Where were you on 7th February 1967?

(Elvis calendar courtesy a1dvorin.com)

7th February, 1967 eh?

Well, if you are 42 or younger, you hadn’t even been born. 

And if you are aged 43 to 52, your memories of anything around that time are not likely to be very vivid … unless of course you were living in Tasmania on that day!

I have a pretty fair idea where I was.

Being a Tuesday, I would have been in the city working my butt off as an advertising rep for Radio Station 2SM, Sydney. I'd have been selling "time"in the new Mike Walsh "Two-Way Radio Show" ... the first REGULAR  talk-back program in Australia. I had to work hard because I was supporting a wife and a son aged 6 years 4 months, another son just turned 4,  a third aged 2 years 8 months and a daughter not yet  9 months old.

We were living in a dreadful three-bedroom weatherboard cottage on a huge area of land (by suburban block standards) at 24 Vine Street Hurstville, NSW Australia.  

That was right in the heart of St.George Rugby League territory … a club, on that day, still basking in the glory of its history-making 11^th straight Grand Final win just 4 months earlier.

In that tinderbox-dry, 80 year old, house with it’s rusty corrugated iron roof, my wife and kids would not have stood a chance had a fire broken out … it would have burned to the ground in minutes. 

So I am sure the risk of fire would have been right there, to the forefront of my mind, on the 7^th February 1967.  

Yet today, 43 years later, for the life of me, I have absolutely no recollection at all of the holocaust that engulfed ¾ of the State of Tasmania that day.

Sixty two men, women and children lost their lives, and more than 900 others were injured. To comprehend the full extent of the horror, click on this link to Wikipedia and read the section headed  “Death toll and damage”.                                    

(Photo courtesy Huon Valley Council Tas) 

It is all quite unbelievable.    

I have wracked my brain trying to understand why I have no recollection of the disaster at all. 

However, I soon realised that, back then, we did not have the level of TV news coverage we have today. 

To give you some idea of how “primitive” things were, color television did not commence for another 7 years after the Tassie fires. 

And come to think of it, man's first setting foot on the moon on 20^th July in 1969 was a huge black and white TV spectacular!

(The photo above is the property of  Eric Berry whose permission to publish we gratefully acknowledge)

So why would I remember the Tassie bushfires?  I wasn’t a regular newspaper buyer (couldn’t afford them, and had no time to read them anyway ) and I sure as hell couldn’t afford one of "them new fangled transistor radio thingies".

What was it then that triggered all this awareness of the 1967 Tasmanian bushfires now?  

It was the self-drive tour Barbara and I did of some of the "Huon Valley Trail" on 30th September. Tourism Tasmania are so good at providing visitors with comprehensive maps and background data about the various geographical regions of the State.  

Later on this page you will see how that trip brought home to us jut how bad those fires must have been.  From our home-base at the excellent Snug caravan park, we drove south on the Channel Highway to Kettering, which is the D'Entrecasteaux Channel port for the huge ferry that services both North and South Bruny Islands.

A stop here gave us the opportunity to check out ferry times and prices for when we move across to those fascinating islands.

At this early stage of the drive we had still not come face to face with the reality of the 1967 fires, even though Kettering must have been in the thick of them.

Further south on the Channel Highway at Woodbridge we were able to engage in a rewarding conversation with a grandfather and grandson thoroughly enjoying their time together fishing off the pier. It was bitterly cold and there was lots of green cabbage weed to strangle their hooks. At least they had a small but legal-size  flathead to show for their dedication.

Unfortunately we arrived on the wrong day to gain admission to an important  teaching facility on the pier which forms part of the Woodbridge Public school ... namely the Marine Discovery Centre.

 

Sign boards tell of the wonderful benefits Tasmanian students gain from their study of marine life and the related career successes gained by former students of the school.

We were curious to also learn about what appeared to be some kind of recycled diving bell moored at the pier, but did not feel like interrupting our fisherman friends again with more pesky questions!

Our next stop was Middleton, and once again we had the opportunity to engage in an entertaining conversation with a local ... a little more entertaining for us than her apparently ... so we didn't stick around!

Two bedraggled bystanders were invited to have their say, but "no cormorant" was all we could get from them!

It was a walk along the road beside the Channel at Middleton that finally focused our attention on the ferocity of the 1967 fires. 

Along the path, Kingborough Council, with the support of the local Ratepayers Association, have erected at least three informative display panels detailing the early history of the region and the devastating effect the fires had on the community. We suggest you use your computer's zoom function to view the images and read the text in the next few pics. It's fascinating stuff!

The two remaining "slip" cottages built about 175 years ago

 
From Middleton, the Huon Valley "Trail" next took us 4km to Barbara's favorite little spot in Tasmania ... GORDON! (Well I think that's what she said ... something about little anyway!)

If you have been following our blog you would know I love to photograph birds and at Gordon I had so much joy getting up close and personal with this tern ... he was such a poser! Could some ornithologist please leave a comment as to which race of "Sterna" it belongs.

A short distance further we found ourselves at Randall's Bay where the D'Entrecasteaux Channel is at it's widest. This looked like an ideal spot for Gordon to try once more to catch a sea trout from the beach.

Check the slide show on the right as Barbara catches Gordon in the act of being caught by a unexpected incoming wave ... talk about the Dance of the Sugar Plump Fairy! 

We didn't need to look across at the the Hartz Mountains to be reminded how unseasonably chilly it was for the last day of the first month of Spring!

But the tranquility of the landscape overlooking Randall's Bay and the Channel made it all worthwhile.


With tummies grumbling about a  lack of sustenance, it was time to head back North to the charming township of Cygnet, where we had heard about a very popular eatery called "The Red Velvet Lounge".

It's reputation was well deserved! The ambiance was warm and inviting ...

and the gateaux ... certainly not for "waist watchers"!

So when you find yourself in Cygnet, Tasmania, "swan" on down to The Red Velvet Lounge.  You'll love it.


And for these two Tassie tourists, tomorrow a new day dawns.