Warbird Information Exchange

1939 - 13 January 'Black Friday'
From December 1938 to January 1939, fires burnt 1.5 to 2 million hectares, including 800,000 hectares of protected forest, 600,000 hectares of reserved forest and 4,000 hectares of plantations. The fire severity peaked on Friday January 13 - "Black Friday". The fires caused seventy one fatalities and destroyed more than 650 buildings and the township of Narbethong. The findings of the Royal Commission that was held following the fires were highly significant in increasing fire awareness and prevention throughout Australia. The fires affected almost every section of Victoria. Areas hardest hit included Noojee, Woods Point, Omeo, Warrandyte, and Yarra Glen. Other areas affected include Warburton, Erica, Rubicon, Dromana, Mansfield, the Otway Ranges and the Grampian Ranges.

1983 - 16 February 'Ash Wednesday'
Australia’s most well-known bushfire event. Over 100 fires in Victoria burnt 210,000 hectares and caused forty seven fatalities. More than 27,000 stock and 2,000 houses were lost. Areas severely affected included Monivae, Branxholme, East Trentham, Mt Macedon, the Otway Ranges, Warburton, Belgrave Heights, Cockatoo, Beaconsfield Upper and Framlingham

Article from: The Australian
Caroline Overington | February 12, 2009

HOW do you save your life, and those of your children, friends and pets, when the whole mountain is burning?

You join forces with your neighbours.

You stand united.

You use your ingenuity.

You don't give in.

It's because of these things that five families, including nine children, two sets of grandparents and six dogs, are alive today.

They had a fire plan that involved getting together in just one house in Kinglake -- a timber house -- and defending it with all their might.

They ran out of power and, at one stage, had no access to water, but never mind, they had dry ginger ale, and shampoo, and mineral water, and all of that could go into the pump, to be sprayed on the embers.

They had a fire hose and a pair of boots. They had mops and buckets.

Their other homes were lost -- most of them have, in fact, lost everything. But never mind, they have their lives.

The house that survived stands at 9 Robertson Road, Kinglake.

It's a two-storey place, made of timber and owned by Anthony Chrystie, who lives on the ground floor with his son, Brodie.

On the top floor lives Lynne Watts, with her four sons: Leigham, 4, Lachlan, 6, Dylan, 13, and Jayden, 8.

Next door, you've got the grandparents: Marie and Eric Watts. Down the road, at 39 Robertson, you've got a life-long friend of the family, Ron Parsonage.

He's got five children; he raised all of them himself, after his wife left when the youngest was two. Ron's son Paul is there, with his girlfriend, Charlene, and their daughter, Chantelle, 18 months.

They don't drive, so when it came time to gather at No9, they had to hoof it through the smoke.

Then you've got Jess McDonald and boyfriend Brett Walker.

You've got Nick Chrystie, who is Anthony's brother, and his girlfriend, Alaina, her three kids -- Jack, 8, Luke, 6, and Max, 3 -- and her father, Graham.

Then you've got Ricky Watts, who is Lynette's brother, and his girlfriend, Lauren, who has a newborn baby, Jazmine.

Add to that six beloved pets: staffy Bridey, two labs called Molly and Gemma, a long-haired thing called Harvey, the neighbour's staffy, Blade, and a jack russell, Belle.

Add to that, one ferocious fire.

Ron Parsonage says he was working at the King Ross chicken farm until about 5pm on Saturday. His son, Paul, his girlfriend, and their daughter were at home.

When he heard that a fire was coming, he went to get them, since none can drive.

He packed up a few precious things -- his parents' ashes and his father's war medals -- opened the front door, and thought: "I'm going to lose the house.

"We didn't have any warning. I got a call to say there was a fire burning down the hill. Ten minutes later, there is this roar."

He raced down the hill to the timber house.

Meanwhile, Graham McKee and his daughter, Alaina, were activating their fire plan on Bald Spur Road. Alaina's mother got her three kids off the mountain. Alaina and her father stayed to fight, but when it became clear their house, too, was lost, they ran down to the timber house.

"You have no idea how fast it came," Graham said. "I fell over, I was running so fast. I was just running and stumbling."

He now has nothing -- "not a thing" -- but his life, and those of his wife, Coral, and their children.

"We'd all made this plan that this house was the safest," Lynette Watts said. "It was pretty chaotic with all the kids and the dogs. People just came as soon as they saw they were losing their own homes.

"There were eight guys outside at one point, just stamping on embers and hosing things down. It was pitch black and terrifying, but we stuck to the plan."

In one street, five families joined forces to stand their ground in one house - made of timber - and fight the fire with everything they had. At one point they ran out of power and water, so they started spraying ginger ale, shampoo and and mineral water at the embers devouring the mountain they had built their lives on.

But at least all five families, including nine children, two sets of grandparents and six dogs still had their lives. "It was pretty chaotic with all the kids and the dogs. People just came as soon as they saw they were losing their own homes," Lynette Watts told The Australian.

"There were eight guys outside at one point, just stamping on embers and hosing things down. It was pitch black and terrifying, but we stuck to the plan."

At a pub further on in the town, 400 people were sheltering from the firestorm. As the flames closed in, tradie Peter Thorneycroft climbed onto the roof.

Dressed only in shorts and thongs, he fought off the embers with water from a semi-trailer and in buckets handed up to him by other brave locals. It took an hour of what must have been sheer terror, but it worked.

"The ground was constantly shaking. It was absolutely deafening. I never panic at all and I was s----ing myself," he told Melbourne's Herald Sun.

Trapped in a friend's house, Kirsty Crisp huddled with her two-year-old son, Jai, and eight-day-old baby, Matilda, in the living room while her husband and two friends fought the fire outside. It soon swept over the house.

Mrs Crisp wrapped the children in soaking towels and placed wet muslin wraps over their faces to protect them from smoke. She has told the The Australian she was terrified, but "I couldn't show it ... I didn't want Jai to know it."

After four hours, the fire finally moved on.