page_title: Forests Commission Victoria
section_title: Stretton Royal Commission
hierarchical_section_title: Forests Commission Victoria / 1930s - Great Depression / Stretton Royal Commission
caption_attribution_description: English: FCV Ted Gill Geoff Weste and RAAF at Laverton - 1962
context_page_description: The Forests Commission Victoria was the main government authority responsible for management and protection of State forests in Victoria, Australia between 1918 and 1983.
  The Commission was responsible for ″forest policy, prevention and suppression of bushfires, issuing leases and licences, planting and thinning of forests, the development of plantations, reforestation, nurseries, forestry education, the development of commercial timber harvesting and marketing of produce, building and maintaining forest roads, provision of recreation facilities, protection of water, soils and wildlife, forest research and making recommendations on the acquisition or alienation of land for forest purposes″.
  The Forests Commission had a long and proud history of innovation and of managing Victoria's State forests but in November 1983 lost its discrete identity when it was merged into the newly formed Victorian Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands along with the Crown Lands and Survey Department, National Park Service, Soil Conservation Authority and Fisheries and Wildlife Service.
context_section_description: The subsequent Royal Commission conducted by Judge Leonard Stretton has been described as one of the most significant inquiries in the history of Victorian public administration. Its recommendations led to sweeping changes including stringent regulation of burning and fire safety measures for sawmills, grazing licensees and the general public, the compulsory construction of dugouts at forest sawmills, increasing the forest roads network and firebreaks, construction of forest dams, fire towers and aerial patrols linked by the Commissions radio network to ground observers. 
  Prior to 13 January 1939, many fires were already burning. Some of the fires started as early as December 1938, but most of them started in the first week of January 1939. Some of these fires could not be extinguished. Others were left unattended, or as Judge Stretton wrote, the fires were allowed to burn "under control", as it was falsely and dangerously called. Most of the fires Stretton declared, with almost biblical gravity, were lit by the hand of man. There was a huge wave of criticism in the press of the Government, the Forest Commissions and the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works for an overly zealous fire-suppression policy. The Commission, in turn, blamed landholders for recklessly setting fires at dangerous times.
  As a consequence of Judge Stretton's scathing report, the Forests Commission gained additional funding and took responsibility for fire protection on all public land including State forests, unoccupied Crown Lands and National Parks plus a buffer extending one mile beyond their boundaries on to private land and its responsibilities grew in one leap from 2.4 million to 6.5 million hectares.
  Stretton also examined the inevitability of fire in the Australian bush and heard evidence from foresters, graziers, sawmillers and academics whether it was best to let fires burn because they were a part of a natural protective cycle or to combat them to defend people and the forests. Importantly, his balanced deliberations officially sanctioned and encouraged fuel reduction burning to minimise future risks.
  The newly appointed Fire Protection Officer, Alfred Oscar Lawrence immediately set about the huge challenge of rebuilding a highly organised and motivated fire fighting force, lifting staff morale, introducing more RAAF fire spotting patrols, new fire towers and lookouts, modern vehicles, fire tankers and equipment such as powered pumps and crawler tractors, as well as a statewide radio communications network, VL3AA. The Commission's communication systems were regarded at the time to be more technically advanced than the police and the military. These pioneering efforts were directed by Geoff Weste.
  Further major fires later in the 1943-44 Victorian bushfires season and another Royal Commission chaired by Judge Stretton was a key factor in the founding of the Country Fire Authority (CFA) for fire suppression on rural land. Prior to the creation of the CFA the Forests Commission had, to some extent, been supporting individual volunteer brigades which had formed across rural Victoria in the preceding decades. Alf Lawrence was appointed a member of the new Board of the CFA.
  Significantly, the tragic losses and Stretton's inquiries shaped and cemented Victoria's deep-seated approaches towards bushfire. Both the Forests Commission and CFA adopted clear policies to detect and suppress all bushfires and became very focused and skilled at doing it.
caption: The Commission developed a strong relationship with the RAAF from the 1930s through to the early 1960s. L-R - Unknown RAAF Pilot, FCV Chief Fire Officer, Ted Gill, and FCV Communications Officer, Geoff Weste. Standing at Laverton in front of an Avro Lincoln used for fire spotting - circa 1962. Source: Athol Hodgson. FCRPA* collection.
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