Preserving and learning from a century of Castlemaine's 'fire books'

 

Handwritten records of central Victorian fires from 1875 are being digitised to preserve rare local knowledge and record how fire risk is changing over time.

 

Catastrophic conditions on Friday 9 January sparked multiple fires across Victoria, including the Ravenswood fire that devastated Harcourt, north-east of Castlemaine.

Local brigades, including those from Castlemaine and Harcourt, worked tirelessly alongside residents to defend the town. Communities remain indebted to CFA volunteers, who continue a long tradition of protecting lives and property.

Recognising this service is not only a matter of historical record, but an acknowledgement that CFA's role in safeguarding communities remains as essential today as it has ever been.

Volunteers at Castlemaine Fire Brigade maintained meticulous handwritten records of the fires they attended across Victoria’s Central Goldfields.

These ‘fire books’, spanning from 1875 to the late 1980s, capture everything from the routine to the extraordinary. Small grass fires on the town fringe, blazes sparked by unattended campfires and major events that affected the entire community.

Thanks to the University of Melbourne Public Humanities Initiative, the oldest of Castlemaine’s century-long Fire Books are being digitised to preserve the valuable lessons and rich history captured within.

Knowledge lost is knowledge missed

Official records of Australian bushfire activity are sparse for the early twentieth century and largely non-existent for the nineteenth century, so the Castlemaine books constitute a rare record of national significance.

They are uncompromising in their detail, documenting the causes, locations and scale of incidents, the duration of responses, coordination between brigades, and the financial cost of damage.

For fire scientists and climate researchers, long-term localised information of this kind is gold.

It can be used to refine models of fire behaviour, test assumptions about past fire regimes and land use, and deepen understanding of the ways changing vegetation and legislation have shaped risk over time.

Associate Professor Hamish Clarke, Senior Research Fellow in the FLARE Wildfire Research group, said the value of these books lies in their continuity.

“These records are absolutely priceless in helping us understand how risk has shifted over more than a century. It’s not just about the past – these insights could make all the difference in adapting to an increasingly fiery future,” Hamish said.

A collective community memory

The project documents not only the fires recorded in the books but also the community and individuals who have safeguarded this collection over generations.

Lifetime member William Chapman, known affectionately as Uncle Bill or Chappie, has been a long-standing advocate for the preservation of the brigade’s heritage as a tribute to those who have served, and a means of retaining local knowledge.

“We have saved a lot,” Chappie reflects, “but many brigades haven’t.”

A museum located at the rear of the station, where the fire books are now housed, also contains a broad range of historic memorabilia.

There are early pumpers and fire bells, trophies from inter-brigade competitions and photographs of past members, alongside the books themselves. Together, these objects form a material record of the brigade’s role within the community.

For Chappie, a second-generation member of the Castlemaine Fire Brigade, the fire books are more than operational records.

 

Submitted by	Fiannuala Morgan, University of Melbourne