The first batch of “Balts” destined for the Otway forests arrived in Colac on 8 April 1949, after having travelled by train from their processing centre at Bathurst in New South Wales.
Others had been assigned to nation-building projects like the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
Many of these post-war immigrants and refugees came from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, which included the Baltic Sea States of northern Europe.
Across war-ravaged Europe, there were several million others just like them who had either been forced into labour for the Nazis or who were anti-communist and fled as the Russian Army advanced and the Iron Curtain fell.
During the dying days of World War Two on 2 August 1945, in a momentous parliamentary speech, the new Labor Immigration Minister Arthur Caldwell advocated the far-reaching policy of “Populate-or-Perish”.
“If Australians have learned one lesson from the Pacific War it is surely that we cannot continue to hold our island continent for ourselves and our descendants unless we greatly increase our numbers. We are about 7 million people and we hold 3 million square miles of this Earth surface … much development and settlement have yet to be undertaken. Our need to undertake it is urgent and imperative if we are to survive.”
Arguably, the story of modern Australia began right there with the switch to assisting “Displaced Persons”, as they were officially known.
Part of their agreement was to work for two-years in a government-sponsored resettlement program which opened the door to over 170,000.
The first group of fifteen men sent to the Otways stayed overnight at the YMCA in Melbourne before catching the train to Colac, where they were greeted by the local Country Women’s Association (CWA) and given lunch.
They were transported in an open tray truck along the rough and winding road to Beech Forest and allocated wet-weather gear before the final journey to their new home deep in the bush.
The Forests Commission had built a camp next to the Aire Valley Redwoods earlier in March 1948 which consisted of a cookhouse and mess, shower block, toilets, woodshed and eighteen small two-man Stanley Huts.
It was reportedly a bleak existence, particularly in winter, but they made the camp comfortable and enjoyed the freedom.
Many of these men had previously lived in either concentration camps, Prisoner-of-War camps or other detention centres.
But they still had to contend with a language barrier, a different culture and lifestyle, isolation from friends and family and occasionally less-than-friendly treatment from their Australian workmates.
The Balts had come to replant the degraded and abandoned farmland in the Otway Ranges which had been progressively purchased by the Forests Commission and replanted from the early 1930s in a similar but smaller scheme to the Strzelecki Ranges
Their camp was next to a trial plot of Coast Redwoods in the Aire Valley planted earlier in 1936. The initial growth of the seedlings was disappointingly slow, but they are now about 60 metres tall.
This eerie and enchanting grove of redwoods has become a popular tourist destination.
Measurements in 2004 by Roger Smith show the trees have the potential to reach as tall as their Californian counterparts if left undisturbed from bushfire, pests and disease, or trampling by tourists.
Construction of an all-weather road network by the Forests Commission during the 1950s made daily commuting a possibility that led to the closure of the Aire Valley camp.
Many of the Balts later married and made their homes, and raised their families, in nearby towns and cities like Beech Forest and Colac.
Several of the Forests Commission’s other pre-existing camps, some of which had been used for unemployment schemes during the 1930s Depression, and later as Internment and POW camps, were repurposed once again for the Balts.
The Balts also worked in forest assessment crews and as camp cooks and many stayed-on with the Forests Commission to enrich our lives.
Top Image: The enchanting stand of coast redwoods was planted in the Aire Valley in 1936 and has become a popular tourist destination. Photo: “The Redwoods of the Otway Ranges” by Roger Smith.
Photograph taken in 1949 by C Ceilesz (Source: R Smith, 2015) : Aire Valley Camp – 13 year old Redwoods behind the camp.
The Aire Valley camp in 1959. The coast redwoods were 23 years old and have branches reaching over the rooftops of the huts. The camp had been closed since about 1950 as the all-weather road forest network extended making daily commuting to work a possibility so the crews moved into the comfort of towns like Beech Forest or Colac. From: “The Redwoods of the Otway Ranges” by Roger Smith.Photograph taken in 1950 by C Ceilesz (Source: R Smith, 2015) : Aire Valley Camp – 14 year old Redwoods behind the campPhotograph taken in 1949 by C Ceilesz (Source: R Smith, 2015) : Aire Valley Camp – refugees from the Baltic States playing volleyballTwo cheerful Polish immigrants, Lucian Krugly and Joe Kurowski, worked with the forest assessment crew at Sandy Creek near Bullumwaal in 1951. Photo: Leon Pederick.Photograph from 1961 (Source: B Fry) : John Ansis Heislers in Childers PlantationJohn Heislers was a post-war refugee that made a big impact on forestry in Victoria. John enrolled in forest science at Riga University in Latvia in 1931 and graduated in May 1940 after various interruptions. Soviet troops initially occupied the country during the War but later in 1942 Germans occupied Latvia. In June 1946, John escaped with his family to West Germany where they spent three years in a refugee camp at Wedel near Hamburg. Here also John worked for a time in the forests, cutting firewood. He arrived in Melbourne as a refugee in June 1949 and by 1950/51 was appointed to a new position of Plantation Research Officer, later based in Mirboo North, where he remained until November 1970. John was instrumental in reforestation of the Strzelecki Ranges. In 1983 he lost his home in the Ash Wednesday bushfires near Macedon and just escaped with his life. His grandson now works for Hancock Victorian Plantations in some of the plantations he established Photograph from 1961 in Childers Plantation. Source: Brian Fry. https://www.victoriasforestryheritage.org.au/people1/articles-about/64-heislers-john.html The amazing story of Czeslaw Cielesz who spent World War Two in a German Prisoner of War camp. He was one of the first to arrive at the Aire Valley Camp in April 1949. Czes married Wilma Cameron from Beech Forest, the sister of the local FCV Forest Foreman, Stewart Cameron. Czes and Wilma settled in Colac. Story courtesy of the Colac Herald – Friday, May 11, 2007. The new Labor Immigration Minster, Arthur Caldwell, advocated strongly for post-war Australia to “Populate or Perish”. In a momentous parliamentary speech on 2 August 1945.The first batch of “Balts” destined for the Otway forests arrived in Colac on 8 April 1949, having travelled by train from their processing centre at Bathurst in New South Wales. But first, they underwent an induction program into the peculiar ways of Australian life and culture. Photo: National Archives.Migrant Arrivals – Displaced Persons from Europe – HMAS Kanimbla arrives at Melbourne with the first group of displaced persons in Dec 1947 where they joined the train bound for Bonegilla Migrant Camp near Albury. The photo on the cover of this book is from the National Archives.Australian Government poster displayed between 1949 and 1951 in reception rooms and dining halls at various migrant reception centres in Australia. Source: National Archives.
Short film about new Australian citizens at Bonegilla in 1948.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to a worldwide economic collapse, which quickly spread to the Australian economy and signalled the beginning of the “Great Depression”.
At its worst in 1932, unemployment in Australia reached 32 percent, but this figure did not include women who had lost their jobs or teenagers who had never had one.
To relieve the distress caused by unemployment the Victorian Parliament established a sustenance relief fund.
Many families depended on these government payments and were called “sussos”, which was slang for sustenance.
Payments were only available for the truly destitute, who had been unemployed for a sustained period, and had no assets or savings.
Sustenance payments were made of 8s 6d per week for a man and wife, with an additional 1s 6d per week for each additional child, up to a maximum of 20s 6d per week. By 1932, more than 60,000 people depended on sustenance payments
And individuals receiving sustenance were obliged to work.
A central Unemployment Relief Works Board was formed to assess projects, and allocate money, while local relief committees were created throughout Victoria.
Forests Commission work, unlike major infrastructure projects like the Yarra Boulevard or Melbourne’s water mains, was considered very effective because most of the money was spent on labour, with only about 5 percent on materials.
It also provided much needed employment for rural communities, it could be quickly mobilised, and could employ large numbers of city and country men doing unskilled manual labour.
Other large state government agencies in rural areas such as the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, Country Roads Board and the Victorian Railways also ran successful susso programs.
Although it must be said that the unemployment relief program was plagued by political interference, with largess flowing to marginal electorates and party supporters of the Ministers choosing.
Men employed by the Forests Commission often did silvicultural works like thinning, ringbarking and coppicing to release new growth, as well as firebreak construction, road works, nursery work and plantation establishment.
The works were arranged and supervised by Commission overseers.
But there was a certain irony to these susso programs during the Great Depression. Thin royalty revenues from the sale of sawlogs and forest products restricted the funds available to the Commission for much needed fire protection and silvicultural works.
The slump in revenue also led to the retrenchment of staff at the same time as the Commission had to manage the employment of large number of relief workers.
During 1931-32 a total of 5,735 men were employed on forest works. They mostly included married men. The total FCV expenditure from unemployment relief funds on forest works was £11,870 3s. 5d.
The following year, in 1932-33, unemployment relief funds gave work to 8,792 men, for periods up to 8 weeks. The total expenditure grew to £205,645.
The need for unemployment relief funds diminished by 1939-40 with the start of WW2.
Between 1931 and 1943 the Forests Commission spent approximately £1.5 million pounds and employed about 51,300 people. Some may have been employed more than once, and in different locations.
Better still, some of the men proved very capable and well suited to forestry work and found ongoing employment on the crew or as overseers with the Commission.
It took almost ten years for the Australian economy to recover from the Great Depression, but it affected people deeply for decades to come. It also radically changed economic thinking and policy in Australia. There were other smaller relief programs over the subsequent decades
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Forests Commission undertook a large unemployment program. By 1935-36 almost 9000 men, or susso’s, were employed doing firebreak slashing, silvicultural thinning, weed spraying, firewood cutting and rabbit control. Photo: Rheola/Bealiba in Central Victoria.
History has shown that after each major bushfire, particularly if there has been a significant loss of life and property, there are vocal calls from affected communities and media commentators for State and Local Governments to stop further land subdivision, to apply restrictive building standards and buyback high-risk homes on the forest fringe.
The Black Saturday Royal Commission in 2009 was no exception and controversially recommended “retreat and resettlement” as a strategy to move people away from the urban/forest interface.
But the most notable and sustained buyback scheme commenced in the Dandenong Ranges after the 1962 bushfires which killed 33 people and destroyed more than 450 homes.
Areas of high fire risk such as the steep and exposed western face of the Dandenongs, just below the prominent TV towers, were identified. Conservation value was also an important criteria for purchase.
But the decision came with considerable heartache…
The buyback proved divisive with a mixture of voluntary and targeted acquisition which did not please everyone.
It was also complex and emotionally fraught with local District Foresters Jim Westcott, and later Frank May, often on the receiving end of residents anger and frustration over their broken dreams and fears of diminished property values.
Jim Westcott was later awarded an MBE in recognition of his service to conservation, fire protection and community affairs while in the Forests Commission.
While some left willingly, some residents simply refused to budge, but more deadly bushfires in 1968 strengthened the Government’s resolve.
Behind the scenes, Bill Borthwick who was the influential and well-respected local Member of State Parliament between 1960 and 1982, lobbied effectively to sustain momentum, focus and funding throughout his tenure.
The buyback program ended in about 1984, coinciding with a change of government, by which time it had quietly and patiently purchased thousands of vacant allotments and hundreds of family homes that were demolished, and the land reforested.
The only evidence today being the occasional broken brick or rogue garden plant.
