History/Locations

1951 December fires were the result of lightening and burnt close to 450,000 hectares in eastern and north-eastern districts.

1955 ‘Black Sunday’ occurred in the Adelaide hills, with extreme fire weather conditions being announced that day and a strong south-westerly change. Two fighter fighters lost their lives on the 2^nd in 1955 and $4,000,000 was recorded in damages.

1957-1958 had a very dry Autumn and in April eight fire fighters lost their lives fighting a fire that took place in a pine plantation in the south-east.

1959 two major fires took place near kangaroo island and Wudinna, on the Eyre Peninsula. The first fire near kangaroo island damaged over $1,500,000 in property and took the like of a grazier, the second fire burnt 76,000 hectares of grassland.

1974-1975 around 16,000,000 hectares of semi-arid pastoral country had been burnt, the state was burnt from November until February.

1980-1983 Ash Wednesday fires I and II in south Australia resulted in 28 deaths, large numbers of livestock were killed by the fire along with wildlife and the total damage cost reaching the $400,000,000 mark.

1990s there were three significant fires that threatened populated areas; Clare 400 hectares, Rapid Bay 300 hectares and Heathfield 450 hectares.

2000-2001 Three significant fires posed threat, first was in Brownhill Creek 1000 hectares, Rapid Bay 1200 hectares and Hillbank 350 hectares.

2005 experienced extreme fire weather indices exceeding 300 on the Eyre Peninsula, two major fires took place, one at Wangary and the other at M Osmond in the Adelaide hills. Wanagry fire took out 78,000 hectares and resulted in 9 fatalities, 93 houses, 237 sheds, 47,000 livestock and 6,300 km of fencing.

Mt Osmond experienced 120 hectares with 3 buildings lost, 4 vehicles and 4 km of fencing.

2007 mid-January Mt Bold was affected by bushfires, 400 firefighters, over 80 appliances, water bombers and aircraft attended the fire helping extinguish it. 2,000 hectares was covered with 60 homes becoming threatened, livestock and equipment sustained fire damage.

2008-2009 one major fire hit Port Lincoln, the bushfire burnt around 252 hectares of grass and scrubs, this fire resulted I the loss of four houses, two fish processing factories and two vehicles.

2011-2012 bushfires which burnt 5,580,000 million hectares of land was due to the La Nina in the Pacific Ocean the North East and North West pastoral FBDs which had large amounts of vegetation growth, combine this with dry conditions and lighting season these bushfires arose.

2015 the Sampson flat bushfire in the Adelaide Hills burned for a duration of four days, this bushfire destroyed homes, businesses, forest, grazing land, vineyards, livestock and properties across 12,600. After the 3^rd of January it was declared a major emergency and the fire then went onto destroy 24 homes, 103 sheds, causes 62 injuries and costed around $13,000,000 million in damages.

2015 around November in Pinery bushfires travelled across 82,500 hectares, two lives were lost along with thousands of livestock and approximately 91 homes were destroyed.