Bushfire Memorial - Where the bloody hell is it?

The melted dishwasher with some dishes intact inside is pretty amazing bushfire reminder too.

It used to sit inside the front door of Canberra Museum and Gallery in the city.

Most places have been rebuilt..there’s a few emply blocks about, but not many.

Anyway…there is a sign pointing to the memorial on Uriarra Road.

Pandy said :

Well peterh I was on my roof wetting down my tiles on the day of the fires.

Your comment is a nonsense when it is a fact that many of the blocks have been sold.

pandy, whilst some of the people have moved away and sold their blocks, others are still trying to rebuild their homes. There were several people I remember telling me that they were going to re-locate closer into town, they did not ever want to face this kind of event ever again. I was lucky, my house was spared.

My father lost everything. so did his neighbors and their neighbors. They weren’t in duffy, rather, in rivett. One sold his block, the others are (now) rebuilt. One family around the corner have just got their slab poured. They are living in a house with another family, and are rebuilding as they can afford it.

The one group out of the fires that really made me feel thankful for them was the firies. the volunteers and the permanent members. They are directly responsible for my house and most of my street still standing.

Well peterh I was on my roof wetting down my tiles on the day of the fires.

Your comment is a nonsense when it is a fact that many of the blocks have been sold.

Pandy said :

The prickS who have not rebuilt after the bush fires need to move on.

were you here for the fires??

watched a house that you had such memories of, with ALL your possessions, photos, etc burn to the ground?

Pandy, some people CAN’T rebuild yet. i know several families in ACT housing accommodation who are trying to get the money up to pay for a new house, whilst paying off the remnant of their prior mortgage. The insurance payouts were all well and good, but when the Govt slugs you with a GST calculation, that effectively absorbs a quarter of that payout, guess what? you still have a mortgage for a house that doesn’t exist anymore.

I have no intention of visiting the “memorial” – maybe that money, along with the cost of taking the coroner to court over the independent findings, when the govt and more to the point, stanhope, didn’t like the outcome, could have been spent in assisting the families who were left short. There is a tree in kambah, carved and painted to show the fires and their impact, I regard that as the memorial…

and if you were here, were you in the thick of it, or in perfect safety?

cranky, check out the tree off sulwood, in kambah, it is a far better memorial than the one cobbled together by the act government…

I cycle right past the memorial every time I go over to Stromlo Forest Park, but it never occurs to me to go there. I guess the blackened palings on my back fence are enough of a reminder.

Thanks to all the fireys etc for what they did back then. Along with a heap of other residents who helped each other save our own houses we didn’t get no certificate from Uncle Johnny.

The prickS who have not rebuilt after the bush fires need to move on.

I’ve listened. I was an observer. The cynicism is the Gov sweeping the memorial under the carpet.

I wished to pay my respects.

I never go to the Memorial. I have my Thank You Certificate from Chief Hero Stanhope stacked away somewhere. I get the old buzz from driving past the Narrabundah College and/or the burnt stump on Athlon Drive.

I wish they’d gone for keeping the chimney from one of the houses on Kirkpatrick Street as the memorial than what we got instead.

i have this neat scar that means I can remember the day pretty clearly without the Memorial.
And no photo, because I got distracted on the way there and got takeaway Chinese instead.

And Thumper,

Do you also ask why people go to the War Memorial?

After six years, I still have vivid memories of that Saturday afternoon. Nuff said.

Far more reason than finding a bubbler in Civic.

I posted this item in the genuine belief that I was perhaps a bit geographically challenged.

From the foregoing comments, it has become apparent that the Memorial site is grossly unmarked, and that visitation (by way of car parks and signage) is not encouraged.

We can apparently direct people to drinking fountains in Civic, but a memorial to arguably the most horrific day of Canberra’s history is left unmarked.

Can we get an explanation?

Ryan said :

cranky said :

Good Grief. Dosn’t it deserve a sign? I would never have found it.

completely agree. perhaps an email to TAMS is in order…

It also deserves a proper parking space.

Deckard said :

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=duffy&sll=-31.203405,152.578125&sspn=51.098778,78.398438&ie=UTF8&ll=-35.324842,149.027696&spn=0.012167,0.01914&t=h&z=16

I think this is it.

That is it. It must have been a while since the Satellite captured that image. The Bushfire memorial is the two linked ovals at the bottom. You can either park on the verge of Cotter or Uriarra roads and enter through one of the gates (not easy to see) or you can park at Deeks Forest Park (across Uriarra road off to the right) or park at Stromlo Forrest Park (the big dirt patch at the top of the map) which you enter from Uriarra road just near the turn off to Coppins Crossing.

cranky said :

Good Grief. Dosn’t it deserve a sign? I would never have found it.

completely agree. perhaps an email to TAMS is in order…

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=duffy&sll=-31.203405,152.578125&sspn=51.098778,78.398438&ie=UTF8&ll=-35.324842,149.027696&spn=0.012167,0.01914&t=h&z=16

I think this is it.

That’s a pretty big memorial 😉

or not… i dont think that goes straight to it…

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?utm_campaign=en_AU&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en_AU-ha-apac-au-bk-gm&utm_term=google%20maps

I never even knew we had a bushfire memorial!

A Noisy Noise Annoys An Oyster said :

While we’re on a related subject, where is that bike arena with all the cycle races I always see on WIN News?

It’s about 500m as the Magpie flys across the road from Eucumbene Dr of to get to it by road turn onto Uriarra Rd and follow it around past Coppins Crossing Rd and the turnoff is about 100m on your left after Coppins Crossing Road.

http://www.stromloforestpark.com.au

(If you look at the map on this site it has the bushfire memorial marked as well)

jake555 said :

If you pull off to the side of cotter road just near the eucumbene drive intersection (eastbound), you walk from there. There is no car park, just a bit of gravel on the side of the road and a metal ‘gate’ (one of those things you can’t ride a bike through).

It is visible on google earth, but I don’t know how to insert an image – help anyone?

Just copy in the link.

Good Grief. Dosn’t it deserve a sign? I would never have found it.

While we’re on a related subject, where is that bike arena with all the cycle races I always see on WIN News?

If you pull off to the side of cotter road just near the eucumbene drive intersection (eastbound), you walk from there. There is no car park, just a bit of gravel on the side of the road and a metal ‘gate’ (one of those things you can’t ride a bike through).

It is visible on google earth, but I don’t know how to insert an image – help anyone?

I’m nearly at the stage where I could hide my own Easter Eggs ….

: P

Whether by design or otherwise, it is not easy to find. There is no indication, road, signage, carpark or any other means to identify the location.

Yes it is, I will go home via it today, and grab a photo.
Unless someone has stolen it.

You don’t hide your own Easter eggs do you Granny?

Bushfire Memorial – Where the bloody hell is it?

I forget!

: D