With grass growth pretty prolific around our region, it might be worth a look back at the 2009 Black Saturday Redesdale fire.
As far as we know, Robert Kenny’s Gardens of Fire: an investigative memoir, [UWA Publishing 2013] is the first detailed account of this fire by a householder directly involved. Kenny unsuccessfully tried to defend his house in Racecourse Road, and lost virtually everything he had. His description of his efforts to fight the fire alone makes gripping and sobering reading. He thought he was prepared, with buckets of water, plenty of tanks, a fire pump and appropriate clothing. The fire ran through grassland to his house, and his efforts at defence were defeated when his pump collapsed and embers entered the building ceiling. Kenny is hard on himself: he refers to ‘people from the city, like myself. Who, let’s be frank, had no idea’, and recalls a conversation with a local farmer when he bought his property: ‘I never forget the son of the previous owner of the property, my guide when I first moved in, looking out over parched paddocks where there was virtually no grass, and responding to my statement that there was nothing to burn with: it’ll burn, don’t worry about that.’ Kenny’s book is a description of his fire fighting efforts and his problems in adjusting to his loss, interspersed with reflections on the history of attitudes to fire and a bit of local history. It’s on the whole a bitter story–among other things, Kenny appears convinced the fire was deliberately lit. According to the Royal Commission, the cause was ‘undetermined.’ And, it must be said, he’s pretty critical of conservationists: readers of his book can judge whether he’s fair on that subject or not.
Kenny is author of The lamb enters the dreaming’, winner of the 2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian history.
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The bare facts of the Redesdale fire are as follows:
CFA ARCHIVES: ‘The fire started in a creek bed on open farmland between the eastern bank of the Coliban River and the northern end of Summerhill Road, about two kilometres to the west of Redesdale.’
ROYAL COMMISSION: ‘VicFire was notified of the fire at Redesdale at 15:11 on 7 February. The fire was initially reported to have started at Coliban Park Road, about 2 kilometres to the west of Redesdale on the western side of the Coliban River. Fire investigators subsequently discovered that the fire actually started on the eastern side of the river.
‘Ms Samantha Siddle lives on a property at Racecourse Road, Redesdale, very close to the fire’s point of origin. Ms Siddle first smelled smoke at around 15:00. She got into her car and drove across her property in search of the origin of the smoke. Within about 15 minutes, however, her paddocks were on fire. At 15:20, having returned to her home, she called 000 to report the fire…
‘The fire’s average rate of spread was 6 kilometres an hour. During the course of the afternoon the fire spread rapidly though grassland, at up to 12 kilometres an hour, while slowing to as low as 1 kilometre an hour in areas of heavy fuel and forest. …
‘The fire was observed as a ‘blanket of fire’ spreading across the landscape, with a flame front 20 metres deep and a flame height of 1 to 2 metres over grassland. It developed into a crown fire in some forested areas, including in the Mt Lofty reserve…
‘The Redesdale fire was controlled by 07:00 on 8 February, although in the following days there were some break-outs as a result of strong southerly winds. During this time firefighters continued to secure the fire perimeter; this involved redeploying resources from the nearby Bendigo fire. The fire was not listed as contained until 09:56 on 10 February.It was completely blacked out by 14 February…
‘Fourteen houses and more than 50 sheds and outbuildings were destroyed, as were the Baynton church, a bridge, two olive plantations and a vineyard. Two CFA forward control vehicles were damaged…
‘…The Redesdale fire burned in four separate municipalities. It started in the City of Greater Bendigo, burned mainly in Mount Alexander Shire, and extended to Mitchell and Macedon Ranges Shires.’ The fire burned 7086 hectares.