Firestorms that swept through Canberra on Saturday have completely destroyed the Mount Stromlo Observatory, Australia鈥檚 oldest research observatory.
The fires are the worst seen in the country for several decades and have claimed four lives. Another 490 people were hospitalised and at least 419 homes were burnt down.
At the observatory, all 80 staff and their families survived. But all six telescopes, a major equipment workshop, several houses and an administration building were completely gutted. The main office buildings, containing computer databases, escaped the blaze. Stromlo accounts for a third of Australia鈥檚 astronomy research.
Advertisement
鈥淭he speed of the fire was unbelievable,鈥� says Ian Chubb, vice chancellor of the Australian National University that runs Stromlo. 鈥淭he aluminum domes on top of the telescopes have all melted鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 devastating,鈥� says Brian Boyle, director of the Anglo-Australian Observatory at Siding Spring in New South Wales. 鈥淚t will mean the termination of a number of major projects, including a digital survey of the southern hemisphere sky.鈥�
Key equipment
There are relatively few observatories in the southern hemisphere. But surveys of the southern sky are important, in part because they give a better view of the centre of our galaxy. The survey was in its second week of data collection when the fire struck.
The fires also incinerated a key piece of equipment that Stromlo had built for the Gemini Observatory telescope in Hawaii. The Gemini Observatory is a pair of eight metre telescopes, one in Hawaii, the other in Chile. The AUS$5 million 鈥渋maging spectrograph鈥� would have provided data on how galaxies form in the early Universe.
The destruction of the Observatory workshop may also jeopardise a contract to build a AUS$6.3 million camera for the Gemini telescope in Chile. The camera would correct for the distorting effects of the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere. But, according to Chubb, plans to rebuild the Stromlo Observatory are already under consideration.
Another important astronomy installation in the area is NASA鈥檚 Deep Space Network (DSN) facility, 40 km from Canberra. The DSN is expected to be particularly busy in 2003 and any damage would be a major blow to its ability to track and command deep space spacecraft. But so far there are no reports of fires nearby.
Burning embers
On Saturday morning, authorities were reassuring Canberra residents that the bushfires, licking at the edges of the city, could be controlled. But within hours, fierce, blustery winds had driven burning embers into Stromlo forest.
With temperatures in the high 30s, the large pine tree plantations exploded in flames. Firefighters were overwhelmed as fires swept through the Observatory, just 10 kilometres from the city center, before reaching residential areas.
Australia is enduring a particularly devastating bushfire season as the continent deals with one of its worst droughts in a century. Since Saturday, temperatures have remained high in Canberra, but the winds abated and no more houses have been destroyed.
鈥淭his is the worst bushfire scene I鈥檝e come across anywhere in Australia 鈥� indeed, anywhere,鈥� said Australia鈥檚 prime minister John Howard. He said a 鈥渇reak鈥� combination of zero humidity, extreme drought conditions, and high winds were to blame.