KANGAROO MOUNTAIN

	Grid Reference	-35.076549, 148.269373 (GDA)
	Department	Forestry Corporation of NSW
	Work Depot	Tumut ?
	Region	Tumut
	Grading	?
	Elevation (ASL)	927m
	Height	12m
	Construction	Steel
	Cabin size	?
	Public access to site	Yes
	In use since	1988 -

Photo (June 2011) and info supplied by Mal Baker. The tower is NE of Tumut on the northwestern edge of Buccleuch State Forest.
Malcom Baker was the first FLO on this tower in 1988
Mal Baker writes in 2011: "Early on, access to the tower was through grazing country with about 8 gates to open and close each way taking sometimes up to 40 minutes to reach the tower from home which if my memory serves me correctly was about 16 Kms. Nowadays, with a pine plantation established between home and the tower and decent roads constructed, the distance has been reduced to about 14 kms and the time taken to reach the tower is about 20 minutes with only 2 gates to open and shut.
The longest day I have put in in a tower (including travelling) was about 14 hours at Kangaroo Tower within 2 weeks of it's opening. This was due to thunderstorms from early in the morning continuing throughout the day".

This tower was upgraded in 2002. The upgrade involved replacing the platformes and refurbishing the fibreglass cabins.

Please click on thumbnails for enlargements


Cabin close-up, supplied in 2011 by Malcom Baker	View, supplied in 2011 by Malcom Baker	Rock cairn to support the Trig point, supplied in 2011 by Malcom Baker

We received the following email with photos in March 2018:
My name is Glenn Marshall, every year I travel from Ovens, north east Victoria, 300km to open and operate Kangaroo Fire tower. I am the sole Fire tower operator since 2006. Kangaroo Fire tower is situated 25km northeast of Tumut and 13km East of Gundagai NSW. Every day is different, from no wind and mild days to dust and thunderstorms, reporting lighting strikes and battling winds in excess of 130kph. A family of wedge tail eagles live near by as well as many kangaroos, wallaby's, wombats, foxes, and snakes, etc, never a dull moment. I set up camp in the fire bunker near the tower and camp for the duration of the fire season, 2, 3, or 4months. It is a unique job consisting mainly on sending weather reports every hour and looking for smoke. Oh and of course washing windows. Proud to protect approximately 9,000 people as the "Number one line of defense against wildfire". Yours sincerely, Glenn Marshall.

Glen supplied the photos below, all taken in early 2018 and also told us that the ladder was replaced with the steps 3 years ago

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