Linked to the 1983 Ash Wednesday BushfiresSmall metal lockable cash box with handle and tray insert This item was burnt in the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires which destroyed the FCV Office and nursery It was recovered from ashes of the building It was in the office safe and contained charred bank notes and a chequebushfire, forests commission victoria (fcv)

Y valves were used to split water supplies so it could be directed to a number of locations on a fire. In this case four outlets with two controlling valves. Canvas 1.5 inch hose was normally attached Screw connections rather than twist-camm locksY ValveYarrawonga Forests Commissionbushfire, fire pump, forests commission victoria (fcv)

Signs were erected around the forest to restrict the use of firearms.Shooting Prohibited sign - canvasbushfire, forest signs, forests commission victoria (fcv)

Before metrication was introduced into Australia in the 1970s land was measured in chains and links. Many old parish plans show length measurements in chains and links. Area was shown in acres, roods and perches. Gunter's chain was used for measuring distance in surveying. It was designed and introduced in 1620 by English clergyman and mathematician Edmund Gunter (1581–1626). Gunter developed the measuring chain of 100 links. The chain and the link, became statutory measures in England and subsequently the British Empire. After metrication units of length were measured in meters and area in hectares. The chain was later superseded by steel ribbon tape.The 66 foot long brass Gunter's Chain is divided into 100 links (each 7.92 inches long), and marked off into groups of 10 by shaped tags which simplify intermediate measurement. It was heavy but flexible enough to be dragged through the bush on surveying transects.(Hence the common forestry term "chainman). The chain was a precision part of a surveyor's equipment. It required frequent calibration, yet needed to be sturdy enough to be dragged through rough terrain for years. It has brass hand grips at each end of chain. 1 chain = 100 links = 22 yards = 66 feet = 792 inches. 10 chains = furlong 80 chains = 1 mile 1 acre = 10 square chains = 4 roods (1/4 acre) = 40 perches.forest measurement, surveying, forests commission victoria (fcv)

The origins of the humble handheld driptorch have been lost in time. They are widely used for ignition in controlled burning operations in forest and grasslands. This "home made" burner wand uses kerosene and dates from the 1950s. It has an unusual long handle with a bend and wick one one end.Unusual "home made" design Long handle burning wand with a wick at one end. Brass flow valve in the middle. Base attached to a container of kerosene and has a screw cap. bushfire, forests commission victoria (fcv)

Bushfire awareness gallows signs were common features during the summer fire season and hung outside both FCV offices and on major roadways This large metal sign has different text on each side and the text and lettering is simple enough to be read from a moving vehicleBushfire Awareness - gallows signbushfire, forest signs, forests commission victoria (fcv)

Method of carrying rolled up canvas fire hose. Canvas hose needs to be washed, dried, rolled and stored properly after it has been used otherwise it will rot. Unrolled hose is notorious for becoming tangled. Canvas fire hose and roll carrier. The wire handle separates in the middle to release the hose rollbushfire, forests commission victoria (fcv), fire pump

Motorola introduced the Bag Phone in 1988. These phones offered more durability and higher power output (up to 3 watts) than more conventional mobile phones of the time. Bag Phones were expensive to purchase and operate. They became available within the Department in the early 1990s but their use was very restricted to staff like fire communications duty officers. Senior regional managers also had bag phones. Bag Phones were also bulky and heavy and were often known as "The Brick". The 12 volt sealed lead-acid rechargeable battery provided up to 2.5 hours of talk time and 48 hours of standby time. They were replaced from the mid 1990s by smaller, analogue flip-phones with lighter Nicad batteries manufactured by companies like Nokia. The mobile phone network was patchy in country Victoria where two main telecommunications companies operated - Telstra and Optus.Motorola Bag Phone with handsetOptus 018 594 510 No battery Includes handset, aerial and 12 volt car-charger jack in vinyl bagforests commission victoria (fcv), communications

In the late 1970s, the must-have gadget in every forest office could be best characterised by the fax machine. Millions of people bought them because they represented a miracle. With a fax machine, you could send a sheet of paper to someone, anywhere in the country, or anywhere in the world, complete with a signature, in seconds. E-mail really didn't exist yet (except in military and university environments), so the fax machine was simply amazing. During the "golden age" of the fax machine, people faxed everything. Office lunch orders went to the local Chinese takeaway by fax rather than being phoned in, while fire maps, timesheets and other urgent documents, could all be sent out straight away. Nearly every legal document got faxed once it was signed. People also traded recipes, jokes, funny pictures and personal letters by fax rather than sending them in the snail mail. With the early machines, the output was printed onto a roll of thermal paper that regularly spewed out coils onto the floor if you weren’t watching. All this technology quickly faded, only to be superceded by the pervasive e-mail in the 1990s. But the humble fax machine gave us an early glimpse of what the office of the future would be like.Facsimile machinePitney Bowes 8050communications, forests commission victoria (fcv)

