Ash Wednesday, February 1983

The El Niño drought over eastern Australia in 1982 led to tinder dry conditions throughout the grasslands and forests of southeastern Australia. There had already been several outbreaks of fire in the early weeks of 1983, the largest of which was a fire in far eastern Victoria that burned unchecked for almost a month. On the 16th of February - ironically, the “Ash Wednesday” of the Christian calendar - weather conditions conspired to produce the worst possible combination of heat, dryness and wind. Gale force northerly winds (laced with dust from the dry inland), temperatures well into the 40s, and extremely low relative humidity, provided a recipe for the unstoppable spread of fires. The fires triggered that day by accident - and regrettably also by arsonists - flared out of control in Victoria and southeastern South Australia, devastating many thousands of hectares of forest and many houses. Seventy-five people lost their lives (47 in Victoria, 28 in South Australia), and nearly 2,500 houses were destroyed (2080 in Victoria, 380 in South Australia).

The worst affected areas were the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne, the Macedon area northwest of Melbourne, and the Mt Lofty Ranges east of Adelaide, all scenic areas with considerable residential populations. Heavily forested areas, such as Victoria’s eastern Otway Ranges, and the pine forests of southeastern South Australia were incinerated. The fierce conditions spawned freak effects: one survivor reported seeing a burning mattress hurtling through the air. Refugees from the Otways fire spent the night on nearby, ash-strewn beaches.

Ironically, the long-awaited cool change - which was without rain - had a disastrous effect on the fires. Suddenly, the long, narrow corridors of flame driven by strong northerly winds became wide fronts driven by exceptionally strong and gusty westerly winds: gusts near and immediately behind the change exceeded 100km/h. Many fires merged. In the Dandenong Ranges area, 17 firefighters met cruel deaths when the abrupt change in direction of the fire trapped the men in their trucks. The bulk of the losses in life and property in fact occurred in the hour following the wind change. Fires continued to burn for several days in some areas, though were less dangerous without the fanning effect of strong, hot winds.

Synoptic situation at noon on Ash Wednesday, 16 February 1983. The tight spacing of the isobars indicates strong northerly winds, averaging some 50km/h over much of Victoria. Even stronger winds, gusting over 100km/h, followed the change.

In the enquiry that followed, many changes were made to fire weather briefing procedures, most notably the provision for regular updates on the progress of wind changes.

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