Item HT 28189 Mass of Dark Slumped Glass - Ash Wednesday Bushfires, Mt Macedon, Victoria, 16 Feb 1983

Summary

Mass of dark slumped glass found in the ashes of Viewfield, a house in Mt. Macedon owned by John and Zelma Gartner, after the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983. It was originally a crystal vase, quite possibly an award presented to John Gartner for one of his many contributions to philately.

The small community of Mt Macedon, northwest of Melbourne, was engulfed by bushfire on the night of 16 February, when a late wind change directed the fire from East Trentham up onto the mountain. 7 people died and 628 homes were destroyed in East Trentham and Mt Macedon.

Physical Description

Irregular mass of dark (perhaps black) glass, with soot embedded in the surface, roughly in the shape of a hemisphere.

Significance

The Ash Wednesday bushfires of February 1983 were one of Australia's greatest natural disasters. Fires swept through Victoria and South Australia. In the space of a single day in Victoria, 47 people were killed and nearly 3000 homes and other buildings destroyed. This object, along with others from the same house, demonstrates the severity and extent of the fire in Mt Macedon. It is an eloquent symbol of the destruction of the specific property in which it was found, but it also represents the universal power of fire to irrevocably change objects, homes and lives.