Are you prepared for the next bushfire season?
Also including: How to keep your kids busy these spring school holidays
Matthew Sims
September 05, 2025
⏱️ The 73rd edition of our newsletter is a 7-minute read.
Hi there 👋
Matthew Sims here, your reporter at the Eastern Melburnian.
At the time of writing our subscriber count sits at 12,081 - a big hello to all our new readers.
🏡 Having lived near the Dandenong Ranges all my life, it has been an interesting backdrop.
It’s easy to get used to all those trees and native bushland. We’re lucky to live where we do – and I’m thankful every day!
But another reality that comes with living near nature — that’s no shock to locals — is bushfire.
In 1997, fires tore through 400 hectares across the Dandenongs. During the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, Upper Ferntree Gully homes were destroyed and a number of people lost their lives.
This week, I took a look at the Australasian Fire And Emergency Services Authorities Council’s bushfire outlook for spring — and what it might mean for those living in or near the Dandenongs.
I spoke with CFA District 13 Assistant Chief Fire Officer David Renkin about his experience working in the area since he joined the Upwey brigade in 1981. He said the lead-up to the upcoming season had been drier and hotter than previous years — and it was likely the season this year will begin earlier than normal.
I was shocked to discover that according to the CFA’s most recent post-season community survey, 40 per cent of Victorians living in bushfire-prone areas had not yet created a fire plan. Do it now and do it early.
👽 In weirder news: I took a quick look through the archives of eastern Melbourne’s past with the 1966 Westall UFO sighting coming back into the news this week.
UFO enthusiast Grant Lavac launched a petition for the Australian Government to start an inquiry into the event.
I popped down to the Grange Reserve, a unique little playground honouring the strange part of Clayton South’s history.
If you want to learn more about what he hopes to learn via the inquiry or support the cause, visit the online petition here.
🤔 If you have any thoughts, opinions or ideas of what we should do next, just reply to this email and I’ll be on the other end. We’re building the Eastern Melburnian to serve this community, and it all starts here. With your help, tips, feedback and involvement we can continue to grow and improve.
🗞️ Here’s what the Eastern Melburnian has been up to
The Australasian Fire And Emergency Services Authorities Council (AFAC) recently released its bushfire outlook for spring, pointing to a “heightened risk of fire” in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
Firefighters across the eastern suburbs of Melbourne are hoping for high rainfall during spring, as 12 to 18 months of drought conditions fuel a higher chance of bushfires starting – and the likelihood of an early start to the fire season.
The scars of the fires that blazed through about 400 hectares of the Dandenong Ranges in January 1997 can still be felt today.
Among the firefighters on the ground was CFA District 13 Assistant Chief Fire Officer David Renkin, who joined the local fire brigade as a junior volunteer at Upwey in 1981.
Some 12 years later, he led teams in battling the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, which killed 27 people across the Dandenongs alone.
Renkin said with increasing fire risk predicted, communities in the Dandenongs – an area with the highest bushfire risk in the Greater Melbourne region – should expect an earlier start to the fire season during this spring.
“On the right conditions and the wrong day, history shows fire burns very quickly uphill,” he told the Eastern Melburnian.
The Australasian Fire And Emergency Services Authorities Council (AFAC) recently released its bushfire outlook for spring, pointing to a “heightened risk of fire” in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne due to an increase in fuel, low rainfall over the last 12 to 18 months and above-average temperatures from September to November.
Renkin said the area was “drier now than it has been for quite some years at this time of year”.
“It would be a great thing to see more rainfall total in the spring period to dampen down some of that risk,” he said.
“If that doesn't eventuate, then it will be a very challenging fire season.”
In 2021, a CSIRO study highlighted the annual area burned by fire across Australia’s forests has been increasing by about 48,000 hectares per year over the last three decades. Fire seasons are moving further into winter and autumn.
And only last year a 2024 State of the Climate report from CSIRO highlighted these shifts, with rising temperatures, altered rainfall patterns and reduced humidity all contributing to harsher fire weather in Victoria.
According to the CFA’s latest annual post-season bushfire community survey, 40 percent of Victorians living in bushfire-prone areas had not yet prepared a bushfire plan.
Renkin said he found readiness in communities was often high in the first couple of years following a major fire event, but then “complacency crept back in very quickly”, meaning people often decided to leave too late.
“As we saw in 2009, there were far too many people that unfortunately made that decision (to stay),” he said.
“That decision probably cost them their lives.”
🛸 Melbourne’s most famous UFO mystery reignited
1966 - the Soviet Union completed the first “soft landing” on the Moon, England took home the FIFA World Cup and a group of school students sent the world into a tailspin by reporting a sighting of an Unidentified Flying Object.
April 6 started like any other day for Westall High School students, but quickly became a day they would never forget, with a group of them alleging they saw a UFO fly over the school and land in the nearby Grange Reserve.
The Grange Reserve now hosts a playground and park honouring this strange slice of Clayton South’s history, complete with a large UFO slide installation.
Like all good stories, the mystery is far from dead, with UFO researcher and enthusiast Grant Lavac recently launching a petition for the Australian government to launch a new inquiry into what occurred on that day.
🚧 Plan ahead for Eastern Freeway closures
Were you planning on jumping on the Eastern Freeway to get from Ringwood into the city for your Father’s Day plans? Maybe consider catching public transport instead.
Delays of up to 90 minutes are expected when the freeway closes in both directions between Doncaster Road and Tram Road from 10pm on Friday September 5 to 5am on Monday September 8 to allow for the installation of the new Heyington Bridge.
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SEEN THIS WEEK 🤓
From a band with Greek, Turkish, Jewish and Armenian influences honouring the music of Rebetiko - often referred to as the “Greek blues” to a true Aussie punk poet, there is plenty of local gigs to check out this month.
Between Father’s Day coming up this weekend and the Spring school holidays, there’s a treasure trove of fun activities and attractions for youngsters looking to broaden their horizons or get active.
Celebrating fathers in Croydon
Main Street in Croydon will be closed down for the annual Father’s Day Classic Car Show from 10am on Sunday September 7. Some 150 high-octane and retro cars will be on show, while youngsters can also meet their favourite superheroes walking up and down the street.
Thanks for catching up with us this week at The Eastern Melburnian! We hope you enjoyed this issue, and we’d love to hear your thoughts. We’ll be back next week with more stories, local legends, and fun polls, so stay tuned!
Cheers,
Matthew
P.S. here’s a little something extra for you.
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