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1996–97 Australian bushfire season

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Summary

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Field	Value
title	1996–97 Australian bushfire season
location	Australia
date	October 1996 – January 1997
fatalities	3
injuries	40
buildings	44+

A series of bushfires in Australia occurred over the summer of 1996–1997. The most prominent fires during the season were in the Dandenong Ranges and the Mornington Peninsula in the state of Victoria.

Fires of note

State	Start date	Deaths	Injuries	Houses lost	Area (ha)	Local govt.	Duration	Ref.
Western Australia	8 January 1997			16	10500 ha	Mundaring	Wooroloo & Wundowie
Victoria	19 January 1997			2		Mornington Peninsula	Mount Eliza	3 days
Victoria	21 January 1997	3	20	41	3700 ha	Yarra Ranges	Ferny Creek, Kalorama, Mount Dandenong & Upwey	2 days

Timeline

October 1996

In October 1996, one house was destroyed in a bushfire near Ravensbourne in southeast Queensland.

January 1997

From 19 to 21 January 1997, fires burnt over 400 hectares (about 990 acres) through much of the Dandenong Ranges and the Mornington Peninsula, precipitated by over forty-degree Celsius dry heat and strong northerly winds. Three people were killed and forty injured. Forty-three houses were destroyed and another 45 damaged. Fires began at all locations except the Dandenongs on the 19th; the Dandenongs fires began on the morning of the 21st in the foothills of the western face of the ranges. It was suspected that the fires in the Dandenongs were deliberately lit.

The areas most affected by these fires included:

Creswick
Dandenong Ranges
Ferny Creek – 3 deaths
Kalorama
Mount Dandenong
Upwey
Dutson Downs
Gippsland
Heathcote
Mornington Peninsula
Arthurs Seat
Mount Eliza
Mount Martha

References

Overview of the fires & community response

References

"Bushfires". [[Bureau of Meteorology]].
"Cities Project Perth". Geoscience Australia.
(June 2005). "The Natural Hazard Risk in Perth". Geoscience Australia.
(June 2023). "Dandenongs and Mornington Peninsula, Vic: Bushfires". 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.
(26 January 1997). "Anatomy of a Fire Storm". [[Fairfax Media]].
(2012). "History of The Basin".
(17 April 2008). "Fresh police appeal on 1997 Dandenong Ranges fires". [[Herald Sun]].
(Winter 1998). "Out of the Ashes, a Community Responds: The Dandenong Ranges Bushfires, January 1997". The Australian Journal of Emergency Management.
(1998). "Recovery: A Local Government Response". The Australian Journal of Emergency Management.
"Understanding bushfire: trends in deliberate vegetation fires in Australia: Queensland". Australian Institute of Criminology.
"EMA.gov.au".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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