Ash Wednesday 1983

[TigerForce]

What an eerie day this was back in February 1983.

I was standing in the class room on a hot and humid day looking outside the 3rd floor window waiting for the teacher to arrive and just looked at the people walking, & cars driving up and down the noisy street. When the
teacher arrived we sat down to read through a boring book and as I was dozing off, I looked towards the window and noticed that a dead silence occurred. I pushed my chair back, got up, stuck my head outside the window and saw some people yelling out until.................BANG !

A huge amount of thick orange smoke spread all over the sky and ground as if a bomb exploded. Everybody started running around in chaos including the teacher. We were all caged inside the classroom for hours.

Everytime we have those woodburning smells in the air, it reminds me of this day.

It's 30 years ago today, however, I just realised my memory on Ash Wednesday has been distorted ever since. I thought the orange dust storm happened on Ash Wednesday but it didn't. It was 8 days earlier.

 

[RfC77]

It's 30 years ago today, however, I just realised my memory on Ash Wednesday has been distorted ever since. I thought the orange dust storm happened on Ash Wednesday but it didn't. It was 8 days earlier.

I was 6yo when both events happened, my memories of it are the same too, it seemed like the same day.. but I can recall that the dirt thrown up in the sky hadn't quite cleared when the fires came. It was a unforgettable scene more haunting than black saturday. My current partner was 16 at the time and living in Berwick (a rural farming town at the time) which was under fierce ember attack, she spent the day throwing open gates to paddocks in Guys Hill to give the animals a chance to escape but in the panic, many of them fled towards the fire front. She also recalls after the fires, half charred and disfigured livestock were wondering the streets of berwick for days.
The scary thing is now there's alot more people living in the dandenongs and successive governments have declared it off limits for backburning so it's well overdue for a fire with the last one being in 97 which was deliberately lit by a sick CFA volunteer who wanted a thrill.




Here are some words from the memorial at Guys Hill (Upper Beac):

On Wednesday 16th February 1983 , a call was received from Narre Warren tanker that they and another tanker from Panton Hill were in trouble and trapped. They where situated on St Georges Road, Upper Beaconsfield, on the top of a hill. When the change came through the fire travelled from High St, up the hill to St Georges Rd, a distance of half a kilometre, in eleven Seconds. With such speed and ferocity, they never stood a chance. The radio went dead, fire-fighters were fighting for their own lives, trying to take cover by getting under their trucks for protection.
At dawn the next morning two burnt out fire trucks and twelve fire fighters where discovered by Narre Warren First Lieutenant, Frank Clarke at St Georges Road, Upper Beaconsfield. One of those on the truck was his Captain, and 5 other members from Narre Warren. Forty seven people, fire-fighters and civilians, were to die on this day at fires all over the state. Forty six of these people died when the wind changed.

 

[TigerForce]

I was 6yo when both events happened, my memories of it are the same too, it seemed like the same day.. but I can recall that the dirt thrown up in the sky hadn't quite cleared when the fires came. It was a unforgettable scene more haunting than black saturday. My current partner was 16 at the time and living in Berwick (a rural farming town at the time) which was under fierce ember attack, she spent the day throwing open gates to paddocks in Guys Hill to give the animals a chance to escape but in the panic, many of them fled towards the fire front. She also recalls after the fires, half charred and disfigured livestock were wondering the streets of berwick for days.
The scary thing is now there's alot more people living in the dandenongs and successive governments have declared it off limits for backburning so it's well overdue for a fire with the last one being in 97 which was deliberately lit by a sick CFA volunteer who wanted a thrill.

Here are some words from the memorial at Guys Hill (Upper Beac):

On Wednesday 16th February 1983 , a call was received from Narre Warren tanker that they and another tanker from Panton Hill were in trouble and trapped. They where situated on St Georges Road, Upper Beaconsfield, on the top of a hill. When the change came through the fire travelled from High St, up the hill to St Georges Rd, a distance of half a kilometre, in eleven Seconds. With such speed and ferocity, they never stood a chance. The radio went dead, fire-fighters were fighting for their own lives, trying to take cover by getting under their trucks for protection.
At dawn the next morning two burnt out fire trucks and twelve fire fighters where discovered by Narre Warren First Lieutenant, Frank Clarke at St Georges Road, Upper Beaconsfield. One of those on the truck was his Captain, and 5 other members from Narre Warren. Forty seven people, fire-fighters and civilians, were to die on this day at fires all over the state. Forty six of these people died when the wind changed.

Yeah I remembered the burning smell lasted for a week or so. It was sad to see all that livestock get maimed and I still have no idea on how bad the experience really is for people who live in the rural areas, as sometimes you don't realise how deadly thick smoke actually is. I experienced it once in my bedroom about 20 years ago when an old 2nd hand TV blew up just after I turned it on. The smoke was ferocious and clouded the room really quickly which burnt the carpet and also left a lot of black marks up my nose for over a week. Excuse my ignorance, but after so many years/decades of these bushfires happening every summer, there still seems to be no safer way to prevent them? Same with floods (e.g. irrigation)?

