MT. EDWARD


Grid Reference -37.628750, 140.612742 (GDA 94)
Department ForestrySA
Work Centre ?
District Glencoe
Grading ?
Elevation (ASL) 160m
Height 24m
Construction ?
Cabin size ?
Public access to site ?
In use since 1961
Photo and information supplied by Dennis R. Page, via Alison McLeod

Please click on thumbnails for enlargements
These 4 photos above (taken in 1961) are Copyright ForestrySA and provided by the City of Mount Gambier Library in March 2022 and used with permission.
For the City of Mount Gambier Library's website page with the collection of fire tower photos, please click here. On this page, you can click on the individual photo for detailed description.

Below is an extract from the Fire Tower chapter of a book, Forestry Tales, that was written by Michael H. Bleby OAM. It is used with permission, thanks Michael.
 The tower that we relied on the most during the summer in the South East Region was Mt Edward. It is a centrally located vantage point and could pick up most of the smoke sightings in the main 4 forest plantation area. We got very used to hearing the voice of the regular observer in Mt Edward in those days. He would radio in his weather readings on the hour giving wind direction, speed and visibility along with the all clear if there were no fires. It was something people who were not "in the know" must have thought most odd, because foresters would instinctively look at their watch whenever they heard his voice first call to the listening base station, to see if it was on the hour. Because if it wasn't, it usually meant he was about to report a smoke sighting, and that something was happening. Each smoke sighting was given a number, its bearing and its distance. On a busy day, often towards the end of the fire season when lots of stubble burns were taking place, the number of reported smokes could be as many as 20 plus. The importance of permit burn notifications becomes obvious in such circumstances, although there were often occasions where further calls were needed to establish whether a particular fire required attention or not.
One of the stories of those days goes like this. He was sending his reports to the Mt Burr Office and District Forester had instructed him to report absolutely every smoke sighting to the office and let those in the Office decide on its importance. So this particular day he reported Fire number 1 bearing so and so, distance such and such. Then a minute or so later, Fire number 1 on a slightly different bearing, and then again a little later, fire number 1 on a different bearing again. A puzzled District Forester called him back - what's going on ? He replied, "you wanted to know every smoke sighting, there is a steam train running down the railway line!"
Another Mt Edward story many years later was with a different very anxious tower man. He called the Base quite agitated to report a fire and couldn't give a bearing or a distance, because the grass around the base of the tower itself was alight!

This 1968 photo was supplied by Michael Bleby. It shows FLO Ted Green inside the cabin, next to the alidade stand.

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