The purchased land and its fire protection liability returned to public ownership, but the fragmentation of the private land interface adjoining State forest reduced as allotments were progressively consolidated. The Dandenong Ranges National Park was proclaimed in 1987.
Some significant and historic properties were procured including the magnificent Doongalla Estate at the foot of the Dandenongs earlier in 1950. The original mansion consisted of 32 rooms and was built in 1892 but was destroyed by a bushfire in 1932. The stables, servants quarters, gardens and about 300ha of forest are all that remained.
A large Forests Commission pine plantation at Olinda was also burnt in 1962, and after a lengthy period of procrastination, local FCV crews began replanting the 192 hectares in the mid-1970s with exotic and less-flammable species such as oaks and elms.
The resultant R. J. Hamer Forest Arboretum was opened on 22 April 1977 in honour of the State Premier who had supported its development and who was the patron of the “Victoria – The Garden State” campaign.
The Arboretum adjoined the 34-hectare Olinda Golf Course, Olinda Recreation Reserve and the National Rhododendron Gardens, which collectively acted as a unique strategic firebreak.
The Olinda Swimming Pool was also built after the 1962 bushfires as an emergency fire dam.
The Holly Hill Estate at Ferny Creek is just one of many typical early subdivisions in the Dandenong Ranges. The auction in 1918 was targeted at families wanting to escape the city and many settled to the area. The buyback of 20 allotments totalling about 30 acres on the steeper western side of Clarke Road began in 1962 and ended in about 1984. The remaining 56 blocks to the eastern side of Clarke road are flatter and less fire-prone so the houses were not targeted for acquisition. The cleared Nicholas Horse Paddock in the southern corner was purchased in 1976. Map: State Library. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/169557On the western side of Clarke Road at Ferny Creek the land is steep and a greater fire hazard, so it was targeted for purchase. The houses were demolished, and the block reforested. Sweet Road disappeared altogether. The large 40-acre Nicholas Horse Paddock was purchased in 1976 and remains grazed as a strategic firebreak. The buyback program ran until about 1984 and the land is now incorporated into the Dandenong Ranges National Park. Source: DELWP MapShareView looking east towards the junction of Clarke Road and the Mt Dandenong Tourist Road from the Nicholas Horse Paddock. This 40-acre block was purchased in 1976 and is deliberately kept grazed as a strategic firebreak. Circa 1940s. Source: State Library of Victoria. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/63782Peter Button sits sadly with some fragments of his first home in Ferny Creek which was acquired by the Forests Commission in the late-1960s. The land buyback scheme was an easy thing for politicians, local councils, bureaucrats and the media to say but it profoundly affected people and their families. The land that Peter once owned is now part of the Dandenong Ranges National Park. Source: Darren Grey, The Age – August 2010.The local Forests Commission foreman, Charlie Chamberlain, lost his Departmental house in Chalet Road at Olinda in 1962 as the bushfires roared up from the FCV pine plantation below. Photo of Charlie standing in the rubble courtesy of his son, Peter Chamberlain.The present R J Hamer Forest Arboretum at Olinda, which had been an FCV pine plantation prior to the 1962 fires, was opened by the State Premier in 1977. Source: FCV Annual Report.The R J Hamer Forest Arboretum plaque. Photo: Peter McHugh – 2019.
The National Rhododendron Gardens at Olinda was established on 100 acres of State forest with the assistance of the Premier Sir Henry Bolte and Commission in 1960. The site was adjacent to the Olinda Golf course and the R J Hamer Arboretum which together formed an important strategic firebreak. Source: FCV Annual Report.
The RJ Hamer Arboretum adjoined the 34-hectare Olinda Golf Course, Olinda Recreation Reserve and the National Rhododendron Gardens, which collectively acted as a unique strategic firebreak. The Olinda Swimming Pool was also built after the 1962 bushfires as an emergency fire dam. Source: DELWP MapShareForests Commission Olinda State forest acted as a strategic firebreak which ran east-west across the main ridge above Silvan reservoir. c 1979. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/139815
One of the quirkier land parcels in the buyback program was the site of the Fox’s Point Scenic Railway which ran up the north face of the Dandenong Ranges near Kalorama. The now long forgotten railway was built by Mr. Neil Foxcroft in about 1953 to carry building materials up to his house and was later converted into a tourist attraction which ran until 1961. Passengers travelled 200 feet along the tracks lifting them 110 feet to a kiosk and Fox’s Point Lookout, a steep slope of about 30 degrees. The tourist railway and Mr. Foxcroft’s home were all lost in the 1962 bushfires and the tracks dismantled in 1965. The land was purchased by the Forests Commission in 1974 after major landslips blocked the main road in 1972. Photo: Museum Victoria – circa 1955. https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/5600e69c400d0c1c70acd64c
“Invermay”, The Basin, Dandenong Ranges, circa 1890. Invermay was built in 1892 by Sir Matthew Davies in The Basin, part of the Dandenongs, using some of the first machine-made bricks in the colony and split timber walls transported to the building site on a purpose-built railway. Miss Helen Simpson bought the property about the turn of the century when she renamed it “Doongall”a, added stables and established a fine garden. T.M. Burke was the last owner when the house burnt down in 1930. Photo by Archibald James Campbell, part of the Museums Victoria Collection. https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/794793
Olinda Golf Course was on State forest. The softwood plantation is visible in the background near Silvan Reservoir. Photo: 1952. Source: State Library http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/337083From Lost Dandenong’s FB page
From Lost Dandenong’s FB page
The buyback program wasn’t universally popular amongst Dandenong Ranges residents, particularly as time passed, but more deadly bushfires in 1968 strengthened the Government’s resolve to persist. Photo: Museum Victoria. https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/801905A quick fill… topping up a knapsack on the Mount Dandenong Road during the 1962 bushfires.
The steep western face of the Dandenong Ranges below the TV towers was an obvious priority for the buyback program after both the 1962 and 1968 bushfires. Photo of a recent planned burn. Source: DELWP.A deliberately lit bushfire in January 1997 which killed 3 people and destroyed 42 homes came perilously close to the old Holly Hill Estate in Ferny Creek that had been bought back. (see smoke rising up gullies on the western face of the Dandenong Ranges on the left side of this aerial photo.A significant consequence of the success of the buyback scheme was the progressive increase in the length of firebreaks on State forest that needed to be slashed each year. The Dandenong Ranges National Park was proclaimed in 1987. Photo: Yarra Ranges Contracting.
Top Image: Their faces say it all…. with flames roaring down on them, two young women frantically loaded their father’s truck with bedding from their house in Butler’s Road in Lower Ferntree Gully on January 16, 1962. Source: The Age.
Any references to Australian landscape photography at the turn of last century must include John William Lindt and Nicholas John Caire.
While both pursued different photographic trajectories, they were equally charmed by the area north of Healesville including Fernshaw, Black Spur, Narbethong and Marysville.
And between them, they did much to popularise these magnificent forests to Melbourne day-trippers.
Lindt was born in Germany in 1845 and ran away to sea on a Danish ship at age 17. He jumped ship in Brisbane and after working at various jobs, bought a photographic studio at Grafton NSW in 1868.
He moved to Melbourne in 1876 and set up business at the posh end of Spring Street directly opposite the Treasury buildings.
But Victoria’s economic depression in the early 1890s forced him to close his city studios, and in 1895 he quit Melbourne altogether and moved to Narbethong on the Blacks Spur where he purchased about 80 acres and built The Hermitage.
The Hermitage was a picturesque complex of six separate timber buildings, set in landscaped gardens on a steeply sloping site of mountain ash forests. The garden was designed by Ferdinand Von Mueller, a friend of Lindt’s.
For the next fifteen years Lindt improved the property, and it grew to accommodate about 30 well-heeled guests. The buildings included the main house, studio, smoker’s cottage and guest house.
In the 10 years between 1882 and 1892 Lindt sold over 25,000 prints of the Black Spur, including a massive tree he named Uncle Sam, which measured 40 feet girth and 250 feet tall.
The tree was about 2 miles north of Fernshaw on a bend on the old road. This road, R24, is now within the closed catchment and not available to public access.
A new road was built from Fernshaw over Dom Dom saddle in about 1930, which then became probably one of Victoria’s most iconic and scenic forest drives.
In 1904, Lindt and Caire wrote the “Companion Guide to Healesville, Black’s Spur Narbethong and Marysville”. The guide advised of walks to be enjoyed, the trains that would get you there, and the scenery to be relished and photographed.
The road in the main follows the eastern slope of the valley of Myrtle Creek, and about two miles from Fernshaw takes a sharp turn round the head of one of its feeders. In the angle of this elbow stands a great gum tree known as “Uncle Sam.” This spot has been rendered historical by the fact that Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales (then Duchess of York) and party camped here for luncheon during her visit to this locality in 1901.
But in January 1908 Caire reported that Uncle Sam had been uprooted in a storm.
Lindt died dramatically of a heart attack at the age of 81 during the February 1926 bushfires. The nearby ranges had been smouldering for days before bursting towards The Hermitage which was suddenly surrounded by burning forests. A sudden cloudburst quenched the flames, and John William Lindt was dead.
Christmas Day under Uncle Sam, a giant gumtree, on the Blacks Spur Road, measuring forty-four feet in circumference. 1878. Source: SLV. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/170436
Moscow Villa has miraculously survived bushfires and vandalism, along with the ravages of time and weather, to become an iconic visitor destination in the remote State forests of East Gippsland.
But few people know the remarkable story about the man who built it, Thomas William (Bill) Ah Chow.
Bill was Chinese, ANZAC, farmer, roustabout, horseman, firetower lookout, legendary bushman and epic storyteller of East Gippsland.
Bill was born in Bruthen in 1892, as one of 13 children, and only had two years at school before he took a job as a farm roustabout and boundary rider on the remote and historic Bindi Station east of Omeo which was established in 1834.
Bill tried twice to join the army but was initially rejected because of his obvious Chinese appearance. Undeterred, he reapplied and was accepted in June 1917, where he served on the western front. He was not only gassed, but also wounded three times, once seriously of a gunshot wound to his right shoulder on 31 July 1918. His injuries affected him for the remainder of his life, and, like many men of his generation, Bill rarely spoke of his wartime experiences.
Bill returned to Bruthen after the war where he drove sheep and worked cattle. He married Myrtle Cox in 1920 and they initially lived in Swan Reach. The couple had two children Raymond William (1921) and Rose Myrtle (1923).
In 1923 Bill applied for, and after some initial rejections was granted, two small allotments of land near Mossiface under the Soldier Settlement Scheme. Bill stayed on his block until 30 March 1926, but his oat and maize crops were not a success.
Bill later helped to construct the wooden fire tower at Mt Nowa Nowa for the Forests Commission Victoria in 1926-27 after he moved to Buchan South.
In the late 1930s, with his good local knowledge of the mountain ranges, Bill was offered a new job as a fire lookout over the summer months at Mt Nugong by the local District Forester, Jim Westcott.
Mt Nugong is east of Swifts Creek and sits at an elevation of 1482 m. The summit has commanding views over the extensive mountain forests as well as the Tambo Valley below and was one of a network of fire lookouts (hilltop clearings) and fire towers (built structures) created across Victoria as consequence of the Stretton Royal Commission into the disastrous 1939 Black Friday bushfires.
