Les’ Mt Horror legacy
• Mt Horror Fire Tower operators Joshua Moss and Neil Waters.
• The late Leslie Harper is honoured at the base of the fire tower. His legacy will live on.
By Taylor Clyne
December 23, 2020
Watching the world from above certainly has its perks but as the hot summer rolls in the job of fire tower operators are cementing the safety of all from their perch at the top of Mt Horror.
The legacy of Branxholm’s Leslie Harper who served twenty-five years working on the tower from 1990-2015 is continuing today under the management of Pioneer’s Joshua Moss and South Mount Cameron’s Neil Waters.
The two are responsible for providing hourly reports to Sustainable Timbers Tasmania (STT) reading wet and dry thermometers to measure humidity and temperature as well as wind to accurately provide a fire danger reading.
Senior Forest Fire Officer Andrew Cox said the Mt Horror site has been operation since the late sixties and this particular tower is about fifty years old.
“The late Les was a real stalwart, he basically served his years here until he was too sick – he really loved the job and there is a memorial plaque at the base of the fire tower honouring his time spent above,” Mr Cox said.
“Dependant on the season, our fire towers operate from October through to April – and our operators usually spend the entire day in the tower seven days a week, weather dependant.
“They are the eyes in the forest that keep watch throughout summer, they are looking for possible smoke and flare ups on high danger days.
“The towers are a key strategy to manage bushfire threats – and our operators are heavily involved in the early detection and calling in of bushfires,” he said.
“The hourly readings give the duty officer an idea of what is happening in each area.
“If the humidity drops away to be really low, we know that we might have to have crews on standby and to be extra vigilant.”
Finding a fire is quite variable and depend on the season however the operators are trained to know what dust is and what smoke is.
“Often you can see a long line of dust when someone is going out to Tomahawk in their car quite fast,” Mr Cox laughed.
“These days we get a lot of fires called in by people with phones and they can give the location, but this role is still really important as the boys have a view that nobody else has and they still quite often pick-up fires before anyone else does.”
The Mt Horror site also houses the main repeater station for the whole of the North-East, not only for STT but also for police, fire, ambulance, marine safety and commercial radio stations.
“It’s pretty important infrastructure.”
Tower operators see it all, spending six hours or more a day, every day during the season in the tower.
“Sometimes it gets a bit hairy, especially when a summer thunderstorm is rolling through.
“There are days when the winds get up to over 100km an hour and the tower is shaking, as safe as the tower is it doesn’t feel that safe on those days,” he said.
“The cabin has been there over fifty years and there are no double glazed windows, it can be quite an interesting time during a storm – especially climbing the stairs to the tower.”
Operator Neil Waters said he really enjoys seeing the wildlife and odd visitor to the mountain.
“You see things from a different perspective.
“There are lot of eagles and birds of prey up here just floating around and sometimes you spot an odd jogger emerging from the track looking to have a spell,” he said.
“I really like the idea of being able to contribute to forestry in a really proactive way where you’re protecting the environment and looking out for fires and protecting the community.”
The Mt Horror Reserve is now managed by Parks and Wildlife who were transferred the land under the Tasmanian Forests Agreement.
A couple of years ago STT were able to clear the site considerably to improve visibility throughout the 360-degree viewing.
“STT manage basically from where the plantations starts on the mountain; in recent months we’ve made the call to leave the boom gate at the base of the mountain open again for the community to access, we just hope they look after it,” Mr Cox said.
“I think this is a great spot for people to come and have a look, the views here are second to none and basically a panoramic of the entire North-East as far as the eye can see and Bass Strait.”
Mr Cox said back in the Les’ day there was more of a free reign in the way of letting visitors or the community go up the tower for a look when an officer was there.
“Unfortunately, there are a lot more regulations these days but the lookout at the far end of the mountain usually satisfies people.”
STT manage three towers in the North-East/East-Coast district, all strategically spread out to bounce off each other’s readings to provide the most accurate information daily.
These include the Mt Horror Tower behind Winnaleah, the Tower Hill Tower at Fingal and Snow Hill Tower at Bicheno.