Black Thursday (1851)

The bushfires in Victoria in 1851 ( in Australia Black Thursday called ) took place on February 6, 1851 in Victoria. It was the largest bushfires, the hitherto occurred in a region populated by Europeans in Australia, in which 50,000 km ² of land burned, 12 people, burned more than a million sheep and thousands of cattle.

Concerned by the fire areas lay around Portland, Western Port and the Plenty Ranges and in the Wimmera and Dandenong District. The burned area extended over a quarter of the state of Victoria.

Already in 1850 there was a great heat and drought, streams and billabongs dried out and sheep and cattle died of thirst, the sun burned the grasslands, bushes and trees withered. When developed, the Australian summer continues, this trend increased. On the morning of February 6, 1851 strong wind developed into a tornado came.

Fire broke out and men, women and children, sheep and cattle, birds and snakes fleeing the fires in great panic, farm houses, fences, gardens, barns and bridges burned. The air was filled with smoke, which also extended to beyond the sea, as reported by ships.