Bill was paid a wage as a Fireguard plus allowances for camping and for providing his own riding horse, packhorse with packsaddle and saddle bags. Provisions and fodder for his horses, were purchased in Bruthen and delivered once a fortnight by the local Forests Commission officer assigned to oversee the area.
Bill rode his horse 3km up the mountain each day from Bentley’s Plain and sat out in the open on a rock with his heavy RC-16 portable radio and spare battery. And after unloading his packsaddles, Bill often let both his horses roam free to make their own way home back down to his camp.
Prior to a firetower and Stanley Hut being built on Mt Nugong, there was little shelter from sun, wind or cold. In 1952 the Forests Commission scrounged a decommissioned control tower from the RAAF at Bairnsdale Airfield. The tubular-steel scaffold was transported up the steep mountainside and re-assembled by local FCV crews. This first tower survived two decades before a storm blew it down in 1974 and it needed to be rebuilt.
Bill often boasted about his eagle eyesight but also complained that the Forests Commission wouldn’t issue him binoculars. The new firetower was eventually equipped with an alidade table to record compass bearings to smoke sightings and lightning strikes as well as a fixed radio set to communicate with Bruthen and Swifts Creek.
Bill helped to build Commins Hut and cattle yards on Quinn’s Plain in 1937 for James (Jim) Commins and Charlie Duke who leased the Nunniong Cattle Run. It was used when mustering stock and Bill Ah Chow also stayed there prior to building his own hut nearby.
Moscow Villa was built on the picturesque Bentley’s Plain and completed in January 1942, on the day the Battle of Moscow was won. And don’t forget… in 1942 the Soviets were on the side of the allies fighting against the Nazis.
While there are some variations to the story, which is common with oral history, bush folklore has it that Moscow Villa was visited at some stage in the mid-1940s by a party of senior Forests Commission officials from Bairnsdale which included Herbert Duncan Galbraith, the Divisional Inspector (and the man behind Stringers Knob near Orbost), who later became Commissioner, whereupon Bill was challenged about his loyalty and the name of his hut.
Bill swiftly retorted that he was not a communist and that the name was an acronym for…
My Own Summer Cottage Officially Welcomes Visitors Inside Light Luncheon Available
Bill’s quick wit and humour prevailed, and his hut retained its quirky name.
Bill lived alone in his hut during the summer months and returned to his family at Ensay during winter. He also had a reputation for welcoming walkers, fisherman and foresters into his comfortable hut to sit around the fire, to share a meal, and enjoy an evening of bush yarns.
And with very little encouragement, Bill donned his colourful robes for his guests and claimed to be a descendant of Chinese Royalty, but his family believes it was more likely he picked them up from a second-hand shop in Little Bourke Street.
At the end of the summer fire spotting season, and after the first good rains of autumn, Bill set off alone on his horse along the many bridle paths that criss-crossed the alpine country as far as the NSW border throwing matches along the way to burn forest fuels and reduce the bushfire risk.
And when not on fire lookout duty Bill assisted local crews with his beloved Clydesdale Horses building nearby forest roads.
Bill worked for the Forests Commission as fireguard at Mt Nugong for more than two decades until 1957 but sometimes came out of retirement when a replacement couldn’t be found.
Thomas William (Bill) Ah Chow died on 18 August 1967 at Omeo, aged 74, and is buried at the Ensay cemetery.
Every organisation has a handful of colourful characters, and the Forests Commission had its share, but Bill remains one of its enduring legends.
Top Photo: Studio image of Bill in his colourful robes. Circa 1930s. Source: Athol Hodgson.
A big thank you to the Ah Chow family for helping with both this story and the Wikepedia entry and sharing their precious photos.
Young Thomas William Ah Chow aged 15. Photo: Ah Chow FamilyBill Ah Chow. c 1955. Source: Ah Chow Family
Thomas William Ah Chow – Aug 1917 before heading off to WW1. Photo: Ah Chow Family
Bill tried twice to join the army but was initially rejected because of his obvious Chinese appearance. Undeterred, he reapplied and was accepted in June 1917. Bill served on the western front and was not only gassed but also wounded three times, once seriously of a gunshot wound to his right shoulder on 31 July 1918. Bill is gingerly holding his right arm and his injuries affected him for the remainder of his life. And like many men of his generation, Bill rarely spoke of his wartime experiences. This photo after the War shows Bill with hi brother Andy Ah Chow and Jack Batchelder. c 1919. Photo: Ah Chow family
Thomas William Ah Chow – Chinese costume (circa 1950).Bill who often claimed to be a descendant of Chinese Royalty, but his family believes it was more likely he picked his robes up from a second-hand shop in Little Bourke Street. Photo: Ah Chow family.
Bill died more than 50 years ago but his silk robes, hat, pants and slippers are safe keeping with his family in Gippsland. Photo: Peter McHugh 2018. The Chinese museum in Melbourne gave this advice. Mr. Ah Chow is dressed in a way that imitates a Mandarin or official of the Qing Dynasty. His hat looks like a mandarin style hat, a Qing dynasty official’s headwear, although it’s quite unlikely that he was actually a Mandarin. The button atop the hat usually indicated the wearer’s rank. His robe fastens up to the neck with buttons, which is typical of Manchurian style men’s clothing of the Qing dynasty also. He is not wearing a rank badge, which denoted official status. This kind of garment was also normally worn with a separate collar, which Mr. Ah Chow is not wearing in any of these pictures.
Photograph taken in 1953 by Athol HodgsonThomas William (Bill) Ah Chow was very proud of his Chinese heritage and with little encouragement would don traditional dress for his guests. Museum Victoria image. Circa 1939.The Age, 27 April 1960. Source: Ah Chow familyThe News, 14 January 1977. Source: Ah Chow familyMoscow Villa – 1951. Photo: Ah Chow FamilyMoscow Villa – summer 1952/53. Canvas shelter at front. Source: Athol HodgsonAt the end of the summer fire spotting season, and after the first good rain of autumn, Bill would set off alone on his horse along the many bridle paths that criss-crossed the alpine country as far as the NSW border throwing matches along the way to burn forest fuels and reduce the bushfire risk. Photo: Ah Chow family.Bill Ah Chow at Nunniong with his beloved workhorses in Jan 1940. Photo: Jim McKinty.Bill Ah Chow loved his horses. At home at Ensay. Circa 1950. Photo: Ah Chow family.Bill had a reputation for welcoming walkers, fisherman and foresters into his comfortable hut to sit around the fire, to share a meal, and enjoy an evening of bush yarns. The washroom was behind the canvas screen. Photo: Ah Chow family
Collecting water from the creek at Moscow Villa. Photo: Ah Chow family. Circa 1951.
Bill doing a bit of burning off around Moscow Villa. It looks like he is on his way to church… he has a tie on. Photo: Ah Chow family.
The Forests Commission employed Bill and his horses to build roads on the Nunniong Plateau in the 1940s. Photo: Ah Chow family.
Moscow Villa, which was built in 1942, has miraculously survived bushfires, vandalism and the ravages of time and weather to become an iconic tourist destination in East GippslandThe large stone chimney was added in 1975 by local Forests Commission crews from Swifts Creek. Photo – 2018.Moscow Villa with its iron chimney – circa 1950. Photo: Ah Chow family.Moscow Villa was built in January 1942. Complete with the famous red sign hung on the gate. Photo – circa 1945. Source: FCRPA Collection.Inside Moscow Villa was cosy. It had timber floors and a large iron fireplace. Circa 1951. Photo: Ah Chow family.Inside Moscow Villa after recent renovations. The large stone chimney was added in 1975 by local crews from Swifts Creek. Source: DELWPCommins Hut – 1951Bill helped to build Commins Hut and cattle yards on nearby Quinn’s Plain in 1937 for James (Jim) Commins and Charlie Duke who leased the Nunniong Cattle Run. It was used when mustering stock and Bill Ah Chow also stayed there prior to building his own hut, Moscow Villa, in 1942.Mt Nugong tower and Stanley Hut under construction in the summer of 1952/53. This first tower survived two more decades before a storm blew it down in 1974 and was rebuilt. The third tower is now on Mt Nugong. Photo: Athol HodgsonMt Nugong. The cabin was added in about 1954/55. Photo taken by Melbourne bushwalking club.The portable RC-16B radio phone used fragile valves that failed if the unit was dropped or bumped.Mt Nowa Nowa fire tower was built in 1926/27 by the Forests Commission Victoria. It is believed that Bill Ah Chow helped with its construction. Photo Jim McKinty 1949.The hut was wrapped with protective foil during the 2020 bushfires. Luckily the fires did not come near but other iconic wooden structures like Stingers Knob and Mt Nowa Nowa firetowers were lost. Photo: DELWPPhoto taken on the Nunniong Plateau about 1952 and believed to be Jim Westcott, District Forester from Bruthen with Bill. Photo: Simon Turner
An eclectic house and garden known as “The Arches” was the home of Archie and Edna Hair, an elderly couple with a rare spirit of generosity.
They lived in the bush on State forest at the popular swimming hole known as Blue Pool, which is just north of the delightful village of Briagolong in Gippsland.
Blue Pool was formed over thousands of years by flood waters on the Freestone Creek as they blasted out through the narrow gorge upstream. The raging torrents gouged out a deep pool and threw up a pebble beach on the opposite side creating a splendid selection of flat skipping stones.
Upstream of Blue Pool, the Freestone Creek catchment is forested with steep dissected sides which acts as a giant funnel. It’s also very rocky with shallow skeletal soils, so rain doesn’t soak in easily. Typically, it floods under the influence of an east-coast low-pressure system that brings several days of heavy rain to Gippsland. Its catchment is said to produce some of the fastest rising floodwaters in Victoria.
And please don’t make the common mistake of calling it Blue Pools…. there is only one pool…
Famous explorer Alfred William Howitt is often credited as being the first European to visit the trilogy of secluded waterholes in Central Gippsland when he was guided by local aboriginals in 1875. They included Lake Tali Karng near Mount Wellington, Blue Pool on the Freestone Creek and the sacred Den of Nargun on the Mitchell River.
Blue Pool is also said to be very significant to Braiakaulung women as a sacred birthing pool. Tragically, members of the tribe were removed in about 1864 to Ramahyuck Mission Station which is on the shores of Lake Wellington near Sale.
There was a brief flurry of mining activity on the Freestone Creek after the discovery of gold in 1866 by John Boyce and his 16-year-old son Tanjore. Miners rushed to take out claims, but by 1867 most had moved away.
Interest was sparked again in 1868 with reports of payable gold being found further along Freestone Creek. A newly named town of Gladstone sprang up with a population of about 200 people and about 30 makeshift dwellings. But it had been a dry season, and on Christmas Eve 1868 a bushfire destroyed the settlement, and most miners abandoned the area. There was a revival of gold mining in 1924, but it also fizzled out quickly. Old mines and relics remain scattered throughout the bush.
The Freestone Creek Road was completed in 1918 for the princely sum of £22,000 as the main access to Dargo and the Crooked River goldfields. A small unassuming concrete bridge just north of Blue Pool on the Gladstone Creek at Froam is thought to be one of Gippsland’s oldest surviving road structures.
Archie Norman Hair enlisted at Traralgon into the 23 Battalion during World War One and saw service at Gallipoli and France where he was wounded. He returned home in 1919 to farm at Willung before finally retiring with Edna to Briagolong in the mid-1950s to do a bit of gold prospecting.
