Bushfire in Victoria 1851
The bushfire in Victoria in 1851 ( called Black Thursday in Australia ) occurred in Victoria on February 6, 1851 . It was the largest bushfire ever to have occurred in a region of Australia populated by Europeans. It burned 50,000 km² of land and 12 people, over a million sheep and thousands of cattle were killed.
The areas affected by the fire were around Portland , Westernport and in the Plenty Ranges as well as in the Wimmera and Dandenong districts. The burned area covered a quarter of the state of Victoria.
As early as 1850 there was great heat and drought, streams and billabongs dried up, sheep and cattle died of thirst, the sun burned the grasslands, bushes and trees dried up. As the Australian summer progressed, this trend intensified. On the morning of February 6, 1851, strong winds arose, which developed into a tornado.
Fire broke out and men, women and children, sheep and cattle, birds and snakes fled the fires in great panic, farm houses, fences, gardens, barns and bridges were burning. The air was filled with smoke, which also stretched beyond the sea, according to reports from ships.
See also
Web links
- The Devastating Black Thursday Bushfires of 1851: Bushfires of Black Thursday, 1851 'When the smoke turned day into night'. Craigieburn Historical Interest Group, March 5, 2018(English, 1851 painting of the bushfire by William Strutt ).
Individual evidence
- ^ Sarah Bertie: Bushfires in Victoria. In: State Library of Vicoria. December 29, 2019, accessed January 3, 2020 .
- ↑ Bushfires in Victoria 1851 Black Thursday. January 2011, archived from the original on January 28, 2015 ; accessed on January 3, 2020 (English).