Charles George Pettman began working with the Forests Commission in the early 1930s on an unemployment relief program.
About 30 unemployed men came from Melbourne and beyond to their first camp on the old Princes Highway at Burnt Bridge, which was situated on the Toorloo Arm of Lake Tyers in East Gippsland.
There was a hot meal ready when the men arrived, enough kerosine in lanterns for one night, and their beds were two poles on forked sticks and two chaff bags. Clothing, boots and blankets could be purchased from the Commission while food came from Lakes Entrance. The men were paid on a Friday, but 5/8ths of their pay was sent home to their dependants.
The Forests Commission supervising officer was Freddie Kerr and the crew were engaged for three months for silvicultural works such as ring-barking the overmature trees to release the regrowth. Most of the men had never used axes before and blisters were common, but after 3 months there were some good axemen amongst them. They also fought bushfires in the summer and did fuel reduction burning along firebreaks during the autumn.
At the time, the Forests Commission only had rakes, slashers, axes and knapsacks to fight bushfires. There were very few motor vehicles or spotting towers, so the Commission employed fireguards such as Bill Ah Chow and Charlie Pendergast to patrol the bush on horseback to spot fires.
Because there weren’t many roads, fires started by lightning in the mountains meant a lot of walking. So, in the remote high country they were often left to trickle and the cattlemen kept the Commission office informed.
During the war years, Charlie supervised charcoal burning crews near Nowa Nowa. The wood for the kilns was cut from the old ring-barked trees and the charcoal was bagged and transported by train to Melbourne for use in gas-producer cars.
Charlie also helped build Cosstick’s Weir in the Colquhoun State forest in 1945. The weir was used for fire protection and not to fill steam trains as is a common rumour.
After the war, Charlie remained with the Commission building roads in the Irish waterholes area. The thick scrub was first cut with a hand slasher, the trees grubbed out with hand tools and the logs rolled off the road by hand, until blocks and tackle became available. The arrival of bulldozers and graders as well as an ex-army 4WD White Scout Car for transport made the work much easier.
The Nunnett Road was also built by Charlie to open the area for logging, and he later was given the job to supervise the harvesting contractors.
During his career with the Commission, Charlie fought in many major bushfires including the 1965 blaze which burned for several weeks from Lake Glenmaggie to beyond Bruthen.
He retired from the Commission in 1975 and took a role as a guide with Forestours during the holiday period.
For a more detailed account
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 