Judge Stretton’s recommendations hoped to achieve a clearer demarcation of fire and forest management, better cooperation between competing government departments, and more flexible and comprehensible laws of fire protection and prevention.

1. The Forests Commission should have complete control of all forests.

The Forests Commission should be given responsibility for forest fire protection in all unoccupied Crown lands, except where special exemptions exist.

This would include ‘protected forests’ as well as ‘reserved forests’ (the two categories that made up the whole of the State Forests). In addition, the Forests Commission should control the use of fire on a strip of land (at least half a mile wide) beyond state forests and national parks.

The Forests Act 1939 increased the Forests Commission’s territorial fire responsibility threefold. The buffer strip of land was extended to a width of one mile.

2. The Forests Commission must pay greater attention to the reclamation and rehabilitation of forests and cease to be too preoccupied with revenue production.

Commercial interests have had too much influence on forest policy. Forest debris and waste from sawmilling should be cleared by means of light fire and mobile equipment. Prevention and suppression of fire is an absolute priority.

The capacity for early detection and containment of fires needs to be improved, through the provision of more look-out towers, roads, fire-fighting equipment, better communication and water conservation in dams and tanks throughout the forests.

In the decade after the fires – a period of intensive salvage of fire-killed timber – resources were taken away from silvicultural (tree cultivation) work. But from the end of the 1940s, scientists and foresters began to learn how to cultivate and manage the regenerating forests of mountain ash.

3. A State Fire Authority should be established.

This body should consist of representatives of the Bush Fire Brigades, the Country Fire Brigades, the Forests Commission and the relevant municipalities.

The new authority should define general policy for preventing and suppressing bushfires outside State Forests, protecting life and property, organising and recruiting local brigades, and maintaining discipline of brigades and local fire authorities.

The State Fire Authority must not be involved in the internal policy of public bodies that control forests. The authority should zone Victoria according to environmental and social conditions that affect fire risk, and should have the power to proclaim acute fire danger periods in particular areas.

The Country Fire Authority was established in April 1945.

4. A Land Utilization Control Committee should be established.

Such a committee, comprising experts from all relevant public departments, would help reconcile the conflicting claims and duties at present invested in forest lands. Bush fires are an important contributing cause of soil erosion, and a land utilization committee would consider methods of prevention of destruction of soil and its products.

A Soil Conservation Board was established in Victoria in 1940. Judge Stretton strengthened this recommendation in his 1946 Royal Commission into Forest Grazing when he spoke of 'an inseparable trinity - Forest, Soil and Water' and renewed his call for a land utilization authority.

In 1950 the Victorian government created a Land Utilization Advisory Council chaired by its first Minister for Conservation, Henry Bolte.

5. The Forests Commission must recognise the necessity for protective burning in its areas and should respect local forest lore.

Where practicable, autumn burning is preferable for protective purposes. Forest officers should be stationed in one district for as long as possible. It is essential that forest officers who manage fire practices have a thorough knowledge of local forest lore and of the district in which they have authority. It is equally important that the local rural populace recognise that the officers have such knowledge.

Following the Black Friday fires, controlled burning increasingly became an official fire management practice.

6. Safety precautions at sawmills must be improved.

Better clearing about sawmills and better provision of water is essential. The construction of dug-outs at all mill settlements, and at winches during the fire season, should be compulsory.

The Forests Act 1939 enabled the Forests Commission to enforce the installation of fire-refuge dugouts at mills built in protected forests as well as reserved forests.

7. The education of adults and children about fire prevention and protection must be taken seriously.

A law which is not acceptable to the many is made to be broken.

A Save the Forests Campaign was established in Victoria in 1944. It aimed to cultivate a 'forest conscience' through public education.

Read more about the Country Fire Authority today in the Aftermath Section

Read more about Judge Stretton’s recommendations in the Aftermath Section

Read more about the Country Fire Authority today in the Aftermath Section