Sawmills
Home NEW Updates About Us Historic Sites Consultants Contact Us Terms/Conditions
|
|
|
FIRE TOWERS Researched and compiled by Gordon Freegard August 2023. Updatd September 2023 by Les Bechelli. Acknowledging information gathered from many sources including Tom Niven 2024 and articles by Roger Underwood and the Echo Newspapers. EARLY DETECTION SYSTEMS The Forestry Department in Western Australia really only began after the passing of the Forests Act in 1918. The first foresters quickly realised that before any form of fire control could be introduced, an effective fire detection system was required.
|
FORESTRY DEPARTMENT HEAD OFFICE AT MUNDARING WEIR 1923 #1 |
|
JARRAH FORESTS Before long, the first lookouts were installed. These
were rough wooden cabins or short towers located on prominent natural high
points in the northern Jarrah forest. One of the very first fire towers to be
constructed was at Sawyers Valley. Timber from the Underdown Timber mill was
selected and carted past Gugeri’s Crossing to the site by H. Underdown. SAWYERS FIRE TOWER |
|
HAULING POLES PAST GUGERI'S CROSSING BY H. UNDERDOWN #2 |
SAWYER'S FIRST FIRE TOWER BUILT BY H. UNDERDOWN #3 |
|
THE SECOND FIRE TOWER AT SAWYERS #4 |
THE SECOND FIRE TOWER AT SAWYERS #5 |
|
Both the Mount Gunjin and Mt Dale towers construction were
advertised for tender in the West Australian on 14 July 1921, so a likely
commencement year is 1922. MOUNT DALE FIRE TOWER Mount Dale was chosen as the site of a fire lookout tower as it provides almost uninterrupted 360 degree view over the National Park and surrounding State Forest area. At 546 metres it is one of the highest points in the Darling Scarp. This
has now been replaced by a communications tower, though the footings for the
old lookout tower and associated equipment are still visible among the
undergrowth and stunning panoramic views are available from the parking area
just below the peak. It was named after Ensign (later Lieutenant) Robert Dale,
who in 1829 became the first European explorer to venture into the Darling
Scarp |
|
|
MOUNT DALE FIRE TOWER #7 |
MOUNT DALE FIRE TOWER #8 |
|
MOUNT DALE FIRE TOWER #9 |
MOUNT DALE FIRE TOWER #10 |
|
MOUNT GUNJIN FIRE TOWER This Fire Tower is situated on the top of Mount Gunjin which
is a high point between Mundaring Weir and Kalamunda at 399 metres. It was
first constructed in 1921. Prior to the relocation of the Perth Observatory
from Mount Eliza to Bickley, a site near Mount Gunjin was considered and
ultimately became the new observatory site. In 2014 Darlington resident, Willem
Heyneker, was manning this tower and was first to report smoke from the
devastating fire that razed 57 homes in Parkerville and Stoneville. Many people
had no idea that the fire towers were still maned then.
|
GUNJIN FIRE TOWER 1930 #11 |
|
GUNJIN FIRE TOWER 1920c #12 |
A look-out man was stationed at each fire tower, of which
there were now nine, throughout the fire season, which was approximately from
the middle of December to the middle of March or the middle of April. The
equipment of the look-out man consisted of an inch to the mile plan of the area
in view, a direction finder, from which he could obtain a bearing on any smoke
under observation, and a pair of prismatic binoculars.
|
|
GUNJIN FIRE TOWER 1920c #13 |
GUNJIN FIRE TOWER 1923 #14 |
|
GUNJIN FIRE TOWER #15 |
|
|
Les Bechelli has supplied some additional information about the Ginjin Tower. His father Peter Bechelli was employed as an overseer with the Forests Department at the time. The single wooden pole used, was brought up from the Walpole area. Because it was 18.6 metres (61 feet) in length, it caused many problems just transporting it to the site in Bickley. Once there, it was hoisted upright by manpower using a cantilever method and held in position by 6 guide ropes from 3 positions on the pole. The interesting fact is that the pole just sat on the concrete base and was held on place only by its own weight. It was not fastened or held in place by any other means. The concrete base can still be viewed today with no visible means to which it could have been secured. Because the cabin on top tended to partly rotate it had to be supported by extra supports underneath. |
|
NEW GUNJIN FIRE TOWER #17 |
NEW GUNJIN FIRE TOWER #18 |
|
This sheet lists the Telephone Call Signs for the Gunjin Fire Tower. It used the old telephone system of long rings and short rings.
|
GUNJIN FIRE TOWER TELEPHONE CALL SIGNS #19
|
|
CARINYAH FORESTRY SETTLEMENT There was also a Forestry Department base camp at Barton’s
Mill, and a Forestry Department Settlement at Carinyah, with head office near Mundaring Weir. Carinyah became a small community of forestry workers anf their families. THe settlement developed to include a workshop, school, tennis courts and hall.
|
FORESTRY DEPARTMENT'S BASE CAMP AT BARTON'S MILL c1925 #6 |
|
PLAN SHOWING LAYOUT OF CARINYAH FORESTRY SETTLEMENT MAP NOT TO SCALE
Map drawn by GORDON FREEGARD Copyright : Gordon Freegard 2008 -2023
|
|
BICKLEY FIRE TOWER Another new tower, at Bickley near the Perth Observatory, provides excellent surveillance
of the jarrah forest between Mundaring and Jarrahdale.
