Bushfires in Victoria

Find books, government reports, websites, statistics, newspaper articles and images about Victorian bushfires from 1851 to today.

Major Victorian fires

These resources detail the locations of, and losses relating to major Victorian fires.

Major bushfires in Victoria
Website. Summarises losses (people, homes, buildings, livestock) by location. Often gives information about size of area burnt.
Major fires by Country Fire Authority (CFA)
Website. Lists locations and summarises losses (people, homes, buildings, livestock).
Bushfire: history, prevention and control
Book. See page 237, 'Serious fires in Australian since 1830'. Lists duration, lives lost, area, structures lost, estimated cost of damage.

Resources

Check Other reports and Research fires for further resources.

Reviews and inquiries by Forest Fire Management Victoria
Links to Victorian government reports since the Black Friday fires of 1939:
- 2013 Harrietville fire
- 2002-2003 Victorian bushfires
- February 2011 Tostaree fire
Burn: the epic story of bushfire in Australia by Paul Collins
ISBN: 9781921640186
Publication Date: 2010-03-30
This book details major fires, with strong coverage from the 1939 fires onwards. It includes extensive references.
State of fire: a history of volunteer fire fighting and the Country Fire Authority in Victoria
ISBN: 0949905631
Includes a chronology of major structural fires and incidents 1861 to 1994, and information about fires in Olinda, The Basin, Healesville, Badgers Creek, Christmas Hills, Warrandyte, St Andrews, Panton Hill, Wonga Park (1962), Mirboo North (1964), and Black Saturday (1977).
BushfireHistory: The Dandenongs pre major settlement 1893
Wiki which includes extracts of newspaper articles about fires in 1862, 1865, 1867, 1869, 1870, 1875, 1877, 1880, 1890, 1891. Website not currently active. Link now goes to archived version of website on the Internet Archive.
1925-26 Victorian bushfire season by Wikipedia
BushfireHistory - The Dandenongs 1893 to 1939
Wiki which contains extracts from newspaper articles from 1893 to 1939. Site no longer live. Link points to copy of site on Internet Archive.
Black Sunday (1926) on ASO - Australia's audio and visual heritage online by australianscreen
Watch short silent films showing the wake of the 1926 Victorian Black Sunday bushfires.
1926 fires
A photograph of the damage to the Noojee railway bridge is included in the book Famous Australian news pictures.
BushfireHistory: The Dandenongs 1939 to present
Wiki which includes extracts of newspaper articles about fires from 1940 to about the 1990s. Website not currently active. Link now goes to archived version of website on the Internet Archive.
1943-44 Victorian bushfire season by Wikipedia
1962 fires
See reports in Melbourne newspapers from 15 January onwards. Find out more about using the Library's newspapers collection here.There is also a section about the Black Sunday fires of February 1962 in the book Burning bush: a fire history of Australia. A Walkley Award-winning photograph of these fires is included in the book Famous Australian news pictures.
1969 fires
A dramatic photograph of a house being engulfed by bushfire in Diamond Creek is included in the book Famous Australian news pictures.
Report of the board of inquiry into the occurrence of bush and grass fires in Victoria (1977)
Victorian Parliamentary Paper No. 91 of 1976-77.
This report has been digitised and can be read online via our catalogue.
Ordeal by fire: the week a state burned up
This book is a detailed account of the 1939 fires, however it also includes useful information about the 1977 fires.
Report on selected major fires in country areas of Victoria on 14th January, 1985
CFA report
Sources of Victoria's heritage: catalogue of manuscripts held by the Royal Historical Society of Victoria Inc.
Includes several references to manuscripts describing fires, from approx. 1850s to 1970s.
Bushfire summer (archived website) by Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC)
A website dedicated to the south-eastern Australian 2005-2006 bushfire season. Includes personal accounts from survivors and firefighters. Note that 'stay or go' advice on this website may be out of date - refer to the final report of the 2009 Bushfires Royal Commission.
Gender and wildfire: landscapes of uncertainty by Christine Eriksen
ISBN: 9781317699675
Publication Date: 2013-11-20
eBook. Examines the role of fire in 'maintaining and upholding gender roles', particularly in relation to the 2009 Black Saturday fires. Includes extracts of research.
Reminiscences by Henry Mundy
Includes descriptions of bushfires in Victoria, January 1845 and Black Thursday, 1851.
Published as A young Australian pioneer : Henry Mundy (2003?) and The land of their adoption: (Henry Mundys diary), from England to Australia, 1838-1857 (1999).

Statistics

Bushfire statistics - fires on public land in Victoria
(This data is no longer available on the DSE website; link is to the Internet Archive copy of this webpage)

Maps

Past incident maps (1939-2009) (archived website)
Report of the Bushfire Review Committee
See "G" Bushfire History in Victoria, Australia (p202) for statistics on lives lost in bushfires 1939-1983

Images

Digitised photographs and drawings can be found using the Trove search engine (which includes images from State Library Victoria's Picture Collection and other Australian libraries).

Bush fires in the Heytesbury and Otway forests, A/S10/02/86/25

Black Sunday 1926

Silent newsreel originally produced 1926 by Herschells for Bushfire Relief Fund. Video: Australian Screen