‘The sun became entirely obscured’
1851: Black Thursday bushfires, the first catastrophic bushfires since colonisation
‘The sun became entirely obscured’
1851: Black Thursday bushfires, the first catastrophic bushfires since colonisation
State Library of Victoria
In a snapshot
On ‘Black Thursday’, 6 February 1851, European settlers in Victoria faced their first catastrophic bushfires, which burnt a quarter of the colony. Although it is likely only 12 people died, due in part to the small population in 1851, about a million sheep and thousands of cattle were lost. The burnt bush may have made it easier to find gold, contributing to the major gold discoveries that occurred soon afterwards.
Can you find out?
1. How much of Victoria was burnt in the Black Thursday bushfires? Were any other states affected?
2. How many people died and what was the impact on animals?
3. What were some of the likely causes of the fires?
What happened before the bushfires?
Europeans began settling in Victoria at Portland in 1834 and at Melbourne in 1835.
Between 1848 and 1850 there was a lot of unusual and unpredictable weather: heavy rainfall, then drought, followed by snow (in Melbourne, for the first time since colonisation), more heavy rainfall and floods and another drought. Then in February 1851 the settlers faced their first catastrophic bushfires.
The summer of 1850–51 was long and hot. A newspaper suggested a ban on smoking on the road to Sydney to reduce the risk of people starting fires. For weeks before Black Thursday fires raged in the Plenty Ranges, north-east of Melbourne. Fires also burned on Mount Macedon to the north and in the Pyrenees to the west.
State Library of Victoria, IAN01/08/88/supp/13
What happened on Black Thursday?
Thursday 6 February 1851, which became known as ‘Black Thursday’, was the hottest day the European settlers could remember: 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) in the shade. A strong north wind drove the ring of existing fires, as well as new fires, towards Melbourne. The whole area around Dandenong was on fire.
About five million hectares burnt — a quarter of Victoria. On the same day much of western Tasmania, only recently settled by Europeans, was also burnt.
Research task
In 2009 Victoria was again impacted by a very severe bushfire. What happened on this occasion? Go to the link to find out more.
‘Early in the afternoon clouds came rolling over the heavens, obscuring the light of the sun in a most ominous and mysterious manner. There was a lurid glare in the sky, mixed with dense columns of blackest cloud-banks in the distance, which stole gradually upwards from the horizon until the sun became entirely obscured.’
James Fenton, Bush Life in Tasmania Fifty Years Ago (1891), recalling how the Victorian fires appeared to an observer on the north coast of Tasmania
How many people and animals died?
As far as we know only 12 people died. This may be because the population in 1851 was small compared with the population today.
Bridget McLelland and her five young children died at Diamond Creek and her husband, Richard, suffered severe burns trying to rescue one of the children. In the hills west of Geelong a man who had been helping to fight a fire disappeared and his body was later found burnt. Elsewhere a child was lost from a group as they rushed to safety.
Others had lucky escapes. Nineteen children and a teacher were rescued from a schoolhouse in Westernport. Some people who had lost their houses survived in the bush or in creeks. Farm animals and wildlife suffered terribly. About a million sheep and thousands of cattle died.
How did the fires start?
Apart from the dry conditions the fires probably had various causes. One might have been lightning strikes. Also many newly arrived Europeans may not have known how easily fires could get out of control in a dry continent. The fires may also have been linked to gold-seeking across the colony especially in the Pyrenees and Plenty ranges. Prospectors looking for gold might have set fires to clear dense vegetation, which then became out of control.
The huge areas of bush burnt in the Black Thursday fires may have made it easier to find gold contributing to the major gold discoveries soon afterwards.
Read a longer version of this Defining Moment on the National Museum of Australia’s website.
Research task
Australia has suffered other natural disasters that have also become defining moments. Find as many as you can using the Defining Moments Timeline.
What did you learn?
1. How much of Victoria was burnt in the Black Thursday bushfires? Were any other states affected?
2. How many people died and what was the impact on animals?
3. What were some of the likely causes of the fires?