 

[RfC77]

Yeah I remembered the burning smell lasted for a week or so. It was sad to see all that livestock get maimed and I still have no idea on how bad the experience really is for people who live in the rural areas, as sometimes you don't realise how deadly thick smoke actually is. I experienced it once in my bedroom about 20 years ago when an old 2nd hand TV blew up just after I turned it on. The smoke was ferocious and clouded the room really quickly which burnt the carpet and also left a lot of black marks up my nose for over a week. Excuse my ignorance, but after so many years/decades of these bushfires happening every summer, there still seems to be no safer way to prevent them? Same with floods (e.g. irrigation)?

Black Saturday would be my worst experience as far as smoke is concerned given that I live in semi-rural patch in Narre which in itself had fires raging both north, south, and east of where my house is.. the smoke was simply choking..and an eerie silence everywhere.. no birds no flies no nothing and visibility to 50 metres at best.
LOL I had a similar experience with an old TV.. that acrid smoke is foul and very unhealthy too with all the soldering and wiring melting.. hopefully you never experience that again with all the new safety switches in houses which prevent electrical shorts. All we can do is reduce the impact of those natural disasters, there is simply no way to stop them. With fires the government can carryout more burnoffs but then they're up against the Greens on that one who are against preventitive burnoffs and grazing - hence black saturday. With floods, alot of it comes down to infrastucture and land management, again , we cannot completely eliminate it - only reduce the impact with canals, pipes, levees, de-silting drains, creeks and rivers...flooding is usually deemed a problem when humans interfere/encroach on land which is prone to flooding.

 

[Ian4]

I was 7 years old and I remember it. 3 things come to mind: The dust storm, the blackouts, and the smell of smoke in the air that made me terrified that the fires were heading my way.

Edit: I just googled the 1983 dust storm and it occurred on feb 8. I always associated it with ask Wednesday... I guess it was in some ways (the precursor according to wiki).

 

[RfC77]

I was 7 years old and I remember it. 3 things come to mind: The dust storm, the blackouts, and the smell of smoke in the air that made me terrified that the fires were heading my way.

Edit: I just googled the 1983 dust storm and it occurred on feb 8. I always associated it with ask Wednesday... I guess it was in some ways (the precursor according to wiki).

Come to think of it, I can remember countless blackouts too!!!

 

[tigertim]

I was 6yo when both events happened, my memories of it are the same too, it seemed like the same day.. but I can recall that the dirt thrown up in the sky hadn't quite cleared when the fires came. It was a unforgettable scene more haunting than black saturday. My current partner was 16 at the time and living in Berwick (a rural farming town at the time) which was under fierce ember attack, she spent the day throwing open gates to paddocks in Guys Hill to give the animals a chance to escape but in the panic, many of them fled towards the fire front. She also recalls after the fires, half charred and disfigured livestock were wondering the streets of berwick for days.
The scary thing is now there's alot more people living in the dandenongs and successive governments have declared it off limits for backburning so it's well overdue for a fire with the last one being in 97 which was deliberately lit by a sick CFA volunteer who wanted a thrill.




Here are some words from the memorial at Guys Hill (Upper Beac):

On Wednesday 16th February 1983 , a call was received from Narre Warren tanker that they and another tanker from Panton Hill were in trouble and trapped. They where situated on St Georges Road, Upper Beaconsfield, on the top of a hill. When the change came through the fire travelled from High St, up the hill to St Georges Rd, a distance of half a kilometre, in eleven Seconds. With such speed and ferocity, they never stood a chance. The radio went dead, fire-fighters were fighting for their own lives, trying to take cover by getting under their trucks for protection.
At dawn the next morning two burnt out fire trucks and twelve fire fighters where discovered by Narre Warren First Lieutenant, Frank Clarke at St Georges Road, Upper Beaconsfield. One of those on the truck was his Captain, and 5 other members from Narre Warren. Forty seven people, fire-fighters and civilians, were to die on this day at fires all over the state. Forty six of these people died when the wind changed.

I live in Officer RFC next to Upper Beac and I didn't really know how much UB got hit.

 

[smasha]

My memories are of the whole sky being orange with the smoke.

Like something out of a sci fi movie.

 

[Total Tiger]

My memories of that day, and the dust storm the week before, are so vivid it's hard to believe the 30th anniversary has just passed. I was 12 and we lived in Eltham. On the duststorm day, we were at the local swimming pool and thought a fire was about to rip through it. Everyone stupidly jumped in the pool. On the night of Ash Wednesday, it was raining burned ash. So so scary.