Item HT 28190 Mass of Slumped Glass with Charcoal - Ash Wednesday Bushfires, Mt Macedon, Victoria, 16 Feb 1983

Summary

Mass of slumped glass found in the ashes of a house in Mt. Macedon after the Ash Wednesday bushfires of 1983. It was originally a crystal vase, and still has pieces of charcoal from another burnt object embedded in the glass.

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

Mass of slumped glass, originally clear, with soot and small pieces of charcoal embedded in the surface, roughly in the shape of an arrowhead.

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.