Not much is known about this particular machine and where it was usedEarly fax machine. In two parts. Mufaxcommunications, forests commission victoria (fcv)

Black powder splitting guns were commonly used to split large logs into more manageable pieces before the advent of excavators and front-end loaders in bush logging operations. A typical splitting gun used in Victorian forests was a piece of high-grade steel about 1-1/2 to 2 inches in diameter and about 16 inches long, and slightly tapered at one end. They had a ¾ inch hole drilled about 9 inches deep into the centre of the shaft with a small pilot hole drilled from the outside to load the fuse. The tube was carefully loaded with an amount of black gunpowder using a funnel and spoon. Experience being the guide on how much powder to use, which depended on log size, species and difficulty of splitting the wood. The hole was stopped with a piece of wadded paper and the gun positioned at the end of a length of the log to be split. The splitting gun was then belted into the log with a large wooden maul or even the back of an axe to a depth of about 3 to 4 inches. There were often markings as a guide. This also had the effect of tamping the black powder inside the gun. Preferably the gun was backed up by another large log to absorb the recoil shock and avoid it flying off in the bush somewhere. I have seen guns where a length of string and coloured flag could be attached to help find them. A length of fuse was then inserted in the small hole and lit. Kaboom !!!! Needless to say, the splitting gun was a dangerous implement.Log Splitting gun (large 50cm)forests commission victoria (fcv), hand tools

Black powder splitting guns were commonly used to split large logs into more manageable pieces before the advent of excavators and front-end loaders in bush logging operations. A typical splitting gun used in Victorian forests was a piece of high-grade steel about 1-1/2 to 2 inches in diameter and about 16 inches long, and slightly tapered at one end. They had a ¾ inch hole drilled about 9 inches deep into the centre of the shaft with a small pilot hole drilled from the outside to load the fuse. The tube was carefully loaded with an amount of black gunpowder using a funnel and spoon. Experience being the guide on how much powder to use, which depended on log size, species and difficulty of splitting the wood. The hole was stopped with a piece of wadded paper and the gun positioned at the end of a length of the log to be split. The splitting gun was then belted into the log with a large wooden maul or even the back of an axe to a depth of about 3 to 4 inches. There were often markings as a guide. This also had the effect of tamping the black powder inside the gun. Preferably the gun was backed up by another large log to absorb the recoil shock and avoid it flying off in the bush somewhere. I have seen guns where a length of string and coloured flag could be attached to help find them. A length of fuse was then inserted in the small hole and lit. Kaboom !!!! Needless to say, the splitting gun was a dangerous implement.Log Splitting gun (large 45cm)forests commission victoria (fcv), hand tools

Bushfire perimeter rather than bushfire area is the main control problem for firefighters on the ground. A conundrum rapidly compounded by spot fires. A small 5 ha fire can be nearly 1 km around the perimeter. That's a long way to build a control line by hand in rough bush. Dry firefighting techniques by hand were mostly confined to “knocking down” or “beating out” the flames, as well as "digging out". Digging or raking a “mineral earth” trail down to bare dirt proved most effective in forest fuels which, unlike grass, tend to retain heat and smoulder. Early tools were whatever happened to be close at hand. They were simple and primitive and included shovels, slashers, axes, hoes, beaters and rakes. A cut branch to beat the flames was often the only thing available. Farming and logging tools, developed over centuries of manual labour, and readily available at local hardware stores came into use, but little thought was given to size, weight, and balance. For years foresters experimented with combination tools. In about 1952 fire beaters and other implements were being replaced with Rakuts. However, its believed the now common Rakehoe is an Australian variation of the American McLeod Tool which was developed in 1905 by forest ranger Malcolm McLeod of the Sierra National Forest. The late Athol Hodgson advised that predecessors, Reg Torbet who had been the Chief Fire Officer for the Forests Commission from 1948-1956, along with his QLD counterpart Clive Price, went in late 1951 as Australian delegates on a 10 week fire study tour of Nth America organised by the United Nations. They came back with a couple of McLeod tools from Canada. Cam MacLeod (different spelling) had been the Head of Fire Research for the Canadian Forest Service at the time and had supplied them. The tools were ideal for deciduous forests in the eastern provinces and Clive arranged to have them manufactured in QLD. The Rakho, as it was then spelled, was first issued to FCV crews 65 years ago in 1955-56. The American Pulaski had been trialled, but never found favour with Australian firefighters.Rakhoeforests commission victoria (fcv), hand tools, forest harvesting, bushfire

