These are the words of line-dancing organiser Cynthia Rennolds who said she would turn back time if she could, to avoid the loss of four much-loved south-west line-dancers killed in a two-car accident on their way home from St Arnaud on Saturday night. 

Dianne Barr, 64, from Heywood; Claudia Jackson, 72 from Portland; Tess Ely, 74, from Hamilton; and Elaine Middleton, 75, from Hamilton were killed in a horror two-car accident at Navarre, near Ararat.

“You can’t say or do anything. It’s just senseless,” Ms Rennolds said. “If I could turn back time I would. We’ve all said that. One of the guys who usually says goodbye to everyone and gives them all a hug. He said ‘if only I’d hugged them a bit longer it would have delayed them another minute or two minutes and it wouldn’t have happened’.

“We all thought that. If only we’d grabbed them for that extra minute and gave them a hug goodbye and thanked them again, or whatever, they wouldn’t have been there at that time.”

She said dancers from different regional clubs often carpooled to attend events across the state, never dreaming something like this could happen. “If we had’ve lost two (people) it would have been devastating enough, but four. I just can’t comprehend that we lost four (members).”

Ms Rennolds said the group had had a wonderful day learning new dances and catching up with friends. “I can still see Elaine’s face as they were leaving,” she said though tears. “She was so happy. They were all happy and they’d had such a wonderful day.”

Hamilton Bootscooters instructor Linda Rook has danced with the four women since she began the group 23 years ago.

Twelve members from the club travelled to the St Arnaud event and “only eight came home.”

She too said it was a happy day, filled with dancing, laughs and cups of tea. “They just were really happy,” Ms Rook said. “They would have been talking about it in the car and the dances they were doing.

She said the club would never be the same. “They just went out like a light obviously. They would have gone happy. Not that that’s any consolation to the family members,” Ms Rook said.

“It’s a big loss. It’s affected the whole line-dancing community. Not only in Hamilton. This has gone Australia-wide and I believe it’s actually hit the news in England.” 

She said they had received hundreds and hundreds of messages on social media. “We are a happy social group. We’re a family. A line-dancing family. Everyone who comes in just gets welcomed with open arms and then of course when someone goes like that it’s devastating.”