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 Mining & Geological Journal was produced by the Department of Mines, Victoria twice a year, during the period 1937 to 1972. It was an official publication of the Victorian Government, Department of Mines, devoted to issues and events surrounding mining and metallurgical engineering in Victoria along with education, research and innovations in mining. The journal also included advertisements and references to business interests. Editorial (page 3) discusses the imminent demolition of the Geological Museum, situated alongside the Old Treasury Building in Melbourne. The genesis of the Geological Museum was 'the Exhibition of 1861 when the potential value of scientific search to the community as a whole was recognised'. In 1887 the Secretary for Mines in Melbourne was strongly of the opinion that a School of Mines should be established...it was decided that a building should be erected to house a thorough staff of professsors to impart instruction.' Orange cover, white text, printed on front cover: 'Mining and Geological Journal', Volume 6, Number 5, 1965. In centre of cover, black and white photo of the Geological Museum Melbourne. Colour photograph on back cover shows Mindrill type 13 model F 62B diamond drilling machine in PNG. geology, mining, gold mining, bendigo, department of mines, water divining, origins of oil, bentonite, alluvial gold, nickle, serpentinite, hit of miss mine wedderburn, geological museum