MT. LOFTY

	Grid Reference	-34.974593, 138.709162 (GDA 94)
	Department	CFS
	Work Centre	?
	District	?
	Grading	?
	Elevation (ASL)	720m
	Height	35m to Gondola
	Construction	Steel
	Cabin size	?
	Public access to site	Invitation only
	In use since	1980 - curent

Details supplied by Paul Ennis.
Photo (2008) supplied by Andre Belterman

The tower was damaged but not put out of service in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires.

Please click on thumbnails for enlargements


2008 close-up of the cabin supplied by Andre Belterman	2008 looking upwards supplied by Andre Belterman	2008 sign @ bottom of tower supplied by Andre Belterman

For a story about a generous donation in 2011, please click here.

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.
It was after the first Ash Wednesday fire in 1980 that a new fire lookout tower was built at Mt Lofty summit. It was initially manned by the CFS and subsequently a brigade of volunteer observers. The advent of this tower, with its commanding view, gave us valuable cross reference information on smoke sightings. During the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires this tower was under threat and damaged by the fire that ran through the Cleland Wildlife Reserve.

The spring 2026 edition (Vol. 37 No. 1) of the quarterly publication of The Forest Fire Lookout Association Inc (FFLA in the USA) contained an article about the Mt. Lofty tower.
Warren Netherton from the US (FLO on Spot Mountain Lookout in 2025) was visiting Australia in Nov 2025 and he visited Mt. Lofty on a foggy day. A few days later, Warren happened to meet Kev Jordan, the Mt. Lofty FLO in 1982 - 1984. This article is a result from that meeting. The 1st part is written by Kev and the second part is written by Warren.
A copy of the article can be found here

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