BUSH FIRES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 109, 9 May 1923, Page 9

BUSH FIRES

INTERESTING EXPERIMENT

OBSERVATION TOWEB.

(FBOV OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 3rd May.

Even in good years many thousands of pounds' worth of damage is done in the various Australian States by bush fires, hut the dryness of the present summer has caused the losses from this trouble to be greatly increased. In Western Australia the problem has been! determinedly by the Govern- i merit, which has made the interesting experiment of erecting at Collie, a heav- ... ily timbered area about 150 miles south of Perth, a fire observation tower of 80 feet high, on a prominence which commands the view of the bush country for many miles in all directions. By. means of the tower, 120,000 "acres of Crown land containing valuable young jarrah re-growth are under supervision. Ths structure is fitted with a German »ng» finder, a theodolite, and telephony communication. The range-finder, which wai captured from the Germans, is used to find the distance of a fire, and the theodolite for getting the bearings, and instructions are given to the fire workers by telephonic communication. In addition, to the Departmental officers, mine managers,- bush workers, ' and settlers, by arrangement, are at the disposal of the Department for the work of fire extinction. Although it is only six weeks • since the tower was completed, 13 fires . have been located and put out. By means of the equipment for. early detection, the activity of the fires located have been confined to a very small area, preventing these fires from destroying the young-jarrah re-growth on the'areas controlled by the tower, a saving in national wealth has been, effected . many times greater than the cost of the tower..