MOUNT LITTLE DICK FIRE TOWER

MOUNT LITTLE DICK ROAD DEPTFORD, EAST GIPPSLAND SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Register

2025 Heritage Victoria

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • History

    MOUNT LITTLE DICK FIRE TOWER - History

    Black Friday 1939 

    In December 1938, bushfires began in several locations across Victoria after a number of years of drought and an unusually hot summer. By early January 1939, fires were burning in places as widespread as the Otway Ranges, Bairnsdale, Woodend, Penshurst, Dromana and Warburton. Logging and timber milling settlements, often situated in remote locations throughout Victoria’s forests, were particularly vulnerable. On 13 January 1939, temperatures were over 40 degrees Celsius in much of Victoria, accompanied by high winds. The conditions intensified existing fires and sparked new fires. Enormous fire fronts spread through large areas of north-east and south-west Victoria. The 13 January 1939 represented the most devastating day of bushfires experienced in Victoria since 1851 and became known as Black Friday.
    
    From December 1938 to January 1939, up to 2 million hectares were burned, much of it mature forest. Seventy-one people were killed, and more than 650 buildings were destroyed. The townships of Narbethong, Noojee, Woods Point, Nayook West and Hill End were lost while Warrandyte, Yarra Glen, Omeo and Pomonal were severely damaged.  The fires were a significant event in Victoria’s environmental history, their intensity destroying thousands of hectares of forest and affecting soil quality and water catchments for several decades.  The severity of the bushfires changed public and government attitudes towards the prevention, detection and fighting of bushfires and led to multiple reforms. 
    
    

    Stretton Royal Commission

    Three weeks after the fires, Judge Leonard Stretton led a Royal Commission into the causes of the January 1939 fires. Stretton heard hundreds of witnesses across 34 days of hearings. His report contained numerous findings about the factors that had contributed to the fires. The Forests Commission – a government agency established in 1918 to oversee State forests, including their use for logging and milling – was identified for criticism, with Stretton writing ‘it must be stated as an objective fact that Forests Commission has failed in its policy of fire prevention and suppression.’  The report also made numerous recommendations to mitigate the risk of future bushfires. Specifically, Stretton recommended improved early detection of fires via air and ground patrols and fire spotting towers. He wrote that ‘towers so placed that no part of the forest is beyond range of the vision of observers, should be placed throughout the forest’.  Although the Forests Commission and other government agencies had utilised towers and locations such as hilltops to spot fires since at least the 1920s, Stretton’s recommendations led to an expansion and improvement of the fire detection network.  

    Mount Little Dick Fire Tower

    There appears to have been a fire tower on the summit of Mount Little Dick from around 1930 (not the existing tower).  Following the 1939 fires and Stretton’s report, the Forests Commission rapidly expanded and upgraded its fire detection system. The Forests Commission’s Annual Report for 1939-40 stated that ‘the detection system is being considerably strengthened by the construction of a series of new towers and lookouts’.  By 1945, the Forests Commission operated over 100 fire lookouts and fire towers across Victoria.  In the Bruthen District, this era saw the construction of three timber fire towers. Mount Little Dick (the current tower) was constructed in 1940, while Mount Taylor (no longer extant) and Mount Sugarloaf (no longer extant) followed in 1941 and 1948 respectively.  The Mount Little Dick Fire Tower was built by two well-known Forest Commission employees – Cecil Cross and Charlie Wain.  All the timber for the tower was obtained and squared with hand-tools on site.  Each side of the tower was likely constructed on the ground and raised with ropes and pulleys. Its construction from immediately accessible materials with basic equipment demonstrates a high degree of skill and ingenuity. Although its condition was assessed as being good in an engineer’s report in 1987, it appears to have been abandoned in the mid-1990s.  
    Forest Fire Management Victoria still operates approximately 72 fire towers across Victoria, most of them steel and constructed since the 1980s.  Given their locations, age and construction materials, timber fire towers are particularly vulnerable to destruction during bushfires. Several key examples have been lost to fire in recent years, including the Stringers Knob Fire Spotting Tower (VHR H2244) in the Black Summer fires of 2019-20.
    