Metal branding hammers were the most common way to control the sale and movement of hardwood timber produce like logs, railway sleepers, fence posts, and poles from Victorian State forests. Royalty was also paid on this basis. Hammers most commonly had a crown stamp on one end with a unique number in the middle which identified its owner, and a crows foot or broad arrow on the other. The broad arrow was a symbol traditionally used in Britain and its colonies to mark government property. Other local configurations were used by sawmillers, post cutters and pulpwood contactors. Forest regulations state that an authorised officer may use the crown mark to identify produce which has been sold and may be removed from the forest, whereas the broad arrow can be used to brand and mark trees which are not to be felled, or to indicate forest produce which has been seized. Hammers were traditionally only ever issued to forest officers and were an important, and closely guarded tool-of-trade. They were not transferred between staff and lending hammers was not permitted. But it was an onerous task for staff to hammer and tally hundreds of logs, or thousands of fence posts each week, so in about 1990 a system was introduced whereby hammers were allocated to logging contractors to grade logs and tally them instead. But there was still spot checking by authorised officers. A register was kept, and contractors paid a substantial deposit to make sure they didn't lose them, but they occasionally turn up by fossickers with metal detectors. While branding hammers are still used in some smaller locations, plastic tags and barcodes are now more common.Log Grading hammersforests commission victoria (fcv), hand tools, forest harvesting

Metal Pinch Barforests commission victoria (fcv), hand tools

Offset C Hookforests commission victoria (fcv), hand tools

Used to warn traffic of hazardsBattery operated traffic warning light - greenforests commission victoria (fcv), safety equipment

Used to warn traffic of hazardsMetal kerosene traffic warning light - red (CRB type)forests commission victoria (fcv), safety equipment

Different lettering guides were used depending on the scale of maps Cartographic guidance was provided by the FCV’s 1947 publication - “Handbook of Conventional Signs and Symbols for Use in Forest MappingPlastic lettering guides for use with ink Rotring pensRotring Scale and lettering sizes 5mmforests commission victoria (fcv), mapping, surveying

Used with Rotring ink pens of pencils to draw smooth shapes on mapsPlastic shapes used for mappingRotringforests commission victoria (fcv), mapping, surveying

Bushfire perimeter rather than bushfire area is the main control problem for firefighters on the ground. A conundrum rapidly compounded by spot fires. A small 5 ha fire can be nearly 1 km around the perimeter. That's a long way to build a control line by hand in rough bush. Dry firefighting techniques by hand were mostly confined to “knocking down” or “beating out” the flames, as well as "digging out". Digging or raking a “mineral earth” trail down to bare dirt proved most effective in forest fuels which, unlike grass, tend to retain heat and smoulder. Early tools were whatever happened to be close at hand. They were simple and primitive and included shovels, slashers, axes, hoes, beaters and rakes. A cut branch to beat the flames was often the only thing available. Farming and logging tools, developed over centuries of manual labour, and readily available at local hardware stores came into use, but little thought was given to size, weight, and balance. For years foresters experimented with combination tools. In about 1952 fire beaters and other implements were being replaced with Rakuts. However, its believed the now common Rakehoe is an Australian variation of the American McLeod Tool which was developed in 1905 by forest ranger Malcolm McLeod of the Sierra National Forest. The late Athol Hodgson advised that predecessors, Reg Torbet who had been the Chief Fire Officer for the Forests Commission from 1948-1956, along with his QLD counterpart Clive Price, went in late 1951 as Australian delegates on a 10 week fire study tour of Nth America organised by the United Nations. They came back with a couple of McLeod tools from Canada. Cam MacLeod (different spelling) had been the Head of Fire Research for the Canadian Forest Service at the time and had supplied them. The tools were ideal for deciduous forests in the eastern provinces and Clive arranged to have them manufactured in QLD. The Rakho, as it was then spelled, was first issued to FCV crews 65 years ago in 1955-56. The American Pulaski had been trialled, but never found favour with Australian firefighters.Fire Beater (canvas) 1930s designforests commission victoria (fcv), hand tools, forest harvesting, bushfire