Archie and Edna built two houses on the same piece of State forest. Their first began in the mid-1940s as an abandoned miner’s hut made of bark, which was progressively extended and improved.
The 1965 Gippsland bushfires burnt across a wide landscape from Lake Glenmaggie in the west to well beyond Bruthen and Tambo Crossing in the east. The fires raged over many weeks between 16 February and late March 1965 and nearly one million acres of State forest and pasture were burnt. Together, the Forests Commission and Country Fire Authority faced their gravest bushfire threat since Black Friday in 1939.
The first house was largely destroyed by the bushfire on 5 March 1965 and some of the family sheltered from the blaze in a nearby mineshaft.
Undeterred, a second house was built soon after.
Both houses looked like something out of a Mother Hubbard storybook. and neither had mains power or town water but had an open fire and kerosene fridge.
Archie and Edna’s generous hospitality of home-made ginger beer and ANZAC biscuits served to their many visitors were legendary. And visitors often sent Christmas cards to the pair each year to their great delight.
Archie and Edna kept a pet kangaroo named Skipper for company and Archie had a standing order at the local Briagolong butcher for several pounds of sausages which he cooked up and fed to the hungry Kookaburras and Magpies. There were also lots of parrots and a secret bowerbird nest near the house.
Legend also has it that Archie had a wooden box, the contents of which were a source of fascination. He called it his “Box of Wonders”, in which he kept simple things which he had collected from the bush. He held children captivated as he spun elaborate stories associated with each rock, tiny fragment of pebble, brown bottle or prized bird’s nest.
There was a large “listening tree” nearby under which Archie told tales of the forest to adoring children (and adults).
Archie often setup treasure hunts around the bush for the local scouts or other visitor groups and would lend them his unique handmade walking sticks… some with secret compartments containing clues.
Many say the house was on a Miners Right, and while I haven’t dredged out the Departmental File, I suspect The Arches was probably made legal either as a non-transferable “Permissive Occupancy” under the Crown Lands Act, or more likely as a gentleman’s agreement with the local Forests Commission staff at Briagolong which managed Blue Pool. Not that it really matters…
Edna died on 10 May 1966 aged 75 and Archie on 21 December 1980 aged 89.
The local Forests Commission District Forester at Maffra, Graeme Saddington, generously agreed to the family’s request not to remove The Arches until after his death. The house was still there, near the southern end of the current picnic ground and partly occupied by a very frail Archie when I worked at Briagolong in 1979-80. But it’s gone now and little trace remains other than a few rogue garden plants, broken bricks and mining relics. However, the original Arches house sign remained for many years near the entrance to the current picnic ground.
Archie and Edna had become the unofficial and unpaid custodians of Blue Pool, so it was in the interests of the Commission to allow them to stay. Regular visitors included the local Forests Commission crew from nearby Briagolong to check on their wellbeing, but also to share a chat, an ANZAC bikkie and maybe even a homemade ginger beer.
Sadly, I know little else about Archie and Edna Hair.
But I do know there were many other examples of these types of mutually beneficial and informal occupancy arrangements on State forest, often with quirky caretakers, but most of the buildings have now been removed and their history lost.
Blue Pool picnic and camping area is one of Gippsland’s secret gems and has undergone a recent upgrade. It is proudly maintained by the local DELWP crew from Briagolong and Heyfield.
Top image: The generous and welcoming Archie and Edna Hair holding his handmade walking sticks. Source: Stratford Museum.
Blue Pool. Source: Darren Chester calendar 2018Blue Pool (not Blue Pools) is a very popular swimming hole on the Freestone Creek north of Briagolong.Archie and Edna at “The Arches” with his hand-carved walking sticks complete with attached gadgets resting against the fence. They were shaped from bush timbers and had secret compartments. They were used together with “clues” to conduct hunts for small treasures which he had hidden in trails about the bush. Circa 1950-60s. Source: Stratford MuseumThe original Arches – Circa 1950-60s. Source: Stratford Museum.
The original Arches started in the mid-1940s as an abandoned miner’s bark hut. Archie and Edna added to the four-room building over time. Circa 1950-60. Source: Stratford Museum.
The second Arches was built after the 1965 bushfires swept through Gippsland and was still standing in 1980. The treasure-hunters are carrying walking sticks made by Archie Hair. Photo: Linda Barraclough. Circa 1965-1969.The original Arches at Briagolong. Circa 1950-1960s. It was burnt partly down in the 1965 Gippsland bushfires. Source: Stratford Museum.Edna and Archie with a group of girl guides from sale. Photo: Ann Andrew. Circa early 1960s.Archie with a group of little people holding his hand-made walking sticks. Circa 1970. Source: Brian O’Keefe.Treasures from Archie’s “Box of Wonders”. Photo: Brian O’Keefe.Archie had a standing order at the local Briagolong butcher for several pounds of sausages which he cooked up and fed to the hungry Kookaburras and Magpies. There were also lots of parrots and a secret bowerbird nest near the house. Photo: Brian O’Keefe.Archie Norman Hair enlisted in the 23 Battalion during World War One. Seen here convalescing in England. Photo: Annette Power.The first Arches was destroyed on 5 March 1965 when huge bushfires spread through Gippsland from Glenmaggie to Bruthen. The second Arches was built soon after. Source: Gippsland Times.Archie doing a bit of gold prospecting at Blue PoolThe Arches was at the southern end of Blue Pool picnic ground. It was removed some time after 1981 and very little evidence remains other than a few rogue garden plants. Photo: Peter McHugh – November 2018. (before recent site redevelopment)Rogue plants from Archie’s garden are all that is left at Blue Pool. Photo: Peter McHughShamrocks on the Gladstone Creek bridge on the Freestone creek Road at Froam. This structure, built in 1915, is thought to be one of Gippsland’s oldest surviving road bridges. Photo: Peter McHughGold prospecting on the Freestone Creek. Circa 1867. Picture: Charles Walter. Source: National Library Collection.Blue Pool. Photo: Peter McHugh – July 2019.Freestone Creek in full flood at the notch in the rocks just above Blue Pool – July 2016. Photo: Seb Nieuwesteeg.Upstream of Blue Pool the Freestone Creek. Photo: Peter McHugh – November 2018.Blue Pool is also very significant to Braiakaulung women. State Library Victoria. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/116205
Soil erosion was identified as an emerging problem across rural Victoria almost immediately after the gold rush of the 1850s.
The Royal Commission of 1897-1901 into the destruction and wastage of Victoria’s forests also identified the importance of protecting soils and forested water catchments.
In 1917 an Erosion Inquiry Committee was formed by the Minister for Public Works, but little seemed to come from its deliberations.
The State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SRWSC) established its own River Erosion and Flood Protection Branch in 1931 to carry out minor river stabilisation works.
Soil erosion came into very sharp focus during the droughts of the 1940s across the Wimmera and Mallee deserts where the sand from bare paddocks drifted across railway lines, roads and into irrigation channels. And huge dust storms were common.
As early as 1922, the Forests Commission had taken a strong interest in the protection of soils and water on forested catchments as well as private land. Specialist nurseries at Macedon, Creswick, Mildura and Wail near Horsham grew plants for country landholders to help restore the land.
But the problems in the northwest were only the tip of the iceberg. Laanecoorie Reservoir on the Loddon River had been reduced by 47% of its capacity within 50 years because of siltation.
The Victorian State Government was slow to act, but finally in 1940 the Soil Conservation Board (SCB), headed by Chairman H G Strom was created.
One of the first issues that attracted the attention of the newly created board was the degraded condition of the alpine regions of northeast Victoria and parts of Gippsland.
The Alps had been grazed under Crown Land licences for over 100 years, but heavy stocking, particularly by sheep, together with the impact of the 1926 and 1939 bushfires had caused significant damage to the fragile alpine vegetation.
The soils became exposed to the harsh winter climate and without the protection of the ground vegetation, wind and rain battered the soil, washing away the material between the remaining tussocks. By 1940 some of the elevated areas at Mt Hotham and Mt Bogong were reduced to open gravel beds.
It was during this period when Stella Grace Maisie Fawcett stood out in the emerging science of alpine ecology and soil conservation. Her work revolutionised farming and grazing practices throughout Victoria’s High Country for decades to come.
Mr Charles Tate Clark, who was a member of the SCB, approached Professor John Turner from the Botany faculty at Melbourne university in 1941 and arranged for Maisie to undertake ecological studies into the effects of soil erosion in the Hume Reservoir catchment.
Living alone at Omeo, she monitored vegetation plots in two eroded areas which Turner had already marked out and fenced to exclude rabbits and stock, at nearby Mt Mesley
Maisie covered long distances on horseback, investigated gully erosion and tested introduced grasses and fertilisers in pasture experiments.
At the same time, she slowly, and somewhat begrudgingly earned the respect of the alpine graziers she worked alongside. They referred to her as “the washaway woman”.
Erosion on the Bogong High Plains posed a siltation threat to the new Kiewa hydro-electric scheme. So in January 1945 Maisie fenced a large area on the upper slopes of Rocky Valley catchment that contained moss beds, snow grass, heath, scrub and woodland — and marked off reference plots of vegetation inside and outside the fences.
Each summer a research team which included Sophie Ducker, Ethel McLennan and Nancy Millis, measured the vegetation plots. They stayed in the convivial surrounds of Rover Scout Hut and Maisie and her colleagues signed themselves into the logbook as the “High Plains Plant Hounds”.
Maisie Fawcett finished her work at Bogong in 1949 when she was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Melbourne.
Maisie married fellow botanist Denis Carr in 1954 but immediately ran into the archaic rules of the time where married women were not allowed to be employed by the Victorian Public Service. These rules remained in place until the 1970s.
A work around was required. Maisie Fawcett’s personal file holds the letters between the Soil Conservation Authority and the Public Service Board arranging an annual extra emolument to be paid to MISS Maisie Fawcett employed as a Temporary Typist rather than MRS Stella Carr, who held a M.Sc. in Botany (1936). This is the reason she is often found in references under two personas.
She published her early alpine research using her preferred name of Maisie Fawcett, but after marriage she published as Stella Carr.
Her landmark work, which found that excessive summer grazing was detrimental to native vegetation and encouraged soil erosion was finally published in 1959, cowritten with John Turner, and published in the Australian Journal of Botany.
Earlier In 1946, Judge Leonard Stretton, who is better known for his inquiries into the 1939 and 1944 bushfires, conducted a Royal Commission into forest grazing and the system of licences.
Stretton’s inquiry was at the urging of the Forests Commission which had been expressing strong public concerns, from as early as 1932, about the impacts on upper water catchments of grazing and burning by lease-holder cattlemen.
Stretton wisely identified the inseparable trinity of Forest, Soil and Water, where each one is dependent on the other. Destroy the soil and you destroy the forest and the water.
His typically concise 30-page report controversially found that grazing:
is harmful in mountainous forest lands.
accelerates soil erosion, and in some cases affects water catchments.
had been a regular and recurrent cause of forest fires.
Needless to say, alpine graziers didn’t agree with these findings.
Stretton recommended that all grazing licences be managed by the Forests Commission rather than the Lands Department. Furthermore, he was particularly harsh on some graziers, and recommended even stronger measures be instituted where it was shown they could not be trusted.
