Blue Mountains District News

Hazard Reduction Advisory for 13th June to 21st June 2013

View the Hazard Reduction Advisory for 13th June to 21st June 2013

1957 Fire Stories

I had the privilege of travelling to the Edge Cinema in Katoomba, Blue Mountains to view a very special documentary concerning the 1957 Leura Fires. The fires devastated Leura, notably destroying 160 homes and key buildings as well as claiming the lives of 4 boys on a camping trip.

Utilising modern technologies and archival material, this 30 minute program provides accounts of significant trauma and loss, but also of great courage, strength and resilience as told through a number of community members speaking very openly and honestly of their personal experiences and insights from the heart of the fires back in 1957. The RFS was a key partner in the project and I commend our Blue Mtns RFS team, NPWS, the Blue Mtns World Heritage Institute and all involved on an outstanding production. Hoping to attract an audience of 1500, more than 3000 attended the multiple viewings yesterday. I would encourage people to view the Institutes web page for more information regarding this project and the 1957 Leura Fires.

Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons

Seasonal Climate Outlook

Seasonal Climate Outlook

June to August 2013 outlooks issued today
The rainfall and temperature outlooks for June to August 2013 are now available on the Bureau's website.

Key points

A wetter than normal season is likely for most of Australia
A warmer season is more likely for north, south and west coasts
Climate influences include a warmer than normal eastern Indian Ocean, a neutral tropical Pacific and warm local sea surface temperatures


National rainfall outlook		National temperature outlook

Regional outlooks
Northern Australia rainfall: A wetter dry season likely for northern Australia
Northern Australia temperature: Warmer season more likely for north coasts

Southeastern Australia rainfall: Wetter season likely for most of southeast Australia
Southeastern Australia temperature: Warmer nights likely for much of southeast Australia

Western Australia rainfall: Wetter season likely for northern and eastern Western Australia
Western Australia temperature: Warmer season more likely for western and far northern Western Australia

A new model for the Seasonal Climate Outlook
This is the first official Seasonal Climate Outlook issued by the Bureau of Meteorology using a dynamical outlook system known as the Predictive Ocean Atmosphere Model for Australia.

The dynamical model uses the physics of the ocean, atmosphere, land and ice interactions to calculate the likely climate conditions over the next three months.

You will also see changes in the webpage layout and the colour schemes used in the maps. These colour schemes match those used by many international agencies for both forecasts and observations.

Find out more about the Seasonal Climate Outlook.

Open Day Registration update - 3

To date, there is a total of 140 Brigades across the State who have registered for Open Day and the RFS would liketo see many more Brigades participate.

Brigades can easily register for Open Day online via https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NSWRFSOpenDay2013

A number of Brigades are completing the PDF version of the registration and emailing to Community Engagement.

Please note, this was only provided for Brigades who don’t have internet access to complete the survey online.

Free chairs and tables

The NSW Rural Fire Service Association Head Office have 17 tables and 10 chairs in their warehouse they are willing to donate to any Rural Fire Brigades/Units who may have use for them.

If a group is interested in these items - there’s a couple of conditions:

· It is a ‘first in, best dressed’ opportunity and items must be used for NSW RFS purposes.

· The items must be collected from the RFSA Head Office located at Unit11/69 York Road South Penrith between the hours of 8.30AM – 5PM Monday to Friday.

· Collection of items must be made on or before Wednesday 13 June, 2013.

The Black Chairs Are Approx -

48cm Width

42cm Depth

74cm Height

The Tables Are Approx -

80cm Width

150cm Length

71cm Height

If you’re interested please contact the RFSA direct and talk to Paul to liaise about quantity and pick up :

Paul O’Neill

Retail and Logistic Officer

P: 4722 2122

Advanced Fire Fighters Course

Advanced Fire Fighter trainees learning the details of hydraulics for pumps at Wentworth Falls Rural Fire Brigade on Saturday May 25th. Photo courtesy of Tim Parsley — at Wentworth Falls RFB.

Blue Mountains bushfire survivor breaks his silence after 50 years

By Damien Madigan May 23, 2013, midnight

IVAN Thelander was only 16-years-old when he saw four of his mates perish in a bushfire in the Blue Gum Forest.

