Fire Awareness Week.

In an Australian first, Bushfire Prevention Week was initiated by the Forests Commission in the wake of the disastrous 1926 bushfires.

Victoria’s State Governor, Lord Somers, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Sir Harold Luxton and the newly appointed Minister for Forests, William Beckett launched the innovative campaign with great flourish to 250 invited guests at Melbourne’s opulent Town Hall on Monday 13 January 1930.

Special church sermons had been held on the previous Sunday.

The packed program of gala events included lavish luncheon talks at posh city clubs, scholarly lectures broadcast on the wireless, together with daily articles in the Melbourne and country press about the need for fire prevention.

The Shell Petrol Company of Australia supplied 15,000 windshield stickers, the British Australasian Tobacco Company donated a large supply of stamp stickers, while many other companies drew attention to the campaign in their newspaper advertisements.

The Victorian Railways and many city firms displayed special fire posters, while Bryant and May posted messages on their limited-edition matchbox covers which are now highly prized by phillumenists (i.e., matchbox collectors).

The Postmaster General’s Department (PMG) franked postage stamps and letters with special bushfire slogans.

Canvas and enamel fire prevention signs were erected on most roads leading to State forest areas. While plainclothes police were secretly deployed to the bush to arrest potential arsonists.

Significantly, Australia’s very first aerial bushfire reconnaissance flight using RAAF Wapitis took off from Point Cook a few weeks later on 18 February 1930.

Letters to the Editor later appeared in many city and country newspapers extolling the virtues of Bushfire Prevention Week and urging for its continuation.

The Forests Commission in its 1929/30 Annual Report, under the title of “Propaganda”, noted with some triumph…

“One of the most gratifying features of the ”Week” was its low cost to the Government, the major part of the publicity material being donated by private firms.”

And so for the next 30 years until the 1960s, Bushfire Prevention Week continued unabated with the Forests Commission producing a series of coloured “Magic Lantern” slides which were manufactured by Alex Gunn and Sons in Collins Street Melbourne for screening by Val Morgan advertising at cinemas.

The slides famously introduced the menacing character, Willy Wildfire, warning motorists to be careful with matches.

Now known as Fire Action Week, it remains a key event in the annual calendar and is still going strong…

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/203104634