Among his recommendations, was stronger controls on soil conservation on all land, which ultimately led to the formation of the Soil Conservation Authority (SCA) in 1950. The Forests Commission, which had considerable experience in soil stabilisation works, was a strong advocate of the move.
Maisie Fawcett worked closely with Judge Stretton and became the Soil Conservation Board representative, and sole woman, on the Bogong High Plains Advisory Committee, which from 1946 determined the permissible number of cattle and the length of their stay each summer.
Under these new policies the number of cattle in the mountains above 4500 feet steadily dropped from 9000 in 1950 to about 3000 in 1970.
In 1955 grazing ceased altogether at Mt Bogong, followed in 1958 by Mt Loch, Mt Hotham and Mt Feathertop.
The soils and vegetation slowly began to recover.
But the issue of alpine grazing refused to go away and in May 2005, the Victorian State Labor Government made a surprise announcement to end all cattle grazing in the Alpine National Park. Grazing in State forest could remain. The decision brought Victoria into line with NSW which had banned alpine grazing in Kosciuszko NP nearly 30 years earlier.
However, alpine grazing remains an emotional and controversial debate, with strong opposition from powerful environmental groups up against the counter arguments from mountain cattlemen and some rural communities.
If ever anyone could claim (not that he ever would) to have pioneered modern aerial firefighting and forestry aviation in Australia it was Conrad Wood.
Woody graduated from the Victorian School of Forestry in 1957, and after postings with the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV) at Swifts Creek and Sirex surveys, he gravitated into the orbit of the Forest Protection Division in Head Office in the early 1960s.
From its earliest days, the FCV had led the use of aircraft for forestry and firefighting in Australia.
Much had already been achieved by the time Woody arrived, particularly under Chairman Alf Lawrence, so the newcomer was able to “stand and build on the shoulders of others”.
However, Woody himself held a grand vision and a passion for new ideas, innovation and technology.
An early recipient of a prestigious Churchill Fellowship, Woody travelled extensively throughout 1969 in North America and Europe studying aviation in forestry and firefighting. Afterwards he was very active amongst the Churchill alumni.
And Victoria still trades on some of the valuable international relationships that Conrad established during that time.
Over the decades there were many aviation milestones and, Woody, along with many others, took risks, showed remarkable leadership and made significant contributions to Get Stuff Done (GSD)…
1928 – the Forests Commission undertook its first major aerial photography project over 15,000 acres of State forest, which was said to be the first of its kind in Australia.
1930 – Using RAAF Wapitis from Point Cook, the Commission organised Australia’s first bushfire reconnaissance flights on 18 February. These annual arrangements stayed in place until 1964.
1937 – The FCV began Australia’s first firebombing trials, but they lapsed because of the war.
1939 – In the wake of the disastrous Black Friday bushfires, and Judge Stretton’s scathing Royal Commission report, Alf Lawrence was the natural choice to become the Chief Fire Officer. He immediately set about the huge challenge of rebuilding a highly organised and motivated fire fighting force, lifting staff morale, introducing more RAAF fire spotting aircraft, building fire towers, purchasing modern vehicles and equipment such as powered pumps, as well as a new statewide radio communications network, VL3AA.
1939 – during WW2, large areas of Victoria were photographed for the FCV by the RAAF and used to produce orthophoto maps. By 1945 aerial photography of 13,000 square miles (3.4 M ha) was completed, including much of the inaccessible eastern forests. These proved invaluable for post war timber assessment.
1946 – The FCV conducted a remarkable range of firebombing experiments at Anglesea with different aircraft such as heavy RAAF Lincoln four-engine bombers, P51 Mustang single-seat fighters and small agricultural aircraft with differing drop materials, techniques and equipment.
1947 – Spectacular CSIRO cloud-seeding experiments near Sydney led to decades of attempts to increase rainfall. The FCV became involved operationally from the early 1960s.
1949 – The FCV conducted the first helicopter trials in Australia using a RAAF Sikorsky S-51 Dragonfly.
1962 – CSIRO’s Alan McArthur published his foundation research into forest fire behaviour that transformed forest managers’ approaches and confidence in aerial ignition and fuel reduction burning.
1963 – Athol Hodgson from the FCV led firebombing trials at Ballarat, using a CAC Ceres crop duster dropping bentonite slurry.
1965 – Gippsland bushfires were the biggest test of the FCV’s capacity since 1939 and led to greater use of aircraft.
1965 – A new retardant chemical, PhosChek, was dropped for the first time in Victoria.
1965 – CSIRO begins aerial ignition trials in Western Australia, and later in 1969 the Forests Commission purchased one of their aerial incendiary machines.
1965 – Snowy Range airfield north of Licola, still Australia’s highest, was built by the FCV for firefighting. Victoria Valley in the Grampians followed in 1967.
1965 – FCV engages a small Bell 47G helicopter on permanent contract, an Australian first for any forest or bushfire agency.
1965 – The first operational bushfire rappel crew was established at Heyfield using the small Bell 47G. The program lasted for two seasons but lapsed due to safety concerns about the small and underpowered helicopter.
1967 – Alan McArthur’s Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) meter was first seen operationally in the field.
1967 – Double-ended matches called Delayed Action Incendiary Devices (DAIDs), developed by the FCV, were used for the first time. A few months later DAIDs ignited a 20,000 hectare backburn in northeast Victoria – believed to be a world first
1967 – After many years of experimentation, Ben Buckley and Bob Lansbury completed Australia’s first operational firebombing mission at Benambra on 6 February.
The mission at Benambra, now deemed a classic “proof of concept” encouraged many more innovations with new and more powerful aircraft over the next decade.
1978 – Lightning struck across the eastern ranges on 15 January and started many bushfires. Most were controlled quickly but eight developed into major incidents. Stage 2 of the State Disaster Plan was enacted. It proved a major watershed as the RAAF collaborated and aerial bushfire technology coalesced.
1978 – A FCV contract helicopter conducting routine aerial ignition using DAIDs crashed at Bright in April killing two FCV foresters, Peter Collier and Stan Gillett, along with pilot John Byrnes. Woody spent hours at the crash site trying to determine what had gone wrong.
1978 – After the crash at Bright the use of DAIDS was suspended and the FCV developed a new “ping-pong” aerial incendiary machine at Altona
1981 – A Modular Aerial Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) was borrowed from the US Forest Service and fitted into a RAAF C-130 Hercules. Woody and Athol Hodgson navigated the politics and gained the approvals. Woody even piloted the high-performance twin-engine command aircraft (birddog) and directed the retardant drops.
1982 – After a lapse of 15 years, helicopter rappelling was recommenced with the NSCA at West Sale using larger and more powerful Bell 212s.
1983 – The prolonged summer bushfire season, which included Ash Wednesday on 16 February, more than 30 aircraft were engaged, which was the most intensive air operations in the Commission’s history up to that time. It included:
Nine agricultural aircraft carried out hundreds of firebombing missions from strategic airstrips.
The MAFFS trial continued in 1982-83 and made 175 retardant drops.
A National Safety Council of Australia (NSCA) Bell 212 helicopter, fitted with a 1,700-litre bucket, was used successfully in making numerous water drops, mainly to protect houses and check spot fires.
A CSIRO Fokker Friendship fitted with infra-red linescan equipment, and a NSCA helicopter fitted with a Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) viewer, greatly aided detailed mapping of fires in forests. Both enabled fire intelligence gathering by night and through smoke.
A RAAF Chinook helicopter deployed firefighters, relief crews and fuel for bulldozers in difficult terrain at Nug Nug near Mt Buffalo.
RAAF Iroquois helicopters and 11 commercial helicopters were used for rapid movement of crews and supplies and for detailed mapping and reconnaissance.
Across Victoria, light aircraft were deployed on detection patrols, and several helicopters were fitted with the new ping-pong ball incendiary machines to burn out forest fuels and backburn control lines.
1983 – The upheaval and formation of the Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands (CFL) led to major changes to aviation management and greater sharing with the CFA.
1984 – The NSCA begins trials of helicopter belly tanks.
1985 – Across Victoria’s north-eastern alps, 111 lightning strikes in 24 hours ignited widespread fires. Aircraft from the armed services were once again deployed, plus a major NSCA fleet. It was the largest use of firefighting aircraft in Australia, and the first big test for the newly formed CFL. And Woody was right in the thick of it.
Everyone who encountered Woody seems to have an amazing and amusing anecdote to tell.
Forestry folklore has it that he, along with another aviation legend, Ben Buckley, were on Ben’s moonshine at Benambra late one night and, having run out, decided to fly to the moon to get some more—where else would you get it? Fortunately for all concerned Ben’s Cessna apparently ran out of puff at around 20,000 feet.
And then there were the epic, and probably embellished, tales of oyster foraging forays to East Gippsland and Tasmania with his best forestry mates.
Every organisation has a few unique characters, and the Forests Commission had its share, but in 1985 it lost one of its greats when Woody chose to retire early, aged 50, as the first forester to leave under the generous Emergency Services Superannuation Scheme.
Along with bushfire aviation, Conrad was an ardent enthusiast of literature, convivial conversation, left-wing politics, noisy parties, apache dancing, his smelly pipe, food, drink, pub life, beachcombing, snooker, dogs, eclectic music, British motorbikes, vegetable gardening and the St Kilda Football Club.
Woody was also a committed campaigner on social justice issues and for many years read for vision-impaired people on public radio.
Conrad Wood… inspirational pioneer of Australian forestry and bushfire aviation, all-round good bloke, friend to many, terpsichorean, raconteur, poet and pilot, passed away in January 2014, aged 75, after being cared for during his long illness by devoted partner, Clare.
And by any measure, Woody left a huge legacy in his prop wash…
Source: Woody’s World: Wit on Wings. Ed. Rob Youl, 2008.
The VSF graduation class of 1957 – Kevin Wareing, John Wright, Conrad Wood, Bob Graham, Malcolm McDougall, Ted Stuckey, Andy Banks. FCRPA Collection
Woody at the controls.
At the office – sans pipe and note there is also no desktop computer. c early 1980s.Richard Alder, Bryan Rees, Con Wood (happily retired at that point), Peter Cuthbertson, Andrew Mathews, Nick Ryan. Altona workshop. c 1996.Victoria Valley – Grampians
Woody in fine voice.1980. Source: FCRPA Collection
Advances by the Forests Commission in aviation and aerial ignition can be seen in the steady climb in the average area burnt from the mid-1960s. Source: Morgan, Tolhurst et al. (2020). Prescribed burning in south-eastern Australia: history and future directions
Painting of Woody by notable Australian artist Joyce McGrath OAM (also a Churchill Fellow) in the 1980s. Joyce asked Conrad to sit for this portrait which she planned to enter the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. The portrait hung in Churchill House in Canberra, but when a new building was erected, it was returned to the artist/owner. Now owned by Clare Harwood.
Late one summer afternoon in the early 1980s, a small fixed-wing firebomber was dispatched from Benambra to a smoke sighting near Gelantipy which had been reported by the local firetower.
The experienced bush pilot took-off in the fading light and lengthening shadows to try and locate the fire but couldn’t find it.
On the return trip, he caught a glimpse of a faint wisp of smoke deep in the Snowy River valley below and without hesitation, and with characteristic daring-do, flew straight down like a Stuka dive-bomber.
