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Bushfires: Adelaide Hills infernos led to volunteer CFS brigades

Hills residents have lived with bushfires for generations but there was one major blaze which sparked the formation of many volunteer CFS brigades

As the first rays of a glaring summer sun crept across the Adelaide Hills on Sunday, January 2, 1955, a feeling of uneasiness spread among the inhabitants of its little villages, orchards, dairies and cropping farms.

It wasn’t unusual for dry, hot winds to sweep across the Hills face from the northwest  and  funnel  up  its  many  deep, narrow valleys to the farmland and forest above. This  day,  however,  felt  different, as  furnace-like winds quickly built up throughout the morning.

By 1pm gusts of more than 100km/h were bending trees and tearing at loose tin on sheds, while the air temperature had soared to nearly 43C, making it Adelaide’s hottest day for six years. Already several major fires had broken out, creating what is called South Australia’s Black Sunday.

The century-long build-up to this day and how it unfolded is the reason why the Aldgate Country Fire Service was formed.

Hills residents have lived with the threat of bushfires ever since Europeans first turned original bushland into farmland in SA. These fires usually were the result of several wet winters promoting strong new growth on land cleared for European-style cultivation.

That spurt of greenery, baked by hot winds when the inevitable long, dry summers returned, laid the foundations for a potential disaster.

A fire pattern soon evolved, with a major wildfire every two decades or so. It continues to this day.

Firefighters battle the Cudlee Creek blaze near Hollands Creek Road and Snake Gully Road last year. Picture: Tait Schmaal
Firefighters battle the Cudlee Creek blaze near Hollands Creek Road and Snake Gully Road last year. Picture: Tait Schmaal

The destructive cycle was recognised as early as 1847, when the colonial government legislated against the careless use of fire in uncontrolled burnoffs of crop stubble and grass. However, it was left up to local rural communities to formulate their own firefighting plan and how they would respond to a wildfire in their immediate area.

These fledgling settlements learned to band together in the face of an approaching inferno. A typical response was groups of locals – armed with wet hessian sacks, shovels, rakes and even branches torn from trees – attacking smaller fires ahead of the main front. They were called “beaters”.

This was dangerous work but there was no shortage of volunteers. Impromptu back-burns, based on a gut feeling and immediate wind conditions, were the only method of combating a raging firefront head on.

One of the first extensively reported wind-driven wildfires was the February 1912 inferno. It engulfed the Hills, from Norton Summit in the north, to Meadows in the south, Cherry Gardens in the west and Mount Barker in the east.

Hans Heysen sketched the flames as they approached Hahndorf, creating two paintings of what were described as the worst bushfires in South Australia in 20 years. At the time Heysen was renting a house in the area and hadn’t bought the famous Cedars property. It was a reality check for the young artist, who would go on to become one of Australia’s leading landscape painters.

Hans Heysen’s Approaching Storm With Bushfire Haze depicts anxious shepherds retreating from a wall of turbulent smoke. Picture: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Hans Heysen’s Approaching Storm With Bushfire Haze depicts anxious shepherds retreating from a wall of turbulent smoke. Picture: Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

The Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser (later shortened to Mount Barker Courier) summed up the situation around Aldgate with the headline “Miles of Fire”. It went on to describe “an anxious week for the residents of Aldgate, Bridgewater, Grunthal, Mylor, Hahndorf, Mount Barker, Echunga, Macclesfield, Meadows, Flaxley, Biggs Flat and several other places in the district”.

The newspaper gave particular attention to this part of the fire, which covered a huge area of farmland and bush.

Its report read: “Taking Aldgate, Bridgewater and Grunthal as the top side, the fire ran down round Hahndorf nearly to Mount Barker. Thence the boundary of the area went to Echunga and Macclesfield round to Meadows and Biggs Flat to Dashwood’s Gully, near to Kangarilla. Thence backwards for a few miles towards Biggs Flat but on again towards Cherry Gardens and so back to Aldgate”.

In a chilling prediction of future fires, the newspaper reported: “This was not only one fire, but a number of conflagrations which either joined or nearly did, and swept practically the whole of the country in-between the places mentioned.”

It described a “fire frontage” of 10km, an invisible sky so shrouded in smoke the reporter could view the sun with a “naked eye”, valleys acting as a “suction ventilator” and flames “20 or 40 feet above the highest trees”.

