Mitchell Toy: Why Melbourne banned fireworks for Guy Fawkes Night
Guy Fawkes night was just an excuse for most Victorians to set stuff on fire, but the grisly aftermath of the annual event led to its eventual demise.
Victoria
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Why is the sale of fireworks banned in Victoria?
Ask a Boomer and you’ll get some hair-raising answers.
These days, the likes of penny-bungers, pinwheels and Roman candles are nowhere to be found except under the counters of dodgy western suburbs grocery marts.
But you could once buy them at Coles.
Throughout the month of October in the mid 20th Century, whole window displays were devoted to fireworks of every variety.
And on November 5, up they went.
On Guy Fawkes night, otherwise known as Bonfire Night or Cracker Night, the sky glowed with thousands of fireworks as bonfires raged around Melbourne.
But a horror run of serious injuries and deaths among Victorian children eventually got too much.
By the 1980s fireworks were reigned in, and one of the most divisive nights on the calendar was doused.
Remember, remember the fifth of November
The original reason for Cracker Night was to commemorate the capture and execution of Guy Fawkes, the Catholic conspirator who tried to blow up British parliament with gunpowder in 1605.
It was often joked that Fawkes is remembered as the only person who ever entered parliament with honest intentions.
In the early 20th Century, Empire Day on May 24 was another reason to celebrate.
But whatever. For most Victorians it was just an excuse to set stuff on fire.
It started weeks ahead of time.
Anyone with hard rubbish would drag it out to a park or other designated area where a huge pile of fuel would eventually develop, helped by plenty of dry straw.
Often a straw man representing Fawkes (or the politician of your choice) was stuck on top.
Then after dark, someone’s dad would strike a match to a trail of petrol and whoosh.
It was hard to get within 10m of a decent suburban Melbourne bonfire when it was fully underway.
Then the fireworks would go off everywhere.
There was something of a communal catharsis about burning garbage and letting off rockets, but Cracker Night never passed without a serious incident or two.
For starters, the noise was like the western front.
Cats and dogs went missing all over the place, and were sometimes never found.
Letterboxes were a favourite target of firework vandals who’d set a big one alight and cackle as it blew the box to smithereens.
Especially sadistic pranksters would even tie crackers to the tails of cats. You can imagine the horror that followed.
But the human cost was sometimes just as bad.
Newspaper editors could bank on a few stories of missing fingers and serious burns on the morning of November 6.
Injuries to the eyes, face and hands were most common, and were sometimes fatal.
On Cracker Night in 1938, 14-year-old John Day of Ballan put a large firework in a glass bottle.
When it exploded, a fragment gouged his thigh, severing a major artery.
He was taken to hospital at Ballarat, but died of blood loss.
In 1928 a 10-year-old boy was killed in Warragul when a large stump was set on fire at a bonfire event.
As the fire raged the stump weakened and it fell on the boy’s head, killing him almost instantly.
Fizzled out
By the early 1950s, after years of horror injuries and mishaps, Cracker night was already waning in popularity.
By the 1960s it was well and truly on the nose.
The Metropolitan Fire Brigade was sick of attending dozens of totally avoidable fire incidents, and everyone from fretting parents to animal rights activists were on the case.
New regulations were introduced by the State Government in 1963 limiting the size of fireworks sold in Victoria, although dangerous bonfire events still went ahead.
It wasn’t until 1974 that larger fireworks were banned, leaving much smaller novelty crackers on the shelves.
They too were banned in 1982 after more public pressure, including from the Australian and New Zealand Burns Association, and the Australian College of Ophthalmologists, a group specialising in the treatment of eye injuries.
The final Guy Fawkes letterbox was blown up sometime in the 80s and the whole tradition of Cracker Night has since burned down to embers.
These days, the humble party popper or sparkling candle is the biggest bang you’re going to legally get at a retail store in Victoria.
Recent years have seen a resurgence of illegal crackers for New Year and Chinese New Year celebrations.
Strict licensing laws now restrict the planning and execution of fireworks displays in Victoria to trained pyrotechnicians.
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