Because the small aircraft was fully loaded, and because the sides of the rocky gorge were so steep, the only way out was to dump the load then pull back sharply on the control stick to climb vertically out of the ravine under full throttle.
By now it was getting dark so without checking the drop he returned to the airbase to get ready for the next morning’s flight.
Yep… you guessed it… a day or two later there was a phone call to the FCV Orbost office from some very irate kayakers who had been fatefully drying their wet clothes around a campfire that afternoon. Not only did the load of retardant put their fire out and make it impossible to relight, but their clothes got smothered in the messy red gloop.
Among his many legendary and probably embellished shenanigans, the same pioneering daredevil is said to have…
Crash-landed in State forest on Mt Baw Baw in 1961 after the wings of his Piper PA-25 iced-up and then walked three hours through the thick scrub to safety…
Dropped a load of phoscheck retardant on a group of visiting Forests Commission and CSIRO dignitaries during the early 1960s firebombing trials at Mt Raymond, leaving red splattered cars and speckled white shirts…
Flown Australia’s first-ever operational firebombing mission from Benambra on 6 February 1967…
Barnstormed under the old Snowy River Bridge at Orbost in June 1975…
Swooped the Benambra football team and strafed them with fertilizer…
Landed and refuelled his plane at a service station at Ceduna in December 1973…
Performed unauthorised low-level aerobatics at ESSO’s Longford heliport in 1970…
Allegedly buzzed an offshore oil platform in the Bass Strait like “Top Gun” and bounced his wheels down on its tiny helipad…
Needless to say, his larrikin antics and escapades often got him into big trouble with aviation authorities.
But this affable knockabout bloke also selflessly airlifted many locals to hospital in Melbourne or Albury.
I’m reminded of a quote made in 1949 by pioneering American aviator, E. Hamilton Lee who famously said….
“There are old pilots… and there are bold pilots… but there are no old, bold pilots” ….
The 1926 Black Sunday bushfires are largely forgotten now, being overshadowed by the catastrophic 1939 Black Friday bushfires thirteen years later.
The fires on Saint Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1926, swept across large areas of Gippsland, the Yarra Valley, the Dandenong Ranges and Kinglake.
The figures vary, but it’s thought that as many as 60 people lost their lives.
The amazing story of fifteen-year-old Florrie Hodges, who later captured the hearts of the nation, has mostly been forgotten too.
Florrie lived with her family at the small Horner and Monett’s sawmill, deep in the bush on Mackley’s Creek, about 7 miles east of Powelltown. There were no roads, only narrow timber tramlines.
On Sunday morning she was at home when the bushfire exploded all around them and the mill caught fire.
Her mother instructed Florrie to go with some other families fleeing from the mill and take the children to safety at Powelltown.
Florrie walked through the bush for some miles with her sisters, Rita aged 7, Vera aged 4 ½ and Dorothy 18 months. Rita was on her back with Vera and Dorothy in her arms.
When she saw the fire ahead of her, they turned back and dropped into a small creek. Florrie soaked all the children’s clothes, but they could not stay long in the water because the trees and scrub growing along the edge of the creek were alight and branches were starting to fall on them. The water was getting hot, so they hurried out but there was fire all around them.
Trapped by flames and unable to reach safety, Florrie sought refuge on the timber tramway track. They huddled together, blinded by the thick smoke and scorching heat. Rita was then taken by one of the others in the party trying to escape.
Florrie was then all alone and frightened but remained with her two little sisters as the bushfire swept over them. She crouched on the tracks over the children to shield them from the flames.
Burning bark was falling on them. Her hair and clothes caught alight, and her legs were badly burnt.
They remained in the smouldering bush for two hours until the flames had passed. Her distraught father then arrived, searching, but not expecting to find his children alive.
All three survived but Florrie suffered severe burns and was hospitalised for many months at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne. She was left disabled and disfigured.
Stories of the heroics of “the little bush girl of Powelltown” emerged and Florrie quickly became a national celebrity.
The Royal Humane Society awarded Florrie a bravery medal and the Timber Workers’ Union raised some £1,000… a huge sum which was held in trust until she turned 21. The money was presented in a special purse.
A souvenir booklet of her exploits was published, 100,000 photographs were distributed to school children across the nation, her story was retold in schools on Empire Day and a gramophone record was released by the Columbia Company of Florrie telling of her heroic deeds.
Photographs of the “Australian Heroine” were presented to Queen Mary and the Duchess of York. A version of Florrie’s story as told by celebrated author Mary Grant Bruce was published in The School Magazine produced by the NSW Department of Education.
Politicians, unionists, even famous actors were all keen to share the stage with Florrie at various events held in her honour around Australia.
But when asked to speak, Florrie humbly replied that “she thought that any Australian girl would have done what she did”.
Florrie married soon after the accident when she was sixteen. Her husband Bill worked in the timber mill and had also been burnt in the fire. They lived a simple life together.
Florrie is remembered by her family as a tough, no-nonsense woman, who didn’t talk much about the fires of Black Sunday 1926. She passed away in 1972.
There has been a lot of talk about heroes in recent times, whether they be firefighters, police or front-line health workers. It’s become a bit of a throwaway line… but to my mind, the real heroes are the quiet ones like Florrie Hodges.
In early February 1951 a couple of small fires were burning unchecked near Yanakie, at the northern end of Wilsons Promontory National Park.
One was believed to have escaped from a campfire left unattended at Tin Pot Waterhole which was outside the northern boundary of the park.
They had been burning for almost three weeks, and in the words of one observer “the fires were not serious”.
But as the summer weather and hot northerly winds intensified one of the fires swept into the park and through the scrub and heathland towards the southwest.
The fire destroyed the remnants of the cattle fence on the northern boundary of the park along the way.
The fire was driven by a strong gale along the Vereker Range towards the lighthouse, a distance of approximately 22 miles, and was only halted by the ocean.
On Tuesday 13 February, at about 6 a.m., the bushfire began to burn like a wick along the small rocky peninsula towards the exposed lighthouse station.
The last radio message from the lighthouse was picked up by chance. Normally, all Bass Strait lighthouses communicated with each other by radio in the morning at 8.30 a.m. However, the light keeper at Gabo Island tuned his set 10 minutes earlier and heard the dramatic description of the fire by the Promontory wireless man, who stayed at his post to the last. His final message was just before the radio shack exploded into flames… “It is getting too hot to stay here any longer!”
There were grave fears for the safety of the lighthouse staff on the windswept headland jutting out into the sea at the remote and southernmost tip of mainland Australia.
Personnel at the settlement were the acting head light keeper, two light-keepers, two workmen, one with his wife and child, and three employees of the Department of Works and Housing. The retiring head lightkeeper Mr Fred Banks, was at the settlement with his wife and son, packing his belongings ready for the lighthouse steamer to call.
Showing great courage while beating back the flames, the families huddled in a brick outbuilding as the fire swirled through the lighthouse settlement. Luckily, nobody was killed or seriously injured, although two men were slightly burned, and Fred Banks had a mild heart attack.
But the fire caused £40,000 worth of damage to six buildings, including three of its five homes and other installations including the rocket shed full of explosives, the petrol store, the wireless shack with its telescopes, binoculars and maps, and phone lines. The crane was spared but jetty along with a quarter mile of access ropeway used for transporting supplies from the bottom on the Promontory’s hazardous cliffs to the lighthouse, hundreds of feet above was also destroyed.
The wife of one of the lighthouse keepers, Mrs Margaret Garreau, was shaken by the ordeal but reported that it had rained at about 8.30 a.m. not long after the fire arrived.
A RAAF plane left East Sale at 11.30 a.m. to attempt to communicate with the staff, and an oil tanker proceeded to the lighthouse from Bass Strait. Earlier, the Department of Civil Aviation asked Trans Australian Airlines (TAA) to divert a plane over the lighthouse.
All the signal flags on the reserve were burnt but Mrs Garreau made a makeshift flag from bunting to signal to the circling aircraft.
Newspapers reported that later in the day the fishing launch Stella Maris reached the lighthouse to take off the women and children, but they decided to stay with their menfolk.
The day after, the lighthouse engineer, Mr. E. L. Ault, sailed 35 miles to the lighthouse from Port Albert and reported that the facility was out of danger. He had been unable to find a doctor to go with him.
The famous stone lighthouse, which was built in 1859 and lit by kerosene, remained miraculously unscathed and continued to work normally after the fire.
At least 75,000 acres—almost three quarters of the entire National Park—had been thoroughly burned. The ecological impact was massive and long term.
There was the usual political posturing after the bushfire with the Victorian Minister for Transport saying the Federal Government would have been to blame had there been fatalities because Canberra had refused to make a special grant available to complete a road to the lighthouse.
There were very few tracks and firefighting appliances at the time but a relatively small bushfire in the previous summer of 1949–50 had caused the park managers to press on with their track clearing program.
It was reported that sixty campers, including eight children, narrowly escaped when the bushfire trapped them at Tidal River Camping Ground. They huddled together in a small clearing while the fire roared past on all sides towards the lighthouse, 14 miles away.
But Chief Ranger, John Sparkes, later discounted the danger to the Tidal River settlement and the campers as “ridiculous rot” because he had burned firebreaks around the camp in the previous year. But some question this assessment and say the Tidal River was only spared because of the direction of the winds.
The fire protection and suppression responsibility for Wilsons Promontory National Park, which at the time was administered by a Committee of Management as “Occupied Crown Land” under the Lands Act, was complex and confused.
Reg Torbet — Chief Fire Officer of the Forests Commission, and seasoned specialist in fire prevention and control — joined the Committee in 1950 to provide guidance. But some believed that it wasn’t so much advice that was needed but cash for on-ground fire protection works. Reg Torbet died in 1956 and his place was taken by Bob Seaton.
It’s interesting to note that the Wilsons Promontory fire doesn’t even rate a mention in the Forests Commission’s 1950-51 annual report because it wasn’t under their direct jurisdiction. However, the Chairman of the Commission, Finton Gerraty, backed calls for greater coordination of fire protection on National Parks.
There was justifiable public and political outcry in the wake of the Wilsons Promontory fire, which ultimately led to new National Parks Legislation being passed in October 1956.
The National Parks Bill aligned with a major revision of both the Forests Act and Country Fire Authority Act in 1958 which clearly enshrined the role of the two agencies and the Chief Fire Officers into complementary legislation.
The CFA took responsibility for fire suppression on “Country Victoria” leaving the Forests Commission to focus on the public land estate such as State forest and National Parks, which amounted for the remaining one third of the State.
More importantly, it shaped and cemented Victoria’s deep-seated approaches towards bushfires outside Melbourne for decades to come.
Both the Forests Commission and the CFA adopted clear policies to detect and suppress all bushfires and became very focused and skilled at doing it.
The Ancient Order of Foresters originated in England in 1834 and established its first “Court” in Victoria in 1849.
Courts quickly sprang up in Melbourne along with major cities and towns across the Colony.
Distinguished by its Latin motto “Unitas Benevolentia at Concordia” meaning Unity, Benevolence and Harmony.
The Ancient Order of Foresters was established as a non-profit organisation with its founding principles being to provide financial and social benefits, as well as support to members and their families in times of unemployment, sickness, death, disability and old age.
When a worker was injured in 19th century Australia, their prospects were bleak. They wouldn’t receive sick pay or worker’s compensation, and often faced starvation or relying on charity.
