Historical information

From the early 1960s, the Forests Commission had pre-season arrangements in place with local aeroclubs and pilots across regional Victoria.
Air observers from FCV districts routinely flew during the summer months in small, fixed-wing aircraft on fire spotting missions and to map fire boundaries.
The information was often needed quickly by crews on the ground or in the control centre and these small chutes were used to drop messages and maps from the reconnaissance aircraft on a low pass above a cleared area like a football field.
About 3-foot long when fully extended, they had a small pouch secured with a press stud for the map or package. The chutes were made from tough canvas with a small, weighted sandbag at one end and a long yellow streamer tail on the other to help direct its fall and locating it on the ground.
Drop chutes were still in common use in the 1990s, but the increased availability of helicopters combined with improved digital data transfer made drop chutes redundant.

Significance

Simple, but now redundant technology

Physical description

Aerial drop chute

Inscriptions & markings

"Return to Forests Comm Vic" stenciled on side