The teenager had caught the train to Blackheath on an excursion with the Church of England Boys Society in November 1957 when the group was caught in a raging bushfire in the Grose Valley. In a split-second decision that would have devastating consequences, four of the boys ran uphill towards safety while Ivan and three others ran downhill towards the river. The boys that raced towards safety were killed; Ivan and the others survived.

Marg and Ivan Thelander at the memorial to the four boys killed in the 1957 bushfire at Perrys Lookdown. Photo: Wyn Jones.

For almost 50 years Mr Thelander, now 71, was so traumatised by the experience he wouldn’t talk about it but last month he shared the harrowing tale for a documentary marking the 1957 bushfire and another devastating fire in Leura two days later. Directed by Laura Zusters, the film screens at Katoomba’s Edge Cinema on Sunday, June 2.

Hearing her husband of 46 years talk openly about the tragedy is something Marg Thelander never thought she would witness.

“For many, many years he couldn’t talk about it. When I first met Ivan [about three years after the fires] he used to cry all the time. Every time there was mention of a fire he’d start crying and he used to stutter so badly you would never get a conversation out of him. . . [but] eventually he overcame all of that and became really strong,” she said.

He had to call on all his reserves of strength on the night of November 30, 1957. After rushing towards the Grose River — unsure if their mates had made it to safety or not — he and the other boys spent a sleepless night while flames as high as houses raged around them.

“Trees were falling in the river and you could even hear them sizzling,” he said.

When they walked out the next morning police found them on the trail about 10.30am. It was soon after this they discovered their mates — Peter Tonks, Richard Stephens, Robert McIver and Kevin Phillips — hadn’t made it.

“We had to walk past the bodies of the other four boys on the side of the trail, wrapped in big white sheets . . . They were very small, there was not much of them left. Peter Tonks [the eldest at 16] had his arms around the other three. They were all completely burnt, but I could see his woollen hat poking out from the sheet.”

The boys’ families had rushed to Blackheath by this time and in the confusion one of the mothers wasn’t sure if her son, Kevin Phillips, or Ivan had been killed.

“When she looked in the ambulance [and saw me] she collapsed,” said Mr Thelander.

The outpouring of emotion following the tragedy was overwhelming. Kids lined the street when Ivan Thelander arrived at his Kingsgrove home later that day after being discharged from Katoomba Hospital. At the funeral for the boys their Belmore North schoomates formed an honour guard and a wall of glass at St Albans Church was created as a memorial to them. Another memorial, containing the ashes of two of the boys, was later built below Perrys Lookdown where the four boys died.

In the aftermath of the fire, Ivan Thelander did everything he could to forget the tragedy. About six months later his sister found him sitting in a boiling hot bath — “I thought it was a cold bath,” he said — and he was put in a convalescent home following a nervous breakdown.

Decades later, Mr Thelander is proud to be able to tell his story so others can learn from it. While the documentary shines a light on the amazing resilience of people who survived the 1957 bushfires, one of its main aims is to make today’s Blue Mountains residents reflect on the bushfire threat that surrounds them.

Although his story is more harrowing than most, Mr Thelander is just happy to be part of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute project. If there was a hero from his own experience he said it was the group's leader, 17-year-old Barry Carter, who organised the Blue Mountains excursion. He told the boys at the back of the group to run towards the river when the flames separated them. “He saved us,” said Mr Thelander.

“After the fire passed us Barry ran to get help and give the alarm. He ran for hours in bare feet as his shoes had burnt off. He eventually knocked on a door in Blackheath, then collapsed. Barry was in hospital for months.”

Mr Thelander and his wife will attend the premiere screening of the documentary at Katoomba on June 2 but after that they will head back to their Greenacre home — a lifestyle choice that is directly affected by the bushfire tragedy almost 56 years ago.

“Ivan won’t live anywhere where there’s bush around,” said Mrs Thelander.

“It’s still too difficult for him.”

WHAT: Fire Stores - A Lesson In Time, 1957 Leura Fire, a documentary directed by Laura Zusters.

WHERE: The Edge Cinema, Katoomba

WHEN: Sunday, June 2. Session times: 3pm, 3.45pm, 4.30pm, 5.15pm

COST: Free

FOR MORE DETAILS AND BOOKINGS: Visit www.bmwhi.org.au or call Toni Clarke, NPWS, on 4784-7310.

The Community Fire Stories film and project is sponsored and supported by: Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute, NSW Rural Fire Service, NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Blue Mountains City Council, The Edge Cinemas and Blue Mountains Gazette.