Fire Lookout Towers of Western Australia

Well, dang if it ain't finally Fire Season here in Oregon, USA! We've had a few good lightning busts here in Central Oregon, just enough to keep things interesting. I could go on about fire, but today I will talk a little bit about Fire Detection in the Land Down Under. A number of years ago, Shannon and I spent 3 months in Western Australia visiting friends and working with the Conservancy and Land Management. It was a lot of fun, and we learned a lot about wild and prescribed fire in Australia. 

Shannon working with crews on Prescribed burn

First thing you learn about fire here, is that everybody that lives here knows fire well. They've grown up with it as part of their lives, it is just part of every day to them. Most 12 year old's can tell you where to anchor a fire and how to put line around it, and when to step back. When we were there, everybody who worked for the agency had to spend two weeks of their year working with fire in some respect. Everybody got a piece of the action and learned some valuable knowledge about fire, land management, working on a team.

                                                                                                  There are a lot of different fire detection stations here. The scariest and most interesting are the tree towers. Basically, foresters use rebar and drill it into the tree in a spiral pattern to the top, where they build a "crows nest" in the crotch at the top of the tree. A lot of the trees have no safety, so you are free climbing, no slipping here! We spent many days hiking into old abandoned Lookouts and Lookout sites, it was always an adventure! 

Eight karri trees were adapted as lookout trees in Western Australia in the 1930s and 1940s. The 72-metre (236 ft) Gloucester Tree features a cabin in its top and may be climbed by visitors, as can the even taller 75-metre (246 ft) Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree.^[4] The Diamond Tree continues in occasional use as a fire lookout. I climbed the Diamond tree and it was a rush! Also the tallest 

metal tower in Australia is Styles Lookout at 226 ft tall! You climb a metal ladder straight up the

 middle to the cab. The gentleman above was the Lookout at the time. 

Landmarks here are hard to come by, and giving an accurate location seemed nearly 

impossible to us Americans! Smoke reports are frequently like this, "Head down to Cheryl's 

place take left fork, about 2 clicks NW, turn nears Lester's farm, and hike due North about a half

 click"!

Seeing Kangaroos hopping through the black right after a fire, was pretty cool for us. The engines and fire equipment used here is different from what we use in the US. In fact, everything about our stay was foreign to us. Camping out in the forest, which we did most nights, we never saw other campers. That's because only an idiot would camp out in snake country! Waking up to the bird sounds was so interesting because none of the birds sound like ours back home. Emu pies and cold beer, now that's my idea living large down under!

Thanks for reading. I will be doing a follow up to this article after I dig out my photos and information about our trip. G'day Mate'.


Joey Michael Hodgson is a Fire Lookout, firefighter, kayaker, chainsaw carver, writer, and musician. Check out his blog @onthelookout@blogger.com and current music @ https://www.reverbnation.com/thelookoutsband
Facebook group page @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/Onthelookout/