Victoria was in the grip of drought when Melbourne was smothered by a giant dust storm blown in from the mallee deserts during the afternoon of Tuesday 8 February 1983.
Earlier in the morning a strong, but dry, cold front began crossing Victoria, preceded by hot, gusty northerly winds.
The temperature in the city rose quickly as the north wind strengthened, and by 2:35 pm it had reached 43.2 degrees.
The 300 metre high dust cloud stretched over 500 km from Mildura to Melbourne and extended on a 150 km wide front.
It reached the city by 2.55 pm and the sky went black.
Winds of up to 140 km/h were reported at Point Lonsdale while at Mornington, gusts reached 100 km/h. In the city, winds reached 85 km/h.
The storm cut power, damaged houses, uprooted trees, disrupted train services and ripped boats from moorings.
The worst of the dust storm was over by 4 pm when the wind dropped as the cool change arrived. There was no rain and everything was covered in a layer of dust.
But more significantly, the exact weather pattern that caused the dust storm, with high temperatures and strong northwest winds followed by a strong southwest change, was repeated eight days later during the catastrophic Ash Wednesday bushfires.
Top Image: Australia Bureau of Meteorology/Photographer: Trevor Farrar
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 
l shall never ever forget the dust storm that rolled into Melbourne in February 1983.
School had finished for the day & l was in Grade Five. I had just got on the tram (the classical & very nostalgic “old rattlers”) then disembarked at the top of Glenferrie Road on to Barkers Road with some friends.
Suddenly, it was almost pitch black, the streetlights came on & l heard a roaring like several Boing 747 planes followed by one of the most ferocious winds l have ever experienced. Only being aged 12 l thought it all very exciting until l saw & smelt the millions & millions of burnt eucalyptus tree leaves (no doubt carried in the wind from the Mallee) from several bushfires that had been burning then leading up to the terrors & heartbreak of Ash Wednesday. I think l may have cried when l saw these leaves, thinking of all the burnt native animals such as kangaroos, koalas, the birdlife, reptiles etc.
This is an image l shall never ever forget. Looking back on it now l see it for what it was, Victoria’s record drought, then the holocaust that became known as Ash Wednesday.
l now live in the Mallee & always dread the fire season.
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