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

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

This tram was built in 1913 for the Prahran and Malvern Tramways Trust. When first in use it was number 35. It was sold to the State Electricity Commission of Victoria and became number 40 in 1951. Ballarat Tramway Museum purchased the tram in 1971. It was the last tram to run when it ran from Sebastopol to the depot on 19 September 1971. Tram 40 is an operational vehicle and in general use in the Museum service.Large coloured photograph, laminated, of green and cream tram number 40.Tram number 40 and emblem of State Electricity Commission of Victoria in gold on side.1913, prahran and malvern tramways trust, tram 35, state electricity commission, tram 40, 1951, ballarat tramway museum, 1971, last tram, sebastopol to depot, operational vehicle