APP 05 HISTORY OF EMERGENCIES IN THE
YARRA RANGES
The municipality of Yarra Ranges Council has a significant history of emergencies including
bushfire, floods, storms, landslides, light plane crashes, road crashes on major highways,
and outbreaks of infectious disease.
The impact of these emergencies, particularly bushfires have included loss of life and
serious injury, loss of property including homes, disruption to entire communities,
devastation of the natural environment, and long-term rehabilitation of affected communities.
1.
Bushfires
Since the turn of the century, the following serious fires have occurred in the municipality:
1905
Healesville area
1913
Sassafras/Monbulk
1923
Belgrave/Upwey/Ferny Creek
1926
Dandenong’s/Upper Yarra/Healesville areas
1932
Upper Yarra (Matlock)
1934
The Basin/Ferntree Gully
1939
“Black Friday” – Dandenong’s/Upper Yarra/Healesville
1944
The Basin/Ferntree Gully/Monbulk
1954
Upper Ferntree Gully/One Tree Hill
1962
Dandenong’s/Upper Yarra/Healesville
1968
The Basin/Sassafras/Ferny Creek/Upwey
1972
The Basin/Sassafras/Upper Ferntree Gully
1973
Lysterfield
1980
Upwey/Mount Dandenong
1983
“Ash Wednesday” – Dandenong’s and Upper Yarra
1991
Yarra State Forest/Mt Little Joe
1997
The Basin/Dandenong Ranges/Montrose
2009
“Black Saturday” – Steels Creek, Chum Creek, Dixons Creek, Yarra Glen,
Coldstream, Yering, Gruyere, Upwey, Belgrave, Belgrave South,
Healesville, Tarrawarra, Toolangi
Wandin North (Rodgers Road)
2015
“Black Saturday”, the most recent significant bushfires impacting on the municipality, started
on 7 February 2009 and continued for 26 days until 5 March 2009. At Steels Creek and
Toolangi 10 people and 2 people died respectively. Three hundred and four properties
sustained damage, with a total of 618 dwellings and buildings damaged or lost.
Yarra Ranges MEMP – Part 7, APP 05 History of Emergencies (Version 2.2)
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“Ash Wednesday” saw 21 people, including 11 CFA volunteers, die at Belgrave Heights and
Upper Beaconsfield. Approximately 300 houses were destroyed and 1800ha of bushland
and pastures burnt out. In Warburton 13 houses were destroyed along with 41,000ha of
forest.
“Black Friday” saw the entire town of Woods Point destroyed, with 143 houses lost. In
Warburton, 16 men died, 20 houses were lost, and every saw mill in the area was raised to
the ground.
2.
Floods
Major floods of the Yarra River occurred in 1891, 1904, 1909, 1923 and 1934 (the worst ever
recorded). The 1934 peaks were used to determine the flood prone areas along the Yarra
River.
Minor flooding in Yarra Glen and along the Watts River at Healesville occurs on an almost
annual basis. Launching Place and areas at Warburton are also susceptible to minor
flooding. Flood mitigation works in Lilydale have reduced the flood prone areas adjacent to
Brushy Creek and Olinda Creek.
3.
Storms
Storms of considerable severity (including windstorms, thunderstorms and hailstorms) have
occurred throughout the municipality. These events have resulted in property damage,
minor flooding and landslip.
4.
Road Crashes
The municipality has many state highways and arterial roads. The traffic is a mixture of light
vehicles (local and tourist), heavy vehicles (logging and other trucks), and buses (both
school and tourist). Fatal road crashes on highways have occurred, but fortunately, no
major crashes have occurred involving buses or hazardous chemicals. There have been
many fatal motorcycle incidents on winding mountain roads which has led to the
establishment of road safety programs targeting this risk.
5.
Landslip
Many landslips have occurred within the municipality in the last 150 years. These landslips
range from falling boulders and rapidly moving fluid debris flow, to very slow and episodically
moving very large landslips involving entire hillsides.
Our knowledge of the history of movements of the landslips is limited to geomorphic
evidence, and anecdotal information about some of the landslips. The available information
on post-European movements is that all known movements are most likely to have been a
reactivation of parts of, or the whole of, pre-existing landslips and:


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are typically episodic with long periods of no apparent movement;
move relatively frequently whereas others have not moved for hundreds, perhaps
thousands of years; and
are induced by both natural and artificial causes.
Heavy rainfall events that have triggered landslips in the municipality occurred in 1863,
1891, 1928, 1934, 1958 and 1994.
Yarra Ranges MEMP – Part 7, APP 05 History of Emergencies (Version 2.2)
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Landslips that have required emergency response activities include:
1891 - Montrose Debris Flow
A house and several outbuildings were destroyed
by the debris flow. Two people were caught in
the debris flow and one had to be rescued
Ben Cairn Estate, Don Road
Launching Place
Caused a halt to all further development in a 272
lot subdivision
1992 - Blackwood Avenue
Landslide
Moved approximately 0.1m on consecutive days,
and raised the possibility of a dramatic failure
occurring and the Yarra River being dammed.
Emergency procedures were activated but stood
down after several days when movements
slowed down
1995 - Charles Road,
Lilydale
The failure of a water saturated fill slope
impacting upon a neighbours’ house and shed
1996 - Hazelvale Road,
Belgrave
The failure of water saturated ground below
absorption trenches destroying various outdoor
structures and coming to rest against the house
1996 (July) - Mt Dandenong
Tourist Road
Boulders and soil fell from cuttings onto the road,
and a fill slope failure flowed about 100m down.
2005 (February) - Old Coach
Road, Kalorama, Churchill
Drive, Tremont, Kallista /
Emerald Road, Kallista and
Perrins Creek Road, Olinda
The failure of large portions of these roads
resulted in road closures and extensive
reinstatement works
6.
Health
Health emergencies can occur any day at any place, and as with other emergencies are
equally unpredictable in nature.
In 2007 when the Upper Yarra Reservoir water levels were too low resulting in poor quality
drinking water.
Most recent health emergency for the population of Yarra Ranges was the H1N1 virus, also
known as swine influenza, epidemic in 2009, with over 2000 cases reported across Victoria .
Version
Version 2.0
Version 2.1
Release
Date
2013
July 2016
Author
MFPO
Approved
MEM
Yarra Ranges MEMP – Part 7, APP 05 History of Emergencies (Version 2.2)
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