Also revealed was the importance of a quick response to such wind-driven wildfires at a time when a horse and cart was the most common form of transport in the Hills. The paper reported: “The motor car took a very prominent part in conquering the flames, for by that quick mode of transit men were taken to the front, often times just in time to quell a serious outbreak.”

The report went on to name one standout contributor to this new type of firefighting: “The name of Mr. B. Barr Smith must stand out pre-eminently for his kindness in putting his car at the disposal of the firefighters. Mr. Leniban, his driver, deserves great praise for the way he handled the car and took the men through all sorts of places right to the fire. He took no small part in checking the fire.”

The SA government was quick to put in place a stronger wildfire-prevention system, but only through legislation. In 1913 it gave district councils the right to appoint fire control officers. These were empowered to do anything “necessary or expedient and practicable” to prevent fires, protect life and property in case of fire, and control or extinguish a fire including back burning.

There were many wildfires around SA in the following two decades but none matched the Hills inferno of 1939.

A hot, dry spell after unusually heavy winter rains set the scene for what The Adelaide Chronicle described as a “week of blazing terror” in mid-January 1939. A widespread firefront was brought under control, then flared again days later.

Over 10 days, locations as far apart as Mount Torrens, Echunga, Meadows and Clarendon were lucky to survive complete destruction as blazes entered these townships. Fires affected 30 local districts, including around Crafers, Stirling, Piccadilly, Mylor, Bradbury and Scott Creek. Locals were quick to react to a situation that remained fluid and dangerous for many days.

Within 30 minutes of an outbreak at Aldgate one morning there were more than 100 locals battling the flames to save three threatened houses.

At the same time a fire was raging near Heathfield school, eventually being stopped just metres from the main building, while 12ha of scrub burnt near a plant nursery at Bridgewater.

By now radio broadcasts played a major role in such catastrophic events, with a call for help resulting in thousands of volunteers from areas in and around Adelaide being transported to the fire zones in borrowed trucks.

The Advertiser reported “heroic efforts” to save life and property as the fires “forged ahead at tremendous speed, the flames often making gigantic leaps”.

There was no loss of life but many houses and farms, and several major Hills businesses, were destroyed, while dozens of people were injured.

It was a very different outcome in Victoria that month, where 71 people died and 75 per cent of the state was affected in some way by a wildfire later named Black Friday.

Meanwhile, over in NSW a string of fires stretched along the South Coast, while the nation’s new capital, Canberra, was threatened by a 70km-wide firefront.

January 2, 1955, was soon described as SA’s darkest day of bushfires. Later it was named Black Sunday.

Its impact on the Hills, and its many small, self-contained and self-reliant townships, soon led to the forming of the Aldgate CFS to protect its own community and help other brigades combat such a catastrophe in the future.

The buildup to 1955 was the same as 1912 and 1939: several years of extreme wet followed by a long dry period.

By mid-morning wind gusts were nudging 100km/h, while the temperature climbed over 38C. Compounding the feeling of doom was a large dust storm blowing in from the harvested and now dry northern plains.

The Black Sunday bushfires of 1955 are photographed from a rooftop in Kensington Gardens. Picture: Robjohns Collection, State Library of SA.
The Black Sunday bushfires of 1955 are photographed from a rooftop in Kensington Gardens. Picture: Robjohns Collection, State Library of SA.

High winds blew powerlines together and  they  sparked  across  trees,  igniting several blazes, while the choking dust obscured vision. One of the first fires of that momentous day was famously captured in a series of photographs taken from a rooftop at Kensington Gardens. Smoke curled over the lower slopes of nearby Magill and Morialta before the savage gusts transformed it into a fearsome, bomb-like cloud.

This dominated the sky and pointed menacingly across the Hills in a forewarning of impending disaster.

Underneath the plume that would quickly spread inland were two of SA’s most important public figures. Governor Sir Robert George and Premier Thomas Playford would be lucky to survive the day.

Marble Hill, the vice-regal’s summer residence, stood elegantly atop the highest point of the ranges between Ashton and Cherryville. Its manicured English gardens offered sweeping, almost aerial views to the north, east and west towards Adelaide and out to the coast. However, below it were deep valleys of dense bushland.

This stone mansion, with its extensive outbuildings, looked invincible. It had survived the 1912 inferno with just the loss of its orchards.

But on this catastrophic day, as the wind gusts topped 100km/h and the temperature soared to 43C, its location was finally revealed as the great flaw in a grand design.

