Colour photograph of the Marysville locality from Nicholl Lookoutbushfire, black saturday, marysville, nicholl lookout

Colour photograph of the Marysville locality from Nicholl Lookoutbushfire, black saturday, marysville, nicholl lookout

Colour photograph of the Marysville locality from Nicholl Lookoutbushfire, black saturday, marysville, nicholl lookout

Colour photograph of the Marysville locality from Nicholl Lookoutbushfire, black saturday, marysville, nicholl lookout

Used for planned burning operationsPressurised Rega burner wand, with pump and pressure gaugeOlindaforests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsPressurised Bering burner wand, with pump and pressure gauge Adaption of a commercial garden weed burner Bering Engineering Ltd we’re originally based at Doman road, Camberley in Surrey, UKforests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsPressurised burner wand, with pump and pressure gauge Adaption of a commercial garden weed burner X300forests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsBurner wand - propane gas Adaption of a commercial garden weed burner Not used Hot Devilforests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsBurner wand - propane gas Adaption of a commercial garden weed burner Not used forests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsBurner wand - propane gas Adaption of a commercial garden weed burner Not used AirFlow Hot Rod MkIV forests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsAdaption of a commercial garden weed burner Plastic backback with burner wand and hoseREGA forests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsKerosene pump forests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsAdaption of garden weed sprayer Pump action packpack Long handle, burner wick with control valveREGA 10909forests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsAdaption of garden weed burner Heavy galvanised iron wand Gravity feed to burner wick with control valve and handleforests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsKerosene burning wand with long wooden handle and wick Adaption of a commercial garden weed burner forests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsVehicle mounter flame thrower. Developed at Altona workshopsforests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Alan McArthur from the CSIRO began his experimental burning program in the late 1950s near Canberra and published his landmark paper in 1962, “Controlled burning in eucalypt forests”. Leaflet No. 80, as it was known, proved a turning point for forest and fire managers across Australia. It led to the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Meter (FFDM) which first appeared in operational use in 1967 as the Mk 4. The CSIRO had developed its semi-automatic aerial incendiary machine dropping small capsules, with the first trial from a fixed-wing Cessna 337 at Manjimup in December 1965. In April 1969, the Forests Commission borrowed the second prototype of the CSIRO machine to carry out fuel reduction burning at Orbost. The success prompted the purchase of their own machine in 1970, which now sits in the Altona Museum. Pioneering machine in the development of aerial ignition in AustraliaAerial Incendiary Machineforests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire aviation, bushfire

Alan McArthur from the CSIRO began his experimental burning program in the late 1950s near Canberra and published his landmark paper in 1962, “Controlled burning in eucalypt forests”. Leaflet No. 80, as it was known, proved a turning point for forest and fire managers across Australia. It led to the McArthur Forest Fire Danger Meter (FFDM) which first appeared in operational use in 1967 as the Mk 4. The CSIRO had developed its semi-automatic aerial incendiary machine dropping small capsules, with the first trial from a fixed-wing Cessna 337 at Manjimup in December 1965. Many technological and safety improvements followed including the Raindance machineAerial Incendiary Machine developed in Western Australia Rather than "ping pong balls" it uses a belt of incendiary "caplets" which are injected inside the machine before being ejected Raindance Systems R2forests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire aviation, bushfire

Used for planned burning operationsIncendiary Launcher in boxOtwaysforests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Used for planned burning operationsBurner wand. Adaption of a commercial garden weed burner forests commission victoria (fcv), planned burning, bushfire, hand tools

Spraying units were manufactured in Australia by REGA Products Ltd. from 1926. REGA established themselves as leaders in the production of agricultural and horticultural spraying machines, including smaller knapsacks. Their metal knapsacks were quickly adapted to a range of applications and were widely used by the Forests Commission and Country Fire Authority (CFA). They were metal and very robust but heavy and uncomfortable to wear REGA was later purchased by the Garrard family and still operate as part of Garrads Pty Ltd. This sprayer was used by the FCV at CreswickThe REGA spray unit includes brass fittings, leather straps with a brass pump handle and adjustable nozzle attached. Adjustable leather straps have "quick release" clips and studs Camm lock lid with chain attachedREGA Creswickforests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire, planned burning, fire pump