These types of benevolent organisations were essential in the days when families needed to be self-reliant, and before government social security like Centrelink, Medicare, Unemployment Benefits, Workcover or private investments such as Life Insurance and Superannuation… all the modern things we have come to know and enjoy.
By 1913, over 50% of people in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania were covered and protected by benefits from the friendlies. In Australia overall, 46 per cent of people were covered.
The Melbourne Sawyers Friendly Society protected timber cutters, the Melbourne Operative Cordwainers’ Society was founded for shoe makers.
Forestry was seen as a noble and worthy profession so was a natural choice of name for a mutual benefit organisation of this kind.
The Ancient Order of Foresters was run by members solely for the benefit of members and the senior roles rotated around.
Members paid a small subscription, a form of insurance, which would entitle them to benefits should they ever need them.
The Ancient Order has now morphed into a friendly society offering things like savings accounts, bonds and home loans.
This magnificent building is now part of RMIT at 168 LaTrobe Street and has the Latin motto and emblem of two foresters (Little John and Robin Hood) aside a shield on its balustrade.
The building was designed by architects Ravenscroft & Freeman in 1888, who also built the nearby Oddfellows Hall, a similar benevolent society from the time.
The building was purchased in 1969 for the RMIT Student Union. A place I remember well when studying my matriculation, a very long time ago.
It’s listed on the Victorian Heritage Register
I’m occasionally asked about the Ancient Order of Foresters, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with the modern meaning of forestry, bushfires and land management.
The poster features Maid Marion and Robin Hood, a clue that the poster was printed after 1892 being the year in which women were admitted as members. Prior to admitting women, the standard bearers were Little John and Robin Hood. The shield is quartered with: • Clasped hands – mutuality and reciprocity. • Three stags – strength, power and leadership. • A chevron, a lamb and flag above the chevron and a bugle horn below. • A quiver over a bow, arrow and bugle horn. From: The Influence of the Friendly Society Movement in Victoria, 1835–1920 by Roland S. Wettenhall (2019)Foresters Hall 168 La Trobe Street Melbourne, Source: SLV http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/300303Banner. Source: Museums Victoria. https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/253378William Rees Miller, Secretary of the Ancient Order of Foresters Friendly Society, c 1892. Source: SLV.The facade was restored in 2015 by RMIT.Source: Tim Fitzgerald
Over 800 years ago in 1217, all the rules that were contained in the Magna Carta which related to the Royal Forests were put into a separate “Charter of the Forest”.
It begins ….
Henry, by the Grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy and Guyan and Earl of Anjou, to all archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, earls, barons, justicers, FORESTERS, sheriffs, provosts, officers, and to all his bailiffs, and faithful subjects which shall see this present charter, greeting.
“Forest” to the Normans meant an enclosed area where the monarch, or sometimes another aristocrat, had exclusive rights to animals of the chase and the greenery on which they fed.
The Charter established rights of access to the royal forest that had been eroded by William the Conqueror and his heirs. It was originally sealed in England by the young King Henry III, acting under the regency of William Marshall, 1st Earl of Pembroke.
Many of the Charters provisions were in force for centuries afterwards.
An innovative School Endowment Plantation Scheme was initiated in 1922 as a joint venture between the Education Department and the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV).
Mr William Gay, the former Principal of the Victorian School of Forestry resumed his role with the Education Department in 1922 and took responsibility for the Scheme under the guidance of Owen Jones, the new chairman of the Forests Commission and Frank Tate, Director of Education.
While some plantations were established on private land donated or leased for the purpose, most were established on Crown Lands or Reserved Forest made available to schools, without cost, by the Forests Commission.
Areas ranged from about 5 to 50 acres and were planted up at the rate of 1, 2, 3 or more acres per year, according to the planting strength of the school.
The plantations were vested in trustees, who then became responsible for their care and control. The trustees consisted of the Chairman of the School Committee or Council, the Head Teacher of the school, the District Inspector of Schools and two additional members nominated by the School Committee and the Head Teacher and approved by the Minister of Public Instruction.
The Forests Commission assisted by providing technical support and a subsidy for fencing materials of 80%. Some specialist tools such as pruning saws were proved to schools by the Commission.
The Forests Commission also supplied free of charge from its Macedon and Creswick nurseries all the trees required for planting, including Pinus radiata, Pinus ponderosa, Pinus laricio, Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), Eucalyptus cladocalyx, E. botryoides, E. sideroxylon, E. leucoxylon, E. hemiphloia, E. ficifolia and many poplars.
Planting was done by the school children under the guidance of teachers and the local forest officer. Heavier work such as fencing was often done by parents.
Metropolitan schools, where land was unobtainable, joined with rural schools to establish partnership plantations.
On 21 July 1925 about 350 school children from Prahran travelled by train to Frankston and then walked to a 10-acre plot of Crown Land allocated for them to plant 2500 trees.
The exact location is unknown, but it was a brisk 30-minute walk from the railway station, so it was likely to have been part of the newly established State Pine Plantation.
The Mayor of Prahran, J C Pickford, had to argue hard to get the Council to support the visionary plantation scheme for local schools, and to invest £30 of shire funds outside the municipality. The local tanneries wanted wattles to be planted instead. The planting day at Frankston was a major event and was attended by many dignitaries.
It was expected that the 10-acre plot would eventually yield as much as £2500 for the Prahran schools when it was harvested after 25 or 30 years. It’s not known if the plot survived the fire at the Frankston Plantation in January 1955.
By 1936 three hundred and forty-eight (348) plantations had been established across Victoria with an area of 3550 acres.
Proceeds from the sale of harvested trees were put into the School Plantations Endowment Fund to be used for school purposes.
It was not only designed to provide a financial return to the school, but also to instil a sense of civic pride as well as an understanding of the value of land, conservation, together with developing a forest conscience by younger generations for benefit of the nation.
By 1961 there were 492 school endowment plantations in Victoria covering a total of some 4,300 acres and involving 546 schools.
And by 1966, the number had increased to more than 600 schools, planting 120,000 trees per year. The school plantations produced about 2 million super feet (6000 cubic metres) of mill logs and 800 cunits (> 2000 cubic metres) of pulpwood; yielding some $30,000 in profits for participating schools.
The benevolent forestry program also had a strong emphasis on community involvement, and when reviewed in 1966 was assessed as being a great success.
But from the early 1980s it seems the Land Conservation Council (LCC) wasn’t a big fan of school plantations and believed those not needed or that were unsuitable for teaching purposes should be terminated when the pines were harvested.
This LCC attitude, on top of the massive school rationalisation and closures of the early 1990s, no doubt resulted in a number of orphaned plantations across rural Victoria.
The program continues today for some rural schools, although in a much-reduced form, and is partly supported by Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP).
Main Photo: The Mayor of Prahran had to argue hard to get the Council to support the visionary plantation scheme for local schools, and to invest £30 of shire funds outside the municipality. The local tanneries wanted wattles to be planted instead. Source: Stonnington Local History Archives.
There are very few native softwoods in Victoria, and those that do exist, like cypress pine, grow too slowly to be suitable for large scale commercial plantations.
From its earliest days in the 1830s, Victoria imported large quantities of softwoods, mostly from north America and Scandinavia.
The need for local sources of softwood for furniture and joinery was apparent.
Monterey Pine, then named Pinus insignis and now known as P. radiata, is native to the central coast of California and Mexico, was first planted in gardens and windbreaks at Doncaster during the 1860s and grew well.
Seedlings were raised at the Macedon nursery in 1872 by William Ferguson, Victoria’s first Inspector of Forests, and planted across the goldfields to rehabilitate land damaged by mining. Planting was extended at Creswick by John La Gerche in 1888 and the You Yangs later in 1899.
Its success partly gave rise to the fallacy that radiata pine could grow anywhere.
Meanwhile, between 1860 and 1885, various Victorian Acts of Parliament led to the sub-division and sale of Crown Land along the Mornington Peninsula near Frankston.
But by the early 1900s most of the best land in Victoria was being selected and alienated for agriculture. The Lands Department was very powerful at the time and had little interest in allocating valuable Crown Land for forestry or plantation purposes.
There were however large areas of coastal heathlands which were generally unsuitable for farming and considered useless for any other purposes that were made available.
As early as 1876 Crown Land at Frankston had been identified as a site for Melbourne General Cemetery, but Springvale was chosen instead in 1901. One of the reasons Frankston was rejected was because it was a long way for mourners to travel and Catholics and Protestants would need to share the same train.
In October 1909, the Lands Department granted a “Permissive Occupancy” over 1370 acres of the land to the State Forest Department for the “Preservation and Growth of Timber”.
The land was primarily on poor quality coastal sand dunes and these so-called maritime “wastelands” included low woodland, heathland and swampland.
They were planted, not only because the Crown Land was available, but also because labour was accessible and costs of roading, clearing, planting and tending were relatively low.
So in 1909, the State Forests Department embarked on its first major coastal plantation project at Frankston.
Other plantations followed at Wilsons Promontory (1911), French Island (1916), Korumburra (1917), Port Campbell/Waarre (1919), Anglesea (1923), Mt Difficult in the Grampians (1925) and Wonthaggi (1927).
A senior officer, Mr W. L Hartland transferred from the Commission’s Creswick Nursery to take charge of the new plantation at Frankston.
Progress was quick, and by 1909 a 10-acre portion had already been fenced and planted.
By 1914, 300 acres had been planted with Corsican pine (Pinus. laricio and P. laricio taurica), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga douglasii), Japanese red pine (P. densifiora), Cluster pine (P. pinaster), Red pine (P. resinosa) and Monterey pine (P. insignis var. radiata) which proved the most successful of the various species planted.
Labour shortages during the war years slowed the rate of planting so that by 1916-17 the area had increased to only 445 acres.
On Monday 16 February 1920, there was a Vice-Regal Visit to the state plantations by his Excellency Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson, Governor-General, accompanied by Capt. Duncan Hughes, aide-de-camp; Mr. Owen Jones, Chairman of the Forests Commission; Mr. A. D. Hardy, President of the Field Naturalists Club; Mr. John. Johnstone, Chief Superintendent of Plantations and Mr. P. R. H. St. John, Head Gardener of the Melbourne Botanical Gardens. The vice-regal party was met by the plantation’s superintendent, Mr. W. L. Hartland. They all agreed the Frankston plantation to be the finest in Australia.
Then in 1922, on Easter Monday, a bushfire burnt some 350 acres of the plantation when the temperature reached 94 degrees. The fire was started from outside the plantation when a spark blew across from an adjacent property where burning off had been in progress in the windy weather. But the damage was not as severe as first thought, and not all the trees died. They were later salvaged.
During the mid-1920s, Mr James Brown was appointed as the second forest officer to take charge. I have read that a house was built on Dandenong Road for him and his daughter by the Forests Commission and that this house still exists.
During the 1920s and 30s the Frankston Plantation often hosted “Arbour Day” festivities on the last Friday of July where local school children came and planted trees.
And despite all the setbacks, about 20 years after the first plantings, the 1928-29 Forests Commission’s annual report records that approximately 300,000 super feet (700 cubic metres) of pine was cut from Frankston Plantation and sold for conversion to case material.
In July 1933, during the depression years, it’s reported that 30 local men were engaged under the sustenance program to work the plantations.
