Silent sentinelsStanding watch over Queensland’s $1 billion-plus commercial timber resource are more than 40 fire towers. The tallest, still standing but not in use, is the Jimna Fire Tower at 44 metres. The smallest is just 1 metre high, at Turkey Mountain in the Barakula State Forest in south-west Queensland.
Ten fire towers are steel and the remainder are wooden towers, of both three- and four-leg design. Generally, fire towers protecting Queensland's plantation forests are controlled and maintained by Forestry Plantations Queensland and towers in commercial native forests are controlled and maintained by Forest Products, a business unit in the Queensland Department of the Environment & Resource Management. There is something about forestry fire towers that stirs the imagination and the United States has a network of fire tower aficionados who have formed the Forest Fire Lookout Association. The Association’s newsletter ‘Lookout Network’ has recently informed members about the quirkiness of fire towers "down-under". Queensland’s three-legged towers came from the inspiration of one man, former forestry builder Arthur Leis. Now retired and living the quiet life in Nambour, south-east Queensland, Arthur built 26 fire towers during his service with Queensland forestry organisations from 1957 to 1991.
"Built", perhaps, doesn’t convey the real significance of his work. Arthur designed the towers himself, cut out all the timber on site, and usually erected each tower with the help of just one offsider and a block and tackle. (An exception to this was the building of the 30-metre Barakula tower, near Chinchilla, a project that had the services of a larger construction crew.) "On average it would take me about five months to build a tower. I poured the foundations first, then cut out and drilled all the timber. One side of the tower was bolted together on the ground and raised by a block and tackle. The third leg (and fourth if required) would then be raised against the first side and bolted in to fix the structure. It was then a simple case of bolting the rest of the tower together," Arthur explains. Simple for some! Arthur, a qualified builder and rigger, was aided by an innate sense of what constituted good design and construction, topped off by a total disregard for heights. Building the Barakula tower, workers were amazed to see Arthur swing on his harness, without apparent concern, 30 metres up, scrambling over eaves to nail the corrugated roof of the observer’s cabin. The Barakula tower, built in 1970, is a four-legged tower.
"I started building four-legged towers as this was the conventional design. They were very successful, but then I thought about the need for four legs. Why not three? "The three-legged towers were even more successful. They were exceptionally sturdy, and because of their three legs they did not suffer from the rotational movement that four-legged towers had," Arthur says. Three legs were also less expensive than four, in both time and money. Arthur built 12 three-legged towers, eight four-legged towers, three steel towers, and refurbished two older wooden towers during his work in Queensland forestry. In that time, spent swinging from and walking along timber beams suspended high above the forest floor, he says he had "not one" scare. Indeed, the only accident Arthur had in 30 years was on the ground in 1963 when building the 37 metre tower at Elliott River. "I was sawing timber for the tower when the chainsaw kicked back, cutting me across the chest," he says. Fourteen stitches and a period of convalescence later and he was back on deck. Or above it, if you prefer. Forestry Plantations Queensland’s steel fire towers were no less of an engineering feat for Arthur and his crew. "I did a bit of experimenting with the steel towers I built. The 21 metre Kandanga tower I put together from the top down, and never left the ground during construction.
"I built the observation deck and top sections first, then hoisted them above the ground and completed the next lower section. This step was repeated until we had completed the tower. The process was quite successful, but Kandanga was the only tower I constructed that way. The others were built more conventionally," Arthur says. During the height of the fire season, from September to January, Forestry Plantations Queensland’s towers are occupied daily, depending on the severity of the fire season. The 360 degree view they afford gives forestry workers early warning of fire. Fire is the one thing that keeps forestry workers on constant vigil. A stray cigarette butt, electrical storms, sparks from a worn trailer axle, two power lines blown together, careless campers and arsonists have all caused significant losses to Queensland’s forests. Large forest fires around Beerburrum in 1994 cost Queensland $35 million. Forestry Plantations Queensland’s fire towers form part of a scientific and complex fire protection regime that is practised 365 days a year. It includes controlled burnings, creation of fire breaks, year-round fire fighting training for forestry staff, ‘schools’ that build-in fire protection to the design of plantations, and establishing networks with local fire agencies and rural fire brigades. Forestry Plantations Queensland also works in with the Bureau of Meteorology, which has established automatic weather stations across the state and provides weekly data to aid in forecasting fire dangers. Fire towers also provide excellent communications stations, and most of the sites have a radio base at the tower’s feet and an aerial extending from the top of the observer’s cabin. When the aerials were installed, it was generally Arthur Leis who swung out onto the cabin roof to set them up. It’s no surprise that the United States has an active and nationwide fire tower appreciation society, for there is something decidedly romantic about the towers’ presence in the heart of green, peaceful forests. Many are accessible to the public, and some of the more popular are complemented with picnic tables to provide an enjoyable day out. For security reasons observation decks are locked, but those with a sense of adventure will find it an easy (albeit slow) climb on the wooden steps to the second highest levels, where the view is well worth the effort. Signage on site details a number of safety requirements to ensure all care is taken by visitors.
Forestry Plantations Queensland’s steel towers, however, have not been designed with general access in mind, and members of the public are prohibited from climbing them. Most are in areas that are inaccessible to conventional vehicles and lack public amenities. Further information on access to Forestry Plantations Queensland’s fire towers can be obtained by contacting the relevant forest office. Unfortunately, timber fire towers have a usable life and Forestry Plantations Queensland has decommissioned some of its timber towers as they reach a point of deterioration where they are no longer safe. The Jimna and Gallangowan fire towers are recent examples of this. As towers are decommissioned they are replaced by automated state-of-the-art remote sensing video cameras mounted on masts. These video cameras provide streaming pictures to forestry offices to a standard personal computer, bringing a “24/7” fire watch on the forests. This new technology removes the need to staff fire towers manually and costs but a fraction of building and maintaining traditional fire towers.
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