Sumner Spur is located in the headwaters of Big Pats Creek rising up to the Britannia Range, generally south of Warburton, in the former Powelltown Forest District.
This area had been heavily utilised to supply wood for the Britannia Creek distillation works from 1907 and had almost exclusively regenerated to dense stands of silver wattle (Acacia dealbata) rather than the original stands of mountain ash.
There were other large areas of wattle, particularly in the Bunyip catchment, which were the result of repeated bushfires in 1926, 1932 and 1939.
By the early 1970s, silvicultural knowledge had grown after the pioneering work of foresters like Jack Gillespie, and the methods of regeneration by clearing of overstorey, burning of slash and seeding or planting were well known, but the problem of reforesting sites in dense growth of wattle remained.
Frank May was posted to Powelltown as the District Forester in 1963 after a stint in East Gippsland, and being a little innovative saw the potential to return the area to its former eucalypt condition. Herb Beetham was Divisional Forester at Healesville while Con Wood the Aviation Officer in Fire Protection Branch
Fixed-wing aircraft were used to spray chemical desiccants to kill the wattle, bulldozers dragged heavy chains to bring down the dead stems, which was followed by a spectacular slash burn to prepare the site. Aircraft then spread coated eucalypt seed.
But this work required the construction of an airstrip.
Commission staff and crew from both Powelltown and East Warburton sub-district were employed on these tasks over several years.
The airstrip was also used to spray Phasmatids.
These images of construction and operations were made by local forester, Gregor Wallace, and cover dates from December 1969 to January 1972. They record only a little of the operations conducted from Sumner Spur.
The airstrip was replanted after the 1983 bushfires and is not visible today.
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 