Memorial service for the 80th anniversary of the Tarrawingee fire

 

CFA will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Tarrawingee fire with a service at the memorial stone, Great Alpine Road on Friday 22 December 2023.

 

The service will honour the sacrifice and memory of the 10 firefighters, including two 14-year-old schoolboys, who lost their lives in the devastating fire, while protecting the Tarrawingee community.

The 11am service will be livestreamed on YouTube and a program is available at the bottom of the Tarrawingee page on our website.

Eighty years ago, in the depths of World War II, a fire broke out at Bowser railway yard near the Hume Highway. High temperatures and hot northerly winds combined to create a raging fire.

It quickly spread towards Tarrawingee (east of Wangaratta), with volunteers racing from across the area. They included farmers and farmhands, factory workers, shop owners, teachers, work mates knocking off for the day from the Post Master General office, and two 14-year-old schoolboys.

Tragically, the wind changed direction and the fire claimed the lives of 10 men including the teenage schoolboys, in what was one of the greatest losses of firefighters in the line of duty in Victoria's history.

This fire and others during the 1943-44 fire season followed the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the 1939 bushfires and was the catalyst for the formation of the Country Fire Authority a year later in 1944.

You can read more about this tragedy here and hear the stories from community members who were impacted.

The memorial service will honour the sacrifice and memory of:

Godfrey Spencer, 53, school teacher, Wangaratta

Andrew Joseph Guthrie, 45, farm manager, Tarrawingee

John Wolstenholme Marks, 29, farmer, Markwood

Arthur Willesley Wellington, 46, farmer, Markwood

Theodore Luke Lea, 32, foreman Huttons Bacon Factory, Wangaratta

Joseph Louis Ryan, 38, postal linesman, Wangaratta

Edward Laurence Seymour, 33, telephone linesman, Wangaratta

Norman John Robinson, 49, postal linesman, Wangaratta

Kevin Dunkley, 14, schoolboy, Londrigan

Henry Claude Hill, 14, schoolboy, East Wangaratta

May their legacy live on; their sacrifice is never forgotten.

 

Submitted by	Georgina Hill