MT. BEENAK

	Lat / Long GDA	-37.880250, 145.693984
	Department	FCV...etc...DEECA
	Work Depot	Powelltown
	Region	Port Phillip East
	Grading	Primary
	Elevation (ASL)	742m
	Height	18.3m
	Construction	Tree, Timber and Steel
	Cabin size	2.1m x 2.1m
	Public access to site	Yes
	In use since	Tree tower: 19?? - 1969 Timber tower: 1969 - 1971 Current tower: 1971 -
	CFA Region	13 - Central

Mt. Beenak tower with solar panels for various instrumentations.
Before this tower was built, there used to be a plank of wood in a large Mountain Ash (E. Regnans). The fire spotter would go up the tree every couple of hours to check for fires. He travelled around a few of these sites. All that remains of the original tower is a tree stump with some metal stakes in the side that used to act as a ladder.
The most amazing experience Paul Jones has had was a visit from the Mormons who came to the tower to spread the message of God.
Since the installation of a new lightning arrester system, the tower has been hit with lightning more than ever before.
Above information, photo and details supplied by Paul Jones

In some notes supplied by the Historical Section of the NRE it states:
"This fire tower is only a short distance from Worlley's mill where fourteen people died in the 1926 fires."

Please click on thumbnail for enlargements
It contains some detailed and anecdotal information


Mt. Beenak telephone, last used in 1970 Phone is in Upper Yarra Museum, Yarra Junction. Supplied by Andre Belterman	Mt. Beenak in 1957 Supplied by David Morley Guy wires and 2 climbers visible	Mt. Beenak cabin in 2009 Supplied by (then) DSE

In January 2010, the FLO became ill and was taken from the tower by the local SES. Details unknown.

Mt.Beenak received a new cabin in January 2011.

Mt. Beenak with the new cabin and it's interior in March 2011. Photos supplied by Andre Belterman

We recently found a lost 2010 email from Carol May, the daughter of Frank May.
Here is a screenshot from part of the email.
It contains some detailed and anecdotal information.

The photos below and the following information were supplied by Colin May in February 2012.
My father was Frank May who was Forest Officer in the Mt Taylor, Buchan, Marysville, Powelltown and Kallista districts. I used to be employed as fire watcher on two Beenak towers between approx 1968 to 1970, the first one being the tree tower which had spikes up the side which could pull out in your hand and the tree rocked around badly in strong winds. It was destroyed around 1969 when clearing operations snagged one of its guy ropes and pulled it over. Consequently, a new tower was hastily built which had the timber supports. The first fire season was spent watching from sitting on the floor since the cabin and sides had not been constructed in time. This had its interesting moments with wind gusts sometimes exceeding 100km/hr. I think this tower was in operation for about 3 or 4 years until the taller steel tower was built. Also, I would have been about the last person to use that old phone listed on the web site.
It contains some detailed and anecdotal information

The photos below were supplied by Peter McHugh in early January 2026 after a visit to the Powelltown FFMV office. They are from the Frank May collection. Peter also supplied the following information:
"There have been at least three towers on Mt Beenak which is south of Powelltown and overlooks the Bunyip catchment and Gembrook forests. The first was a single tree tower with steel spikes to climb to the cabin. Its age is uncertain but there were photos from 1947. The tree was damaged in 1969 when a bulldozer involved in reforestation operations snagged one of its guy ropes and pulled it over. A new four-legged timber tower was hastily built in January 1969. This was followed by the erection of temporary scaffolding to test the location, height and view for a new steel tower. The completion of a new firetower was reported in the 1970/71 FCV annual report. Photos: Frank May. Powelltown District Forester, 1963-73".
1st photo is from 1965, the next 4 are of the constuction of the hastily built 4 legged timber tower built in 1969. Note the platform as described by Colin May in his comments above. The next one is the temporary scaffolding tower in 1970, next 2 are of the footings for the new steel tower in early 1971 and the last one is the completed tower in 1971.

Mt. Beenak in 1947. Photo supplied by the
Melbourne Walking Club (Robin Bailey)

This photo appeared on various Facebook pages during 2020-21 and so far, we've been unable to find the original post and it's source.
If you do know, please contact us, thanks. The year the photo was taken varied greatly on the various FB posts; from 1910, 1947 and 1957.

We used to have a series of photos on this page of a tree tower. These photos were from the Jack Gillespie collection and were supplied by his son, Stephen Gillespie.
The photos weren't labelled and Stephen wasn't sure if the tower was Mt. Beenak or Mt. Victoria but he "was leaning towards Mt. Beenak".
After some detailed studies of other photos we now have from both tree towers, we concluded that the photos of the Gillespie collection are actually the tree tower on Mt. Victoria

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