KOWEN

	Grid Reference	-35.275084, 149.275165 (GDA)
	Department	?
	District	?
	Region	?
	Grading	?
	Elevation (ASL)	850m
	Height	?
	Construction	Original - ? Current - Steel
	Cabin size	Original - ? Current - ?
	Public access to site	Yes?
	In use since	Original 19?? - 19?? ? Current: 1955 -

Source of photo (2008) unknown. This tower is east of Canberra.

The annual report of the A.C.T. Bush Fire Council, 1954-55 reported the replacement of the existing fire lookout at Kowen Forest with a new tower.

Please click on thumbnails for enlargements

2013 photo and location map were supplied by John Evans in Nov 2022

The Canberra Times had an article about female FLO's and firepotting in general on the 22nd December 2016. Here is a link to the article. The article contains photos of the Kowen FLO and the tower.

The same paper had another article about fire towers on the 18th December 2017. Here is a link to the article. This article also contains photos of the Kowen FLO and the tower.

The Kowen tower was offline from Aug 26 - Oct 9 2018 while it was upgraded. The Emergency Services Agency has been upgrading the ACT's four fire towers since the completion of a structural and health and safety review, which followed the January incident at the Mount Coree fire tower, after a FLO fell through the hatch.
The incident prompted the agency to contact WorkSafe and conduct a review of the ACT's fire towers at One Tree Hill in the north, Kowen Forest in the east, Mount Tennent in the south and Mount Coree in the west.
While the review found the January incident was not the result of any structural faults, it uncovered other issues. The engineers found the platform in the Kowen Forest tower needed to be replaced, while minor upgrades were needed on the tower's access and exit points.

The Guardian Newspaper of October 25th 2020 contained an article called: Early warning: human detectors, drones and the race to control Australia's extreme bushfires.
Here is a link to the article. The article contains photos and interview with the Kowen FLO.

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