Historical information

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.

Significance

Unique to Victoria but adopted across Australia.

Physical description

Large cardboard box with "wings" to cause it to rotate when dropped from the air.
Wings held in place by means of string office "Ty-Tite" fasteners.