Chainsaw fuel and oil carry containersforests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire, hand tools

Used to hammer into a saw cut when falling treesThree types of cutting wedges used when falling treesforests commission victoria (fcv), forest harvesting, hand tools

The FCV used green flashing lights rather than redPortable 12 volt flashing light for use on fire tankersforests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire, safety equipment

Used to protect ankles from sticks in thick scrub as well as from snake bitesCanvas protective gaiters with leather straps (ex-army)forests commission victoria (fcv), protective clothing, bushfire

used at fire basecampsWood fire "copper" to heat water at basecampsforests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire, camping equipment

This metal and enamel sign is believed to have hung outside the Myrtleford Forest District Office. It includes directions to the Ovens Nursery, Office and Residence Phone numbers, radio call signs (VL30V) and office hours are included It also makes reference to hardwood and softwoods In 1956, the new Chairman of the Forests Commission, Alf Lawrence, introduced a major restructure of the organisation to create 56 Forest Districts. The process included amalgamating the plantations and hardwood divisions, which had been separate and rival entities up to that time. Things remained largely unchanged for the next three decades until the early 1980s.Myrtleford Forest District office signforest signs, forests commission victoria (fcv)

This and other sets advertised on 30 January 1937 by MULLENS stationers in Melbourne (Trove) Given to or acquired by Forester James McKinty. Probably in late 1937. Used for map making and draftingStainless steel drawing tools in felt-lined wooden boxembossed on the fabric on the inside of the lid of the box: ACORN MATHEMATICAL SET ROBERTSON & MULLENS Ltd MELBOURNEforests commission victoria (fcv), mapping, surveying

The Canadians developed a machine that used "ping pong balls" instead of cylindrical incendiary capsules and, in 1977, the FCV purchased a Premo machine for evaluation. The 32mm-diameter balls were made from high impact polystyrene and contained 3.5g of potassium permanganate. They were injected with 1ml of glycol which would ignite after a short delay The first Premo machine used four slipper blocks, which were loaded via a hand-operated hopper which, when rotated forward, the balls would be fed into four feed chutes to individual slipper blocks. Each slipper block has an opening allowing individual balls to enter and exit once injected. The original design of the machine was not suitable to meet the burning objectives and a number of modification were necessary. Following close inspection and field testing it was clear that utilising four slipper blocks was excessive and would generate too much fire. It was acknowledged that satisfactory spacing could be achieved by using just one slipper block. Selective spacing could be achieved by the speeding up or slowing down of the slipper block transferring the capsules during the injection process. Regulating the speed that the injected capsules were being dropped controlled the amount of fire created on the ground. This machine was the result of many years of experimentation at AltonaSignificant development of aerial incendiary machines enabled expansion of the fuel reduction burning program across Victoria.Aerial Incendiary machine for use in helicopters Modification at the Altona workshops over many years by Barry Marsden forests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, bushfire aviation

The Forests Commission developed the use of helicopters for aerial ignition from the mid 1960s. Bryant and May at Richmond worked with the Commission to develop a Delayed Action Incendiary Device. DAIDs as the were known, had an overall length of 180 mm, striker end length - 10 mm. Ignition end length - 80 mm, then a layer of high melting point wax (to prevent accidental ignition when rubbing together in transit). Both ends coated with a modified match head compound with safety fuse exposed length between coated match ends. There was a 17-second delay from when the small end was struck to an intense flaming of the large end, which lasted for 40 seconds. DAIDs were dangerous so were stored in a metal box outside the helicopter along with a disposable striker patch attached with a quick release pin to a special half-door. The first test was with a Bell 47G on 4 October 1967 and the first use, anywhere in the world, of DAIDs to backburn a large bushfire was undertaken in north eastern Victoria in February 1968. There was a crash of an FCV helicopter conducting aerial ignition near Wandiligong on 19 April 1978 with the tragic death of two forest officers and their pilot. The crash led to the immediate end of the use of DAIDs and the adoption of the safer Premo ping-pong ball incendiary machine which originally came from Canada but was modified at the Altona workshops. Overall, the development of aerial ignition techniques by the Forests Commission from the mid-1960s resulted in a steady climb in the area burnt each year…. peaking at 477,000 ha in 1980-81 and with an impressive 10-year rolling average of 220,000 ha around the time of 1983 Ash Wednesday Bushfires.Developed in Victoria for aerial ignition by the FCV and Byant & MayLarge double ended match used for aerial ignition and back burning by dropping from a helicopterforests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire, planned burning