BICKLEY FIRE TOWER 2015 #20
|
BICKLEY FIRE TOWER 2015 #22 |
|
KARRI FORESTS In the Karri forests in the south, a number of
difficulties arose. For a start, the landscape was fairly flat and did not have
existing high points. The area was dominated by hundreds of square kilometres
of karri trees up to 80m in height. So the 30m high towers used at Gunjin and
Mount Dale were not suitable. Huge costly higher towers would have been needed
to provide effective lookouts on such stands. |
|
It was not until the mid-1930s that a solution presented
itself. A young forest officer named Don Stewart (later to become Conservator
of Forests), was watching the exploits of Pemberton’s incredible dare-devil
axeman, Dick Sprogue, whose particular speciality it was to drive pegs into
tall karri trees, climb to the top and then chop through the upper stem at
heights of 50 or 60 m from the ground. Suddenly, Stewart hit upon an ingenious
idea. Why not find a tall, sound karri tree growing on a ridge or low hill,
clear surrounding trees and then build a lookout on the tree itself? To test the theory, a large marri growing in a natural
clearing on the Alco ridge, a few kilometres from Manjimup, was selected. The
tree was pegged and a rough crows nest bolted into the upper limbs. The result
exceeded all expectations – a magnificent view of the surrounding forest was
obtained. A solution of surprising simplicity and economy had been found.
|
DICK SPROGUE #23
|
|
ALCO TREE FIRE TOWER #24 |
Then began a task involving some of the bravest and most
skilful work ever undertaken by individuals in Australia forests – the
climbing, proving and construction of the Karri lookout trees. Stewart was
fortunate in having the assistance of two remarkable foresters. The first was
Jack Watson, who was later to become Superintendent of King’s park, and who
carried out the survey work and actually climbed the enormous trees (before
they had been pegged) to evaluate their suitability as lookouts. The second was
George Reynolds, a highly skilled and fearless axeman, whose job it was to
construct the ladder ways up the tree trunks, lop off the upper branches, and
build the towerman’s cabin on top.
GLOUCESTER TREE FIRE TOWER #25 |
|
Months of painstaking survey work through the forest
followed. And a number of potential lookout trees were selected. These trees,
Watson climbed, using only a safety rope, and iron spurs strapped to his legs.
It was a fearsome and arduous task, for the trees were huge in both girth and
height, and Karri bark becomes dangerously slippery in moist conditions. When
he reached the top, detailed surveys of the surrounding countryside were made,
together with a thorough inspection of the tree itself for such things as
configuration, strength and vitality of the upper crown, where a cabin would be
built. Both Watson and Stewart climbed dozens of trees before final selections
were made.
LAURIE JONES #26 |
JACK WATSON #27 |
|
#28 |
For the construction job itself, Reynolds and a small
team of carefully chosen assistants were called in. The first step was the
pegging. With a short shanked two-inch auger, holes were bored through the bark
and deep into the solid wood beneath. Into each hole was hammered a carefully
selected sawn karri peg, each successive peg slightly offset so that a
gradually spiralling ladderway was produced up and around the tree. When the first limbs were reached, the real excitement
began as Reynolds hoisted up his axe and set to work chopping them through. As
each great branch was severed it would plummet off into the void, and would
jerk and shudder as its age-old balance was upset. On one occasion a falling
limb swept out 12 metres of pegs, leaving Reynolds (quite happily) marooned up
the tree for several hours, while the missing section was re-pegged from below. With pegging and lopping completed, the final stage was
the installation of the cabin and its special equipment of maps, telephone and
direction finders. The cabins were specially designed for each particular tree,
prefabricated on the ground and then hoisted aloft in sections on a flying fox,
rigged to pulleys in the crown of the tree. Each tower leg was winched up the tree and held in place by a
small stay until the whaling plate and braces were fitted. Plate glass was then
hauled up for the windows. Finally, the corrugated iron flat roof completed the
job. Placing the last sheet was the most dangerous job. The guy doing this had
to swing his large body out over the side and slide through the window. The
final result was a perfect little weather-tight room – “the ultimate
tree-cubby”, as one visitor described it. |
|
Towers were
equipped with aids to help locate the location of fires. This consisted of a
map table with maps, logbook, binoculars, scale rule, telephone or later radio,
an alidade (a sighting device to determine directions and measuring angles),
and a crude wind gauge – a short length of binder twine suspended from a
rafter. The fire tower operator was taught to calibrate the wind strength by
its deviation from the vertical. In addition, distances to prominent localities
were usually provided to help the tower operator estimate the distance to the
smoke. The nine tree lookouts, constructed in the karri forest
region between 1936 and 1952 were Alco, Diamond and Big Tree in the Manjimup
district, and in the Pemberton area, Gardner No.1, Gardner No.2, Gloucester,
Pemberton, Beard and Boorara Trees. Most of these trees were used constantly up
until the 1960s.
