Title: Ash Wednesday bushfires
Content:  On Ash Wednesday in 1980 during a virtually rainless summer after a very wet spring in 1979, bushfires swept through the Adelaide Hills in South Australia, destroying 51 houses. These fires were referred to as "Ash Wednesday" until the 1983 fires, which became notorious nationwide.
Title: 1980 Ash Wednesday bushfires
Content:  The first Ash Wednesday fires were a series of bushfires that began in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, on Ash Wednesday, 20 February 1980. 51 homes and 25 other buildings were destroyed, including the Anglican Christ Church, Longwood, and 75 farms were affected. 40 people were injured, with 150 left homeless. The fire burnt an area of 3770 ha, and caused an estimated $34,000,000 damage. In 1983, after the Ash Wednesday fires in February that year, the 1980 fire became known in South Australia as the "first" Ash Wednesday, or Ash Wednesday I.
Title: Ash Wednesday bushfires
Content:  The most disastrous factor in the Ash Wednesday fires occurred just before nightfall when a fierce and dry wind change swept across South Australia and Victoria. This abruptly changed the direction and dramatically increased the intensity of the fires. The long corridors of flame that had been driven all day by the strong northerly were suddenly hit by gale-force south-westerly winds and became enormous fire fronts, many kilometres wide, with wind reportedly moving faster than 110 km/h. The near-cyclonic strength of the wind change created an unstoppable firestorm that produced tornado-like fire whirls and fireballs of eucalyptus gas measuring over three metres 
Title: Ash Wednesday bushfires
Content:  Until the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, Ash Wednesday had the highest-recorded death toll for a bushfire disaster, with 75 deaths. For the next quarter century, Ash Wednesday was used as the measure for all bushfire emergencies in Australia; though since 2009, that has supplemented by the lessons learned from Black Saturday. It remains well known as one of the worst natural disasters in Australia's history. Many psychological studies were undertaken in the months and years after the fire and found that the events left many in the affected communities with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even 20 years after the disaster in 2003. The lasting impact of Ash Wednesday was highlighted in 2008, when its 25th anniversary received much public and media attention. Commemoration sites have been set up in areas that were hit worst by the fires, with museums hosting exhibits inviting survivors to tell their stories.
Title: Ash Wednesday bushfires
Content:  mattresses were seen hurtling through the air, steaks were cooked well done in deep freezers, road surfaces bubbled and caught fire and sand liquefied to glass. CSIRO experts later reported that, from evidence of melted metal, the heat of the fires after the change rose to 2,000 °C, exceeding that recorded during the Allied bombing of Dresden in World War II. In fact, the Ash Wednesday fires were measured at around 60,000 kilowatts of heat energy per metre, leading to similarities with the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Whole townships were obliterated in minutes. In the Dandenong Ranges, the villages of 
Title: Ash Wednesday bushfires
Content:  in a small town in Victoria. Ash Wednesday was one of Australia's worst fires. More than 3,700 buildings were destroyed or damaged and 2,545 individuals and families lost their homes. Livestock losses were very high, with more than 340,000 sheep, 18,000 cattle and numerous native animals either dead or later destroyed. A total of 4,540 insurance claims were paid totalling A$176 million with a total estimated cost of well over $400 million (1983 values) for both states or $1.3 billion in adjusted terms (2007). The emergency saw the largest number of volunteers called to duty from across Australia at the same time—an estimated 130,000 firefighters, defence force personnel, relief workers and support crews.
Title: Ash Wednesday bushfires
Content:  Wednesday 16 February dawned as another unrelentingly hot, dry day. The weather early on Ash Wednesday was complex and did not signify how the day would develop. A front separated hot, dry air coming in from the interior to the north, from cooler air moving eastwards from the Southern Ocean. Ahead of the front were hot, turbulent, gale-force northerly winds. Temperatures around Melbourne and Adelaide quickly rose above 43 °C, with winds gusting up to 100 km/h and relative humidity plunging to as low as 6 per cent. From mid-morning, McArthur's fire danger index was in excess of 100 in several places in Victoria and South Australia. It would be one of the worst fire weather 
Title: Framlingham, Victoria
Content:  On 16 February 1983, one of the Ash Wednesday fires started here and swept through the district killing nine people, destroying many homes, farm buildings and livestock. The cause was believed to be poorly maintained power lines.
Title: Ash Wednesday bushfires
Content:  The Ash Wednesday bushfires, known in South Australia as Ash Wednesday II, were a series of bushfires that occurred in south-eastern Australia on 16 February 1983, which was Ash Wednesday. Within twelve hours, more than 180 fires fanned by hot winds of up to 110 km/h caused widespread destruction across the states of Victoria and South Australia. Years of severe drought and extreme weather combined to create one of Australia's worst fire days in a century. The fires were the deadliest bushfire in Australian history until the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. In Victoria, 47 people died. There were 28 deaths in South Australia. This included 14 CFA and three CFS volunteer firefighters who 
Title: Forests Commission Victoria
Content:  The Ash Wednesday bushfires occurred in south-eastern Australia on 16 February 1983. Over its twelve-hour rampage, more than 180 fires fanned by winds of up to 110 km/h caused widespread destruction across Victoria and South Australia. Years of severe drought and extreme weather combined to create one of Australia's worst fire days since Black Friday in 1939. In Victoria, 47 people died that day, while in South Australia there were a further 28 deaths. Many fatalities occurred because firestorm conditions were caused by a sudden and violent wind change in the evening which rapidly switched the direction and size of the fire front. The speed and ferocity of the flames, aided by abundant fuels and a landscape immersed in smoke, made fire suppression and containment impossible. In many cases, residents fended for themselves 

Question: where did the ashes from ash wednesday originate?
Answer: Pope Gregory I the Great.