Black Saturday, 7 February, 2009:
More than six hundred fires; 400,000 hectares burning out of control; at least 200 people dead; a further 37 missing; and an estimated 7,500 people left homeless. This was the largest single civil disaster in Australian history.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, having witnessed first-hand the fires’ cruel impact, noted: “Hell and all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours.”
New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key was quick to contact his Australian counterpart to offer assistance. He said “At times like this the closeness and importance of the relationship between our two countries comes to the forefront.” The mutual aid agreement, established in the early 1990s between Australia, Canada, the USA and New Zealand to assist each other in the event of such major wildfire, was swiftly activated.
New Zealand immediately offered 100 personnel to assist the 4000 Australians battling blazes – no small contribution given the extreme fire risk that also existed in parts of New Zealand at this time.
And so the 1st NZ Contingent was formed: 52 fire fighters, air operations personnel, fire behaviour specialists and incident management team members. NZ Police also deployed specialist Disaster Victim Identification personnel and dog teams to Victoria.
Members of rural fire crews from Northland, Rotorua, Southland, the West Coast and Dunedin were joined by fire fighters from the Department of Conservation and a five person New Zealand Defence Force fire crew (three fire fighters from Linton, one from Waiouru, and one from Burnham).
Commander of Joint Forces New Zealand, Major General Rhys Jones said he was pleased the Defence Force could offer assistance. Before an Air Force Boeing 757 delivered the Kiwis to Melbourne he summed up the task ahead:
“There’s no doubt that the personnel heading to Australia will face a challenging situation, but I’m confident their training and professionalism will see them meet the challenge.”
The assignment for the first seven day rotation was to the Yarra Valley area and the town of Wesburn, 62 km east of Melbourne. The major concern was the risk to the water catchment area that is vital to the city of Melbourne. Forested catchment areas supplying five of Melbourne’s nine major dams were affected by the fires. The dangers were obvious: an ACT fire fighter was killed near Marysville on the night of 17 February, when a burnt-out tree collapsed onto his fire tanker.
Alan Thompson, Information Officer for the 1st Kiwi Contingent, in his first of several messages home, noted that the Kiwis’ job did not involve spectacular pictures of massive fire fronts, towering plumes of smoke, hose lines or jets of water. Just hard backbreaking work.
“This is ‘Dry Fire Fighting’ using hand tools and is hard, dirty and dusty work. Most of the active fire on the line is as a result of back burning or blacking out.”
The New Zealanders stayed in a camping area in two person tents. Conditions in camp were difficult – during the day tents were so hot that night crews were assigned cabins with the windows blacked out to cope.
A second contingent of 57 New Zealand fire fighters flew by Royal New Zealand Air Force Hercules to Australia on 4 March to help contain the continuing bush fires in Victoria.
Victorian Bush Fires 2009
- 4500 km2 (450,000+ ha) burned out
- 210 confirmed dead; 500 injured; 100 admitted to hospital – 20 in critical condition; and 37 missing
- Over 3,500 structures destroyed, including:
- 2,029 houses
- 59 commercial properties
- 12 community buildings (including 3 schools, 2 police stations, 1 fire station, and 3 churches)
- 1536 farm buildings and sheds
- 7500 people left homeless
- 1680 km2 (168,000 ha) of pasture burnt
- 25,600 tonnes of stored fodder and grain destroyed