    

    Selected bibliography

    Primary sources

    Forests Commission of Victoria, Annual Report 1939-40.
    
    Stretton, Leonard E. B., Report of the Royal Commission to inquire into the causes of and measures taken to prevent the bush fires of January, 1939 and to protect life and property and the measures to be taken to prevent bush fires in Victoria and to protect life and property in the event of future bush fires, 1939.
    
    

    Websites

    ‘Black Friday 1939’, Forest Fire Management Victoria, .
    
    ‘Bushfire history’, Department of Environment and Primary Industries, .
    
    ‘Fire Lookouts Downunder’, .
    
    ‘Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage’, .
    
    

    Books and other publications

    Collins, Paul., Burn: The Epic Story of Bushfire in Australia, Brunswick, Victoria: Scribe Publications, 2009.
    
    McHugh, Peter., ‘Fire lookouts and towers’, reproduced on .
    
    Noble, W.S.; Ordeal by Fire: The Week a State Burned up, Melbourne: Hawthorn Press, 1977.
    
    

    Interviews and consultation

    The Executive Director thanks the following people for sharing their knowledge of the Mount Little Dick Fire Tower:
    • Peter McHugh, author and retired forester and firefighter 
    • Andrew Martin, DEECA
    • Andre Belterman, Australian fire tower researcher.
    
    

    Permit Exemptions

    MOUNT LITTLE DICK FIRE TOWER - Permit Exemptions

    General Exemptions:

    General exemptions apply to all places and objects included in the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR). General exemptions have been designed to allow everyday activities, maintenance and changes to your property, which don’t harm its cultural heritage significance, to proceed without the need to obtain approvals under the Heritage Act 2017.

    Places of worship: In some circumstances, you can alter a place of worship to accommodate religious practices without a permit, but you must notify the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria before you start the works or activities at least 20 business days before the works or activities are to commence.

    Subdivision/consolidation: Permit exemptions exist for some subdivisions and consolidations. If the subdivision or consolidation is in accordance with a planning permit granted under Part 4 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the application for the planning permit was referred to the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria as a determining referral authority, a permit is not required.

    Specific exemptions may also apply to your registered place or object. If applicable, these are listed below. Specific exemptions are tailored to the conservation and management needs of an individual registered place or object and set out works and activities that are exempt from the requirements of a permit. Specific exemptions prevail if they conflict with general exemptions.

    Find out more about heritage permit exemptions here.

    Specific Exemptions:

    Fire Tower

    
    1. Repairs and maintenance to the fire tower and cabin, including the localised replacement of original fabric with new fabric provided:
    - the original appearance of the fire tower is not permanently altered
    - the retention of original physical fabric is maximised
    - new fabric is only introduced if original fabric is missing or deteriorated to the point it cannot be repaired
    - new timbers are eucalypt species with similar qualities to the original
    - techniques utilised in carrying out repairs reflect the original as much as practicable.
    
    2. All works and activities necessary to protect the fire tower if it is under threat during a bushfire or other emergency, such as the application of fire retardant.
    
    3. Works essential for emergency stabilisation of the fire tower, provided Heritage Victoria is informed within seven days of the works being carried out.
    
    4. Application of termite controls and treatments.
    
    

    Landscape and surrounds

    5. Repairs, maintenance, removal and replacement of existing perimeter fence, provided replacement is of the same size, location and type as the existing fence.
    
    6. Installation of temporary security fencing, signage, scaffolding, hoardings, lighting and surveillance systems provided they are not attached to the fire tower.
    
    7. Installation of signage authorised by the relevant government agencies, provided it is not attached to the fire tower.
    
    8. Repairs, maintenance, installation and removal of standard park furniture, such as picnic tables.
    
    9. Road and track repairs and maintenance, including grading, resurfacing and the like.
    
    10. Management of vegetation, including removal.
    
    11. Fire suppression and firefighting activities such as fuel reduction burns and fire control line construction, provided protection is in place for the fire tower.
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