He never recovered from hearing this horrible news this way," Ms Palethorpe added.
"Seeing both my parents in this state is forever etched in my mind."
Ms Palethorpe said her birthday was bittersweet after her brother's death.
"I never had another happy birthday again until my five children threw me a surprise 60th party."
She has also never found closure or recovered, particularly as there is no answer to the question why the attack occurred.
"It has broken me," she said.
Former detective Peter Slatter told the inquest James Finch, one of two men convicted of the Whiskey attack, said he had hardly eaten after learning 15 people had died.
Finch was at first "a bit aggro" in the police interview room where he was being held on March 11.
The suspect called Mr Slatter names and accused the officer of trying to look right inside him to see what he was thinking, but gradually calmed down, the inquest was told.
Mr Slatter said Finch quickly pushed away coral trout, saying he had hardly eaten anything since John Stuart told him 15 people had died.
"It's been on my mind ever since," Finch told Mr Slatter.
"You don't know how it feels. Fifteen bloody dead. Christ, I can't stop thinking about it."
Finch also claimed to have been living in the "bloody bush for days" with snakes, spiders and ants crawling over him since the firebombing.
Finch and Stuart, who have since died, were sentenced to life in prison over the attack.
Rumours have persisted that other people were involved and the Whiskey inquest was reopened after the firebombing was mentioned in trials in which O'Dempsey and Garry Dubois were convicted over the deaths of Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters in January 1974.
Those trials heard the killings may have been motivated over fears Ms McCulkin would try to implicate O'Dempsey in the Whiskey attack.
Dubois was found dead in his Maryborough prison cell in June last year.
The inquest continues on Tuesday before coroner Terry Ryan.