It was perched above valleys similar to those in the 1912 inferno that had been described as acting as a “suction ventilator”.

On that day at Marble Hill were the governor, his family and retinue, as well as all the family’s major possessions as renovations were being carried out at Government House in Adelaide.

Aerial view of the ruins of Marble Hill, the summer residence of the Governor at Norton Summit after the Black Sunday fires of 1955.
Aerial view of the ruins of Marble Hill, the summer residence of the Governor at Norton Summit after the Black Sunday fires of 1955.

As a wall of supercharged flames enveloped the veranda and kitchen, the vice-regal party and their servants used garden hoses and buckets of water in a fruitless attempt to save the huge building.

At risk of being trapped inside, they doused towels and blankets in the remaining water, covered their heads and ran along the driveway. They spent two anxious and painful hours huddled against a bank from the radiant heat and smoke. Then they made a break for their cars, which were blistered by heat and splashed with molten lead from the collapsed garage roof.

All their possessions were lost as the mansion caved in and the interior was destroyed. Several of the governor’s party were later treated for burns.

Meanwhile, just a few kilometres across the Hills as the crow flies, was the premier, Sir Thomas. His family’s links to the Norton Summit area dated back to the 1840s and this day he was in an orchard near Cherryville. Sir Thomas had been Premier during the 1939 fires, and was involved both in local firefighting and directing state government relief plans for the victims.

This time was very different. Sir Thomas found himself trapped with five others as fire swept through the orchard. “We owe our lives to Tom Playford,” one of his party told reporters later. Several had started to panic when flames surrounded them, and wanted to take their chance in a dash across the top of the hill.

However, the premier calmly guided them to a few square metres of tilled ground and made them sit there until the danger passed. It was a classic piece of fireground survival strategy: find refuge in the black.

Another shot of The Black Sunday bushfires of 1955 from a rooftop in Kensington Gardens. Picture: Robjohns Collection, State Library of SA.
Another shot of The Black Sunday bushfires of 1955 from a rooftop in Kensington Gardens. Picture: Robjohns Collection, State Library of SA.

“Things got pretty hot and most of us had our hair singed, but the fire burned out,” one survivor said later. “Had we gone on we would have gone to our deaths.”

As the day progressed a chain of fires, which were unconnected but later joined in two places, extended from Saddleworth, over 100km northwest of Adelaide, to Strathalbyn. This wide arc swept past Aldgate and nearby Hills townships.

The ferocity of the fires shocked even those who had experienced the 1939 inferno. Upper Sturt railway station was destroyed and a church was gutted at Longwood, while a family which had just taken possession of their new farm at Bradbury lost everything.

A newspaper report described how the YMCA camp at Loftia Park, Heathfield, was swept by flames, and 10 of the boys there narrowly escaped death.

“They were seen hurrying along the road flanked by flames,” the report read. “They were rescued by the father of one of them in a utility truck.”

All available metropolitan police officers were called in to assist local emergency firefighting services. They were joined by a mobile unit of about 80 Army personnel, which used radio appliances for the first time to direct firefighters’ efforts.

The Torrens Parade Ground in Adelaide city was turned into a command centre, where more than 2500 people volunteered to  head  up  into  the  Hills  and  other  fire-affected areas to help local firefighters.

Founding members of the Aldgate fire brigade in 1955.
Founding members of the Aldgate fire brigade in 1955.

At one stage in the afternoon 13 fires were devouring areas of the Hills simultaneously, with fresh outbreaks reported in the early evening.

Then another bizarre incident occurred: a   drizzle   which   turned   into   an   almost-torrential downpour.

“Rain was beginning to fall in the Adelaide Hills at 8.30pm, but radio appeals were still being issued for volunteers to join the army of men, police and emergency firefighters in the Stirling area,” read one newspaper report.

The fire slowly burnt out but the damage was extensive. Two lives were lost, along with several significant buildings and countless crops, orchards, dairies and associated agricultural resources.

From the ashes of this day of devastation many new official volunteer fire brigades were formed, among them Aldgate EFS, later named Aldgate CFS.

This is an edited extract from the new book Advance with Courage: A history of Aldgate CFS, to be published as an ebook early next year. The first two chapters are available on the Aldgate CFS Facebook page

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Original URL: https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/lifestyle/sa-weekend/bushfires-adelaide-hills-infernos-led-to-volunteer-cfs-brigades/news-story/5cc0b3f6bf26117143aa28cacc072490