Previous Find of the Month - 1/2025

Find of the Month

January 2025

Bushfire control in Canberra

This article is a revised version of the February 2010 Find of the Month

Fig. 1. Fire prevention campaign poster, 1929

Living in the Bush Capital comes with the recurring threat of bushfires, a significant challenge throughout Canberra’s history. ArchivesACT holds numerous files documenting the early organisation of resources in the control of bushfires, covering very early public education activities, the major bushfire of January 1939, and, of course, the January 2003 fire.

Attached to one of our earliest files are several copies of a 1929 linen poster “Prevent Forest Fires, It Pays” (fig. 1). A lengthy press release (figs. 2-3) implores Canberrans to take care in extinguishing the matches and fires used for their pipes and cigars, and boiling their billies:

Fig. 2. Press release on fire prevention, Nov. 1929

Fig. 3. Press release on bushfire prevention, Nov. 1929

The posters, along with simplified instructions to children, were circulated to schools in the ACT, requesting teachers’ help to educate their pupils in “the creation of a fire-prevention conscience in the Territory”.

Fig. 4. Instructions to school children on bushfire prevention, 1929

Numerous teachers wrote back to confirm receipt of the letters, and their commitment to the campaign, including from Ainslie, Mulligan’s Flat, Tuggeranong, Weetangerra, Duntroon and Gibraltar schools.i Of interest is the first of these responses by the teacher at Hall school, Charles William Thompson, whose 50-year career was the subject of our February 2009 Find of the Month. With efficiency and economy, he returned the letter with the annotation “Hearty co-operation will be freely given in this laudable cause."

Fig. 5. Federal Capital Commission Secretary H.R. Waterman's letter to Hall School teacher Charles Thompson, with Thompson's annotated response

1939 fires

In January 1939, following several years of drought, Victoria and New South Wales experienced a series of catastrophic bushfires. The worst of these, known as the Black Friday fires, occurred on January 13 and resulted in 36 deaths in Victoria.i

At the same time the ACT faced extreme heat and wind conditions, with bushfires across a 40-mile front that crossed the southern and western borders into the ACT. These fires threatened pine plantations and several rural properties. After burning 3,500 acres (approximately 14 square kilometres), the fires were successfully extinguished by foresters, rangers, bushfire services, property owners and a group of volunteers organised by radio station 2CA.ii

Cyril Cole was the ACT’s Forester at the time, and Lindsay Pryor was his Assistant. In his report, Cole describes Pryor’s “intelligent and energetic work” in maintaining communication between the groups fighting the fires, and credits him as therefore being “largely responsible for the fact that no mistakes were made which might easily have imperilled lives of the fire-fighters".

Fig. 6. Forester Cole's report on the bushfires of January 1939 (p.1). 23 Jan 1939

Fig. 7. Forester Cole's report on the bushfires of January 1939 (p. 2). 23 Jan 1939

Interestingly, within a few years of this fire, Cole, a First World War veteran, took on an even more important leadership role in forestry. He commanded the Australian Forestry Group of the Second Australian Imperial Force in the UK as a Lieutenant Colonel. Forestry companies were formed in both world wars to ensure that the military had access to timber for a vast range of uses, from making crates to ship food and ammunition to building barracks and mess halls. Cole was appointed an Officer of the Military Division Order of the British Empire in 1944 for his forestry service.i

The following pages from file TL2082 Part 8 – Foodstuffs & Tobacco, relating to the supply of tobacco to firefighters, illustrate how times have changed. Lapses in normal purchase approval processes were forgiven as these supplies were seen as critical to maintaining morale on the frontline of the fires.

Fig. 8. Letter from J.C. Brackenreg of the Department of Works to Surveyor-General A. Percival regarding purchase of tobacco for firefighters, 26 Jan. 1939

Fig. 9. Letter from Surveyor-General A. Percival recommending approval of purchase of tobacco for firefighters, 17 Apr. 1939

2003 bushfires

In January 2003 Canberra experienced intense bushfires in which four people died, many more were injured, and nearly 500 homes were destroyed. The records relating to these fires and the recovery from them are now more than 20 years old, and many have been released for public access. Professor Jacki Schirmer, Director of the Centre for Environmental Governance, University of Canberra, drew on these files to prepare the 2024 Chief Minister’s Governance Lecture about community recovery after natural disasters. You can read a transcript of Professor Schirmer’s lecture on the ArchivesACT website.

Fig. 10. Professor Jacki Schirmer's Chief Minister's Governance Lecture, 2024

ACT Government files used

TL2082#1-3 – Bushfire Control – Parts 1-3

TL2082#8 – Foodstuffs & Tobacco – Part 8

Images

Fig. 1. Fire prevention campaign poster, 1929. TL2082#1

Figs. 2-3. Press release on fire prevention, Nov. 1929. TL2082#1

Fig. 4. Instructions to school children about bushfire prevention, 1929. TL2082#1

Fig. 5. Federal Capital Commission Secretary H.R. Waterman’s letter to Hall School teacher Charles Thompson, with Thompson’s annotated response. TL2082#1

Figs. 6-7. Forester Cole’s report on the bushfires of January 1939. 23 Jan 1939. TL2082#2

Fig. 8. Letter from J.C. Brackenreg of the Department of Works to Surveyor-General A. Percival regarding purchase of tobacco for firefighters, 26 Jan. 1939. TL2082#8

Fig. 9. Letter from Surveyor-General A. Percival recommending approval of purchase of tobacco for firefighters, 17 Apr. 1939. TL2082#8

Fig. 10. Professor Jacki Schirmer’s Chief Minister’s Governance Lecture, 2024

References

i See the Hall Heritage Centre’s Database on Early Capital Region Government Schools and Teachers

(https://heritage.hall.act.au/schools.html, accessed 23 Dec. 2024) for information about early schools in and around Canberra

ii Forest Fire Management Victoria. “Black Friday 1939”. https://www.ffm.vic.gov.au/history-and-incidents/black-friday-1939, accessed 23 Dec. 2024

iii “Canberra Saved in National Fire Holocaust”. The Canberra Times, 16 Jan. 1939. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2496120/661846

iv State Library of South Australia. Catalogue description for Papers of Cyril Richard Cole [PRG 1710/9]. https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+1710/9, accessed 23 Dec 2024

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