Author Archives: Peter McHugh

Like lots of people, I enjoy the views from above – from an aeroplane, a helicopter, a hot air balloon, a bushfire lookout or the top of a tall building. William Herbert Hansom was better known as “Airspy” and was a pioneering aerial photographer based in Melbourne during the period after WW1. He was bornContinue reading “Airspy – William Hansom & Charles Pratt.”

The 1980s will be remembered as the beginning of the heady era of “big money”. An era of conspicuous consumption perhaps best characterised by flamboyant and freewheeling entrepreneurs like Christopher Skase and Alan Bond, celebrities in private jets and luxury tax-dodgem cars, newfangled mobile phones, expensive consultants in sharp Zegna suits, and power dressing withContinue reading “Process Gridlock.”

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 atContinue reading “Fire Awareness Week.”

Uncontrolled bushfires had been burning from early October 1925 in many places such as Olinda and Sassafras in the Dandenong Ranges and at Healesville in the Yarra Valley. The forests at Powelltown, Noojee, Toorongo Plateau and the Baw Baw Ranges were then swept by fire on 14 and 15 February 1926, killing stands of matureContinue reading “Impact on the forests.”

In the early part of last century, there was limited road access to the extensive mountain forests, particularly in the remote and uninhabited eastern ranges, so there was strong enthusiasm amongst Victorian foresters for aerial reconnaissance. The first Chairman of the Forests Commission, Owen Jones, had been one of Britain’s pioneering aviators in the RoyalContinue reading “Aerial Fire Spotting.”

As the 1925/26 summer approached, the Government meteorologist, Mr Hunt, warned that temperatures over the ensuing weeks were expected to be higher than the previous year and much of the country to the north was already parched. The Commission became keenly interested in the practical application of meteorology and believed that relative humidity was aContinue reading “Fire Weather Forecasting.”

Considered in terms of loss of property and life, the Black Friday bushfires on 13 January 1939 were one of the worst disasters to have occurred in Australia, and certainly the worst bushfires up to that time. The 1939 bushfires killed 71 people and burnt 2 million hectares, 69 sawmills, and obliterated several towns. TheyContinue reading “Judge Stretton & the CFA.”

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) was established under the Fire Brigades Act (1890) from fractious beginnings when Melbourne’s 56 existing fire brigades were forcibly disbanded and reformed under a single umbrella. The Country Fire Brigades Board (CFBB) was founded by legislation at the same time as the MFB and was given power and responsibility overContinue reading “Forming Rural Fire Brigades.”

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. ButContinue reading “Community Response.”

On St Valentines Day, 14 February 1926, the bushfires already burning in the State’s forests joined up, fanned by gusty winds up to 60 miles per hour. Places like Warburton, Powelltown, Gilderoy, Gembrook, Noojee and Erica bore the brunt of the inferno in what later became known as Black Sunday. An accurate and consistent tallyContinue reading “Black Sunday – 14 February.”

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,Continue reading “The Forgotten Bushfires – 1925/26.”

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 wattleContinue reading “Sumner Spur Airstrip – Powelltown.”

The Balt Camp near Bullarto South in the Wombat State Forest was used for displaced refugees after World War 2, including those from the Baltic States. It’s unclear if a camp existed at the site before the War but one may have been part of the susso unemployment scheme in the 1930s. The first groupContinue reading “Balt Camp – Bullarto South.”

It was during the war that the nation relied on timber more than ever before.  Some of the longest spans and most diverse timber structures were built in Australian history during this period. As the first American forces arrived in Australia in 1942 the Federal Government began to recognise that timber was an essential warContinue reading “Large Timber Buildings.”

The Stretton Royal Commission into the 1939 bushfires considered in detail the use of bushfire dugouts. The report noted – After the 1926 fires, the question of insisting upon the installation of dugouts at mills for protection of the millworkers was raised by the Forests Commission. The Commission was  divided in opinion and the matterContinue reading “Dugouts.”

Today marks two years since commercial timber harvesting on Victorian State forests ceased. And it’s been a difficult transition for many. One of the major consequences has been the loss of experienced machine operators and logging contractors to assist with forest firefighting. Sawmill workers and logging contractors have always been an integral part of Victoria’s firefightingContinue reading “Logging Contractors & Firefighting.”