Spraying units were manufactured in Australia by REGA Products Ltd. from 1926. REGA established themselves as leaders in the production of agricultural and horticultural spraying machines, including smaller knapsacks.Fire knapsack with carry handle Brass pump handle and adjustable nozzle attached.forests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire, planned burning, fire pump

Very early knapsack design using improvised materials.Fire knapsack made from rubber car inner tube which was slung over shoulder Brass pump handle and adjustable nozzle attached.forests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire, planned burning, fire pump

Spraying units were manufactured in Australia by REGA Products Ltd. from 1926. REGA established themselves as leaders in the production of agricultural and horticultural spraying machines, including smaller knapsacks.Plastic fire knapsack usually attached to the back of machinery Brass pump handle and adjustable nozzle attached.REGAforests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire, planned burning, fire pump

Spraying units were manufactured in Australia by REGA Products Ltd. from 1926. REGA established themselves as leaders in the production of agricultural and horticultural spraying machines, including smaller knapsacks.Metal fire knapsack usually attached to the back of machinery Brass pump handle and adjustable nozzle attached.REGAforests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire, planned burning, fire pump

Athol Hodgson began testing of retardants in 1963 at Ballarat by dropping water thickened with bentonite clay directly from a Ceres CA-28 aircraft. In 1965 dropping a new chemical retardant Phoschek was produced by Monsanto All this experimental work culminated with two Piper Pawnees from Benambra, flown by Ben Buckley and Bob Lansbury, making Australia’s first operational drop of fire-retardant on a small lightning-strike on 6 February 1967. The flight at Benambra came to symbolise the classic application of firebombing and a "proof-of-concept" that encouraged many more innovations with new and more powerful aircraft.Fibreglass funnels used to measure the viscosity of the fire retardant, Phoscheck The funnel was filled with liquid and timed to run through between 35 and 50 secondsforests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire, fire pump, fire tanker

The successful dropping of supplies to remote fire crews involved a great deal of experimentation. The result was a large heavy-duty cardboard container being developed in 1964 by Athol Hodgson from the FCV Fire Research Branch which employed fold-out wings and was called the “helibox”. It was suitable for supplies weighing less than 9 kg and best dropped from about 300 feet and became a standard technique. It was adopted Australia wide, but the wider availability of helicopters made the helibox eventually redundant.Unique to Victoria but adopted across Australia.Large cardboard box with "wings" to cause it to rotate when dropped from the air. With cut away sections to show how contents were packed Wings held in place by means of string office "Ty-Tite" fasteners.forests commission victoria (fcv), bushfire aviation, bushfire, camping equipment

A history of the brigade's first 50 yearsbushfire, eltham barrel, research fire brigade, victorian bushfires - 1969

These boots were manufactured by Oliver Stevens in Ballarat to the Forests Commission's own specification. Safety boots were a bit "hit and miss" back in 1981. As well as the steel toe caps these boots had a screwed, glued and stitched Sherpa-pattern rubber nitrile sole. The sole was oil resistant and didn't melt on hot coals. The yellow heels signified safety boots. There were two styles with different leather and staff were all personally fitted and given their choice of style. The only thing that has fundamentally changed over 40 years is there is much more choice and comfort in boots today. These boots proved to be the catalyst for boot manufacturers realising there was a market outside of the armed forces not being served. Ankle injuries along with elastic sided boots were virtually eliminated by these boots. The iconic Tasmanian company, Blundstone, had a work boot called "Forester" at the time. It had won an Australian Design Award and had a bonded Sherpa sole. Unfortunately, the soles tended to separate from the boot under field test conditions. Eventually they perfected the process Oliver Stevens' main issue was not being able to recruit enough workers to meet the increased demand. Info: Trevor Brown.First safety boots issued to Victorian forest firefightersYellow Back safety boots with leather laces. FCV marked on the heel fire fighting, bushfire, forests commission victoria (fcv), protective clothing

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