Looking down on the burnt remains of the Cascade Brewery (Photograph supplied by Jim Marwood.)
The Cascade Brewery was destroyed in the fires. (Photograph supplied by Ian Woolford.)
Very little remained of these houses in Forest Road in Hobart. (Photograph supplied by The Mercury.)
The burnt remains of the Springs Hotel, halfway up Mount Wellington. The decision was made not to rebuild it. (Photograph supplied by Harley Stanton.)
The massive bushfires came within two kilometres of Hobart's CBD by late afternoon. (Photograph supplied by Jane Maarseveen.)
Here, houses in Lenah Valley are consumed by the fires. (Photograph supplied by Hamilton family.)
The Fern Tree Hotel was incinerated by the fires, but the timber church opposite it survived! (Photograph supplied by Jim Marwood.)
The Snug Area School was destroyed. (Photograph supplied by Harley Stanton.)
This is what was left of the Fern Tree church hall and shop. Fern Tree residents said the fires left the suburb looking like "a bomb had hit" it.(Photograph supplied by Harley Stanton.)
A row of chimneys was all that remained of these houses in South Hobart.(Photograph supplied by Harley Stanton.)
On Tuesday 7 February 1967, 110 fires swept through south-east Tasmania.
Within hours, around 2,640 square kilometres (652,000 acres) of land had been burned. 64 people were dead, 900 were injured, 7,000 were left homeless, and thousands of buildings were destroyed.
The fires were so devastating because it was 39 degrees Celsius that day, and winds reached 110 kilometres per hour.
A memorial for the bushfires was built at Snug. The names of the 62 people who were killed are listed on a plaque that is fixed to a brick chimney. The memorial has storyboards that tell the story of the fires, along with ones that provide bushfire preparedness information. It is surrounded by a garden of native plants that are fire resistant.
Tas That Was is a column that includes anecdotes of life in Tasmania in the past, as well as historical photographs of locations in Tasmania.
If you have an anecdote or photograph you’d like to share with us, please send it to [email protected].
