ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 67 | February 2004
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Pictures Collection: Canberra Bushfire Images
In the aftermath of the bushfires that hit Canberra a year ago, in January 2003, the National Library undertook a project to document the fires and the terrible loss of life and destruction they caused. In addition to the images taken by staff from the National Library’s Imaging Services Branch, a number of private individuals contacted the Library offering their own photographs for acquisition. David Tunbridge’s photograph, shown here, depicts an ACT Bushfires Service volunteer using a driptorch to put in a back-burn along Mount Franklin Road to the west of Bendora Dam. The back-burn was undertaken to remove fuel between the
main fire front burning uphill from the east and the road, which was being
used as a containment line. The winds at the time were light westerlies
with a relative humidity of 90%, and the temperature was about 6° Celsius—very
different conditions from those that would prevail a week later on 18
January 2003, when the fire would overwhelm all efforts at containment. For more information, contact pict@nla.gov.au |
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