The cross depicted in the photograph is stated to be from the Uniting Church in Upper Beaconsfield in the Museum's registration records but may instead be from St John's Anglican Church which burned down in the Ash Wednesday bushfires as no Uniting Church site is recorded in Upper Beaconsfield. Forty-seven people were killed in the Ash Wednesday fires in Victoria, including twenty-seven from the Cardinia Shire area. Twenty-one of the people killed were located in Upper Beaconsfield; twelve of the people killed in the area were fire-fighters, along with nine residents. 186 homes and countless livestock were also lost in the fires which ranged through Victoria and into South Australia due to a combination of dry, hot and windy weather. The date of the fires corresponds with the the date of the Christian religious festival of the same name that year. St John's Anglican Church was rebuilt on the same site within the next three years. The design, by local architect Paul Reid, combined elements of the previous building with the style of village churches Reid had observed in Austria and Bavaria after his graduation from Melbourne University. The cross, which buckled in the heat generated by the fires, is believed to be on display at the Ash Wednesday Bushfire Education Centre in Cockatoo, which was itself constructed as a memorial on the site of a kindergarten in which 300 Cockatoo residents sheltered from the fire. The specific occasion on which this photograph was taken is not known.This item is significant because of its association with the Ash Wednesday bushfires, one of the worst natural disasters in Victoria's history. The Ash Wednesday fires occurred on 16th February 1983. Twenty-seven people from the Cardinia Shire area were killed in the fires, including twenty-one who died within a kilometre of the church in which the cross depicted resided.Black and white rectangular photograph printed on photographic paper. The photograph depicts a plain dark-coloured metal cross on a stand. The cross has buckled forwards. The item is resting on a table covered with a pale-coloured table-cloth. A bouquet of flowers is visible to the left-hand side of the image. Chairs and three women in special occasion-style clothing are visible at the rear of the image. The cross featured in the photograph is from a church in Upper Beaconsfield which was damaged in the Ash Wednesday bushfires in February 1983. The specific occasion on which this photograph was taken is not known.ash wednesday 1983, bushfires, churches, st john's anglican church, uniting church, upper beaconsfield victoria australia, cockatoo victoria australia, cross, deceased persons, natural disasters, ash wednesday bushfire education centre, paul reid, cardinia shire council