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Fire towers on Mt Rouse
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A prominant aspect of Mt Rouse, our dormant volcano, is the number of towers on its summit. The fire spotter's tower has an interesting history. Here is some of that history, related by Alex Sparks who was involved from early stages.
"The first fire spotter’s hut was built in 1951 by Alex Sparks and Bill O’Brien, leading hand and apprentice of A.R. Perry. Prior to this the fire spotter sat on a stone at the top of the Mount. There were no roads or steps to the summit at that time. Material to build the shed was carted up the west side of Mount Rouse using Huttons (Cheviot Hills) bulldozer. The original hut was (imperial) 8 feet by 8 feet. It was furnished with a table 3’x2’, one chair and one telephone. The builders carted their equipment up and down each day using a wheelbarrow, from what is known as the Front Pit. Later, electricity was made available and a HF Radio was installed. A water tank was added.
Fire spotters’ huts were also set up at Mt. Dundas, Mortlake, Mt. Clay and Warrnambool. From these five locations, spotters were able to cross reference and sightings of smoke or fire, prior to the introduction of alarms.
Ken Eales was CFA Regional Officer during this development.
Our first hut served the regions fire brigades for 21 years and by then, with the expansion of communications etc. more space was needed. A prefabricated structure was erected by volunteer firemen of the region in 1972, during which time Arthur Haymes was Regional CFA Officer. The spotter’s hut was equipped with H.F. & U.H.F. radios, telephones and a large table map to make cross referencing easier.
The third, and current, fire spotter’s hut was put into place on the tower in time for the summer fire period 1994/95. At this time BTV6 was applying to place a repeater station on the top of the mount. Because location of such a station would diminish the fire spotter’s ability to have 360 degrees visibility of the region, and that the area was already being used for other communication media, it was negotiated that the fire spotter’s hut be placed on the BTV6 tower.
Historically, the fire spotter’s hut was manned most days of the summer fire danger period, but now with electronic communication so vastly improved, the huts are manned on demand by Regional CFA Headquarters."
The photo above is of the current tower on Mount Rouse.