Tarrawingee Firefighter Memorial - Tarrawingee, Victoria, Australia
S 36° 22.880 E 146° 24.199
55H E 446482 N 5973589
A memorial obelisk beside the Great Alpine Road East of Wangaratta.
Waymark Code: WME8XV
Location: Victoria, Australia
Date Posted: 04/20/2012
Views: 4
This monument commemorates ten firefighters who lost their lives nearby while fighting a disastrous fire on 22nd December 1943.
The first major fire of the 1943/44 season occurred near Wangaratta, killing ten people and burning hundreds of hectares of grassland.
The inscription on the monument reads:
A TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF
| KEVIN DUNKLEY | JOSEPH (LOUIS) RYAN |
| ANDREW GUTHRIE | NORMAN ROBINSON |
| CLAUDE NILE | EDWARD SEYMOUR |
| THEODORE LEA | GODFREY SPENCER |
| JOHN MARKS | A.W. WELLINGTON |
WHO LOST THEIR LIVES NEAR THIS SPOT
WHILE FIGHTING THE DISASTROUS BUSH FIRE
ON 22ND DECEMBER 1943.
DUTY NOBLY DONE.
ERECTED BY
THE RESIDENTS OF THIS DISTRICT
IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE.
Ken Stewart was a longtime member of Tarrawingee brigade, and would have been 21 when he was involved in fighting the disastrous fire. He died just one week shy of his 86th birthday in 2008. His memoirs at Tarrawingee 1943 fire remembered provide a most telling story of the fire and tragedy.
Ken's second memoir at Tarrawingee 1944 fire remembered is even more significant, as it mentions the connection the 1943 tragedy had to the formation of the Country Fire Authority. The Country Fire Authority (CFA) is the main firefighting service in Outer Metropolitan Melbourne and the rest of the state of Victoria. The CFA is one of the largest firefighting services in the World.
The following is an extract from that second memoir:
The Tarrawingee monument
| The memorial was unveiled on 22 December 1944. Units that attended include Wangaratta at a cost of £1,000, Tarrawingee £800, South Wangaratta, Wangaratta North, Beechworth, Moyhu, Everton, Boorhaman, Laceby West and Benalla.
The monument is situated on the spot the unit was burnt and records the names of the 10 victims who lost their lives. Each year now, when Fire Awareness Week is celebrated and after the street procession, our Wangaratta Group of fire brigades pilgrimage out to the monument to lay wreaths in a small ceremony which is very impressive.
I do feel that these fires were the reason the Government saw the need to provide better firefighting equipment in the state as it was November of 1944 that CFA was formed. As I iterated in my speech to the firemen standing at the monument in 1993, “These men did not die in vain”. |
On May 4 2009 following a memorial service for the Black Saturday Bushfires, an additional plaque was unveiled at the CFA Training College at Fiskville, west of Melbourne, to commemorate the actions of the 10 volunteers who died in December 1943, while fighting the fire at Tarrawingee, near Wangaratta.
The Country Fire Authority Honour Roll lists these 10 brave men and boys (two were only 14 years old) as the last entries of "firefighters who have died in the line of duty prior to the formation of the CFA".
Please take a moment to reflect on the Firefighters Prayer, which is read out at firefighter funerals and commemoration services and reads as follows:
When I am called to duty, God,
wherever flames may rage,
grant us the strength to save lives,
whatever be their age.
Help us embrace a little child,
before it is too late,
or save an older person,
from the horror of that fate.
Enable us to be alert,
and hear the weakest shout,
to quickly and efficiently,
put the fires out.
We want to fulfil our calling,
and be the best we can,
in guarding our every neighbour,
and protecting their property.
And if it be, while on the job,
I should lose my life,
please bless with your sustaining hand,
all those I’ve loved in life.
Amen. |