On 2 January 1955 there was another serious bushfire in the plantation. On a very hot day of 105 degrees, a fire which was believed to have started in a nearby paddock around midday, very quickly grew into a 4-mile front. Holiday makers around Frankston became volunteer firemen to boost the firefighting force to nearly 1,000 people, teaming with firemen from six CFA brigades. The fire was stopped 3 miles from the centre of Frankston.
A total of 630 acres, or £200,000 worth of pines were killed in the blaze and the trees were salvaged over the next 18 months.
This bushfire effectively spelled the end of the Commission’s interest and investment in the Frankston plantation, and by 1958, it relinquished its Permissive Occupancy back to the Lands Department. However, fire protection responsibilities remained with the Commission.
From 1946 the State Pine Plantation had been run by Mr Harry Firth who stayed long enough to wind up of the Commission’s operations in 1956, and then chose to retire.
Then in 1956, a large wedge of some 296 acres was excised from the western side for the Victorian Housing Commission to build homes for low-income families. And by 1957 the first stage was completed with the Pines Forest Post Office being opened on 12 October 1959.
The Housing Commission planned neighbourhood units of about 500 houses for each primary school and designed access roads for pedestrian safety. They had grand plans for the entire area to be subdivided for housing.
Many of the new streets were given names reflecting the species planted in the previous plantation. For example, the first street constructed was Pine Street, leading to Plantation Street and Forest Drive. Other names included Monterey Boulevard, Radiata street and Aleppo court.
Native trees were represented as well, with stringybark, candlebark and manna courts as well as longleaf street.
Many species of flowering eucalyptus were planted on the street verges.
In 1965 the second wave and eventual completion of the building program began east of Excelsior Drive and extended as far as the proposed Mornington Peninsula Freeway to the east. The freeway zone acted as a buffer between the houses and the Frankston Municipal tip.
In June 1959, the Victorian Vegetable Growers Association approached the Minister of Agriculture, Sir Gilbert Chandler, with the request to establish a vegetable research station in the sands area. As a result, 280 acres of Crown Land in the north-eastern corner of the former Frankston pine plantation was set aside.
There was also a turf research station on a site now occupied by Flinders Christion School.
A further 189 acres of land on Ballarto Road was set aside in 1966 for the Vermin and Noxious Weeds Destruction Board to establish the Keith Turnbull Research Institute.
A large parcel of 166 acres was also set aside in 1969 as the Centenary Park public golf course, which is managed by the Frankston Shire Council.
There is also a council tip site in the southern part and a freeway and a MMBW reserve running right through the middle.
During the 1970s there was proposal to allocate more Crown Land as a sand quarry, but local opposition blocked the move.
In about 1989, following years of community agitation, remaining areas of public land eventually became the Pines Flora and Fauna Reserve managed by Parks Victoria. The 544 acres (220 ha) is one of the last remaining habitats for some species, such as the endangered New Holland Mouse and the Southern Brown Bandicoot.
Although the Frankston plantation was not viable in the longer term, it was of value because it provided the platform for developing plantations in other parts of the State. It could be said they kickstarted the highly successful softwood plantation program that eventually made such an important contribution to the regional economy of Victoria.
And despite its chequered history, there is absolutely no doubt that if the land had not been set aside as a timber reserve and used as a softwood plantation that the entire area would have been progressively subdivided for housing and there would be no remnant bushland left at all. There are many other similar examples across the State, such as Sherbrook Forest, the You Yangs and Mt Beckworth.
But like many other parcels of remnant bushland on the fringe of major towns and cities there is a perpetual problem of deliberately lit bushfires, anti-social behaviour, and rubbish dumping.
In October 1909 the Lands Department reserved 1370 acres for the “Preservation and Growth of Timber” near Frankston and granted a ”Permissive Occupancy” to the State Forest Department. Map by the Department of Crown Lands and Survey 1938. Source: SLV http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/102706The parish plan holds a wealth of information. https://mapwarper.prov.vic.gov.au/maps/1453Planting Pinus Insignis (P radiata).Planting Pinus Insignis (P radiata)Pinus Insignis (P radiata) at Frankston, showing unhealthy growing conditionsHousing Commission of Victoria dated March 1958, showing parts of the first two original streets, Pine St and Plantation Ave, with the service road along Frankston-Dandenong Rd. Source: State Library Victoria. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/170361It seems the Housing Commission drew up plans in 1958 to subdivide the entire parcel of Crown Land for housing. http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/114842Typical Housing Commission Home at Frankston, 1960.This second major bushfire spelled the end to the Forest Commissions interest in the Frankston Plantation. Argus Monday 3 January 1955. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/71687593Melbourne Herald, 25 April 1922. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/246765642Remnant bushland at the Pines Flora and Fauna reserveFires and anti social behaviour have always been a problem on Crown Lands and State Forest near major cities and towns1970 Aerial photo of the north east section of the Pines. The KTRI buildings, the freeway easement and the new housing can be seen.
Gladys Elizabeth Sanderson was the relieving Post Mistress at Noojee during the devasting Black Friday bushfires on January 13, 1939.
She became famous for her unwavering bravery by continuing to keep the phone lines open and making calls to the Warragul Post Office, which she prefaced by the phrase “Noojee Calling”.
The only person in the town who could operate the telephone switchboard — the sole link with isolated families which were in danger of being cut off in the hills and burned to death by the swiftly-advancing fires — she stayed at her post until the town was ablaze, and after seeing to the evacuation of her sick father and nine-year-old daughter. She refused to leave until pushed out of the post office by a policeman, Constable Earnshaw.
The Herald Newspaper reported on ”The Angel of Noojee”..
The Noojee postmistress, Mrs Gladys Sanderson refused to leave her switchboard until the Post Office caught fire. Half an hour earlier it had started to burn but volunteers extinguished the flames.
Before she joined other residents in the precarious shelter of the creek, Mrs Sanderson locked the money and valuables in the safe and had her brother wire the keys to her wrist.
If the worst comes to the worst, she told the postmaster at Warragul in her last call from Noojee, they‘ll find the keys on my wrist.
“It was close on 2 o‘clock when I left the post office. I got into a pool behind the hotel. There were about 60 people there. We just crouched in the river. It was about 20 feet wide and the edges were burning. Burning leaves and debris were falling in the water. We stayed in the water until about seven o‘clock.”
She was taken to Warragul to sleep that night. But the next morning she was back on the job at Noojee, operating a temporary switchboard mechanics had rigged up in a tin shed which escaped the blaze. Noojee, or what was left of it, was in touch with the outside world again.
After the new Post Office was rebuilt in 1940, she was inundated with phone calls from The Age, The Argus and The Sun newspapers because King George had awarded her The Medal of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – the British Empire Medal for gallantry and devotion to duty.
Some of the photos were used in a Pix Magazine article about the town and its recovery. Vol. 5 No. 1 (6 January 1940) https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-471232380
Alfred Vernon Galbraith, or AVG as he was more commonly known, was a highly regarded and visionary leader of the Forests Commission Victoria (FCV).
Galbraith trained as an accountant and became assistant town clerk at the City of Geelong at the age of 21, and later appointed chief clerk at the Country Roads Board.
During World War One, Galbraith enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and served in both England and France but was gassed at Messines. He returned to Australia in 1919 and discharged but suffered ongoing medical problems as a result of his injuries.
Upon his return from military service, Galbraith was recruited as the Secretary to the newly established three-person Forests Commission, headed by a young Welsh forester, Owen Jones. The other Commissioners included Hugh Robert Mackay and William James Code.
In September 1924 Owen Jones resigned and moved to a new position in New Zealand and Galbraith was appointed as one of the three Commissioners, with Code as Chairman.
When Code retired in 1927, Galbraith was elevated to Chairman, a position he held for the next 22 years.
Under Galbraith’s leadership the trajectory of the Forests Commission was one of periodic political conflict, varying budgets but almost continuous organisational expansion and relative autonomy.
From its earliest days, the Commission had promoted using forest and sawmill waste to produce wood pulp. Industry eventually began to show some interest and in 1936 under Galbraith’s Chairmanship, the Commission and Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM) reached an agreement and the company proceeded to establish a plant at Maryvale in Gippsland for the manufacture of Kraft papers.
The Black Friday bushfires on 13 January 1939 were a major turning point in the story of Victoria’s State forests.
The subsequent Stretton Royal Commission has been called one of the most significant inquiries in the history of Victorian public administration, and its recommendations led to sweeping changes and increases in funding and responsibilities for the FCV.
Galbraith, who survived as Chairman of the Commission, was described by Judge Stretton as “a man of moral integrity”
Galbraith subsequently appointed Alfred Oscar Lawrence in December 1939 as the new Chief Fire Officer to lead and modernise the Forests Commission’s shattered fire fighting force.
In the wake of the 1939 bushfires, Galbraith oversaw a massive timber salvage program in the Central Highlands that took nearly 15 years to complete.
On top of the loss of experienced senior staff and forest workers to the armed services, Galbraith confronted major issues on the home front including provision of desperately needed timber supplies, charcoal for cars, secret production of guncotton for munitions, a firewood emergency and managing war time internee camps.
It was soon after the war ended in 1945 that Galbraith articulated his vision for the future of the forest and timber industry in rural Victoria, in what has been termed the “Grand Design”.
It was at this time that Australia experienced a prolonged housing boom associated creating huge pressure on native forests. Galbraith increased the intake of graduates at the Victorian School of Forestry (VSF) to meet these demands
Following the earlier withdrawal from strained arrangements with the Australian Forestry School in Canberra in 1930 Galbraith personally took responsibility for raising standards at and building closer ties with the University of Melbourne.
His efforts culminated in the University establishing a Bachelor of Science in Forestry in the mid-1940s and VSF students being able undertake two years at the University after completing the three-year Associate Diploma course at Creswick.
Galbraith was not trained as a forester himself. He possessed the Diploma of Commerce from Melbourne University and was an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. However, while Chairman he wrote a major thesis “Eucalyptus regnans- its silviculture, management & utilisation in Victoria” which he submitted in July 1935 to earn the very first Diploma of Forestry (Victoria).
Galbraith was also widely known throughout Australia and overseas. He took a leading role in organising the 1928 British Empire Forestry Conference in Australia and represented Victoria at a similar conference in 1935. He planned to attend the 1947 conference in England but was forced to withdraw due to failing health.
Alfred Vernon Galbraith died suddenly on 29 March 1949, while still Chairman of the Forests Commission. He was 58.
In April 1949, Finton George Gerraty, who began his forestry career at Creswick in 1915, was appointed as the new Chairman. When Gerraty also died suddenly in June 1956, Alf Lawrence was appointed as Chairmen, a role he maintained until his retirement in July 1969.
Among his many legacies, the student accommodation block, AVG House at the Victorian School of Forestry was named in Galbraith’s honour in 1961.
Photo: Looking more like mobsters than foresters. c 1935 A.V..Galbraith, FCV Chairman, Finton George Gerraty, then Inspector of Forests and Herbert FitzRoy OIC Boys Camp at Rubicon. Finton Gerraty had earlier been Niagaroon district forester based at Taggerty and was appointed Chairman FCV on Galbraith’s death in 1949. Herb FitzRoy was later Alexandra Shire President. Photo: Allan Layton
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 