|
INSIDE A FIRE TOWER #29 |
|
Although lookouts on trees were used on occasions
elsewhere in the world, the complete tree dependant system used in Western
Australia’s karri region was a unique and highly successful operation. Had not
the spotter aircraft system which replaced it, proved so superior, it might
still be operating today. Almost certainly replacement trees would have had to be
found, for like all living things, trees deteriorate with age and in the case
of the tree lookouts, the deterioration would have been inevitably accelerated
by the decapitation and the rot which set in on their severed limbs. The top of
Gardner No.1 snapped off in a winter storm a few years ago, and shortly after,
Beard Tree became so dangerous it had to be felled. Gardner No.2, Diamond and
Boorara are all considered unsafe today, and have had the bottom few metres of
ladder removed to prevent people climbing them. Today, only the famous Gloucester Tree remains. The era
of the great tree lookouts has passed – but for those who worked with them or
in the cabins, “the trees” will always occupy a special place in the memory,
for they represent a spirit of courage, ingenuity and skill in our pioneer
foresters, the like of which is unlikely to be seen again. It is
reported that Jack Watson holds the world record for the highest climb up a
tree when he shimmied up the Gloucester tree in 1947. Although the record has
probably been surpassed, most likely in California according to Jack Bradshaw.
The climb was challenging, taking six hours due to the 7.3-metre circumference
of the tree and the need to negotiate through limbs once he reached 40 metres. |
|
Grevillea Fire Tower is the exception. It was built by
Laurie Jones in 1940 at a cost of 300 pounds ($600) which excluded materials.
It is considered to be the world’s tallest all timber fire tower, standing at
42.7 m {135 feet) tall. The tower was constructed of sawn and hewn jarrah. It
has 10 ladders and 9 landings. It is situated in the State Forest in the Shire
of Bridgetown – Greenbushes, on Kingston Road 14 kilometres east of Yornup. Just as a final note, 1988 saw the construction of the
first lookout tree since 1952 - the Evans Bicentennial Tree. As best as is
known, this tree has never been used for fire detection purposes - it’s for
tourists to climb. |
GREVILLEA FIRE TOWER #30 |
|
GREVILLEA FIRE TOWER #31 |
|
ANECDOTES Retired
forester Roger Underwood, who worked in the karri forests in the 1960s and
early 1970s, has some great anecdotes about workers associated with these
unique towers and the trees. Well-known
Northcliffe settler and Irishman, Jim Laws, was manning the fire lookout in the
Boorara Tree during a nearby bushfire, and the tree caught alight from embers
on the main fire front. Jim stayed in the tree and continued providing valuable
information to fire control while a forestry gang climbed the tree with water
sprayers to douse the spot fires on the tree. It was Jim Laws who came up with
a remarkable emergency plan. When asked once what he would do if the tree fell
over, he said “I’d ride it down until it was six inches from the ground and
then step off” +++++++ After phones
were installed in the towers, the operators used to talk to each other often to
break the boredom on a long day without any fire activity or smoke sightings.
Jack Bradshaw recalls attending a function for a retiring colleague. During the
event a bloke came up to him and asked, “are you Jack Bradshaw?” When he
responded yes, the guy replied, “I thought I recognised the voice.” It turns
out he was on Boorara Tree when Jack was on Gardner. They chatted often to pass
the time but had never met and it was at least ten years since they had spoken. +++++++ Operating a
fire tower all day can be pretty lonesome and boring if there are no fires. But
there is an excellent story about courtship at the Boorara tree, whether true
or not. Assistant Forester Jim Lovelock once drove up to the Boorara Tree and
noticed a lady’s bicycle leaning against its trunk. He heard sounds of distant
laughter from above, and the tree seemed to be jerking about a bit and swaying
more than usual. Jim entered the hut below and rang the tower cabin on the bush
phone. After a moment, the towerman answered breathlessly, and Jim said
sternly, “this is to remind you that your job is to look for fire, not play
with it!” ++++++++
Every endeavour has been made to accurately record the details however if you would like to provide additional images and/or newer information we are pleased to update the details on this site. Please use CONTACT at the top of this page to email us. We appreciate your involvement in recording the history of our area. |
|
References: Article: Gordon Freegard Images: Internet 1, 6, 12, 14, 17, 20, 23
Copyright : Gordon Freegard 2008 - 2024
|
