The 1926 fires don’t feature in great artworks like those of Black Thursday in 1851 and Red Tuesday 1898, nor were they memorialised in monuments, literature or history.
There was no formal inquiry either. The Premier, John Allan, Australia’s first Country Party Premier, resisted calls by the Labor Opposition for a joint parliamentary committee.
But coronial inquests were quickly held, and verdicts of accidental death were entered.
Community attitudes to bushfire were characteristically relaxed. Farmers and graziers, especially in remote areas, routinely used fire to clear scrub or encourage new grass for stock, even when this endangered the adjoining State forest.
Before the formation of fire services, families in rural areas needed to work together to defend themselves, their homes, livelihoods, farms and communities against the bushfire menace. They had no choice. There were inevitably failures, as well as successes. But they were resilient and rebuilt their lives with strong community support.
The fledgling Forests Commission, established in 1919, had few resources to battle the 1926 blazes in these remote areas.
The Minister for Forests, Horace Richardson and a couple of the FCV Commissioners, William James Code and Alfred Vernon Galbraith, were on tour in Gippsland during early February 1926. They were making their way to Bairnsdale by road when they were nearly all toasted at the Haunted Hills near Moe.
Charles Herschell, photographer, filmmaker and owner of Herschell’s Films, a famous Melbourne production company during the 1930s, was with the party at the time and later used the FCV footage to make a short silent film to promote fundraising for bushfire victims.
Generous donations were made to the fund organised by the Lord Mayor, Sir William Brunton, for the relief of the survivors. The people of Victoria readily responded to an appeal for funds to reinstate the homeless, and approximately £190,000 was subscribed. This fund was supplemented with a grant of £100,000 from the State Cabinet.
Mr Charles Claus Gale, as Secretary to the Cabinet relief committee, and the Secretary of the Lord Mayor’s fund committee, Mr T. Forristal, were responsible for the administration and disbursement of the fund
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/223845607
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 