2009 Black Saturday BushfiresPrint Page

The stone seating wall and memorial plaque commemorate the bushfires of Black Saturday in February 2009 and the fires at Bunyip Ridge. 

One of the fires threatened the towns of Labertouche, Tonimbuk, Jindivick, Drouin, and Longwarry, and embers were starting spot fires up to 20 kilometres to the south. The fire destroyed approximately a dozen houses at Labertouche, Tonimbuk, and Drouin West. The Bunyip ridge fires destroyed 31 homes, including that of Cardinia Shire resident Fred Wailes, and burned through 26,200 hectares by the time they were contained early in March 2009.

The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that ignited or were burning across the state of Victoria on and around Saturday, 7 February 2009. The fires occurred during extreme bushfire-weather conditions and resulted in Australia's highest ever loss of life from a bushfire;173 people died and 414 were injured as a result of the fires.

As many as 400 individual fires were recorded on 7 February. Following the events of 7 February 2009 and its aftermath, that day has become widely referred to as Black Saturday.

In February 2009, the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments jointly established the $10 million Community Recovery Fund to assist in community development and recovery after the Victorian bushfires. Funding of $2.5 million was allocated for memorials and commemorative events and has supported the creation of 59 memorials across 18 councils through extensive consultation with those communities impacted by the fires. The memorials include walls, sculptures, places of reflection, storyboards, lookout towers, roadside stops, shelters, signage, murals, plaques and seating, commemorative gardens and rotundas. The aim of the collection is to provide a complete and historic photographic record of the memorials created after the 2009 Victorian bushfires.

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