The Forgotten Bushfires – 1925/26.

Bushfires have undoubtedly always been a feature of Australian summers, with many devastating and uncontrolled blazes sweeping the forests and rural farmlands across the Colony of Victoria during the 1800s. The most notable ones being in 1851 and again in 1898 with bushfires that engulfed much of South Gippsland.

While lightning was a common cause, the Forests Commission’s 1925/26 annual report attributed nearly half the bushfires on State forest to careless graziers, sportsmen, settlers, licensees, arson, campers and tourists.

A century ago, in late October 1925, unseasonal bushfires broke out at Olinda and Sassafras in the Dandenong Ranges and at Healesville in the Yarra Valley.

Over the remaining summer period, serious bushfires continued to burn from January through to early March 1926.

The bushfires swept across about one million acres from Melbourne to Mallacoota in far east Gippsland, the Central Highlands, the Yarra Valley, the Dandenong Ranges and Kinglake. There were other major fires in southern NSW. The open cut coal mine at Yallourn was also alight.

Sunday 14 February dawned hot with a rising north wind. By midday, the smell of burning bush was strong in the air and scorched leaves were falling. Fanned by hot gusty winds up to 60 miles per hour, the existing fire fronts joined up and killed at least 30 people, on what became known as Black Sunday.

A generous public contributed nearly £200,000 to the Lord Mayor’s relief fund to support bushfire victims.

There were many tales of heroism, and, in some towns, they spoke of miracles.

Sadly, the deadly bushfires of 1926, and the tragic losses, are now largely forgotten. They were probably eclipsed by other calamitous and deadly bushfires in 1939, just 13 years later.

But these 1926 fires were to have very significant and long-lasting consequences.

They shaped rural firefighting in Victoria, with many rural fire brigades celebrating their centenary this year.

The 1926 bushfires also initiated several technological advances.  The Forests Commission commenced discussions with the Air Board which led to Australia’s first bushfire reconnaissance flights by the RAAF in 1930. They were also the precursor to annual bushfire awareness programs and better fire weather forecasting.

In combination with later bushfires in 1932 and 1939 they were also to leave a lasting impact on the wet mountain forests of the Central Highlands.

Over the next week or so I will explore a number of these forgotten stories of 1925/25 bushfire season.