Figure 2. The Mount Coree fire tower located 30 kilometres to the west of Canberra in the Brindabella Ranges made the first report of smoke, and later huge flames, in a creek at Gold Creek near Hall ACT on 13 February 1979.

Figure 3. Staff at ACT Fire Control (COMCEN), plot smoke and dust reports radioed in from lookout towers and ground patrols. Coree and Mount Tennent towers reported smoke from the Hall Fire at 1459 hrs, 13 February 1979.

Figure 4. The Hall fire approaching Gundaroo Road at 1550 hrs on 13 February 1979, approximately 50 minutes after ignition. This view is from Mount Ainslie Reserve Canberra. [The area burning is now a suburb in Gungahlin]

Figure 5. The right-hand flank near the head of the Hall fire 300 metres North-West of Gungaderra homestead at 1615 hours, burning in a heavy crop of fully cured grasses under an Extreme fire danger rating. The forward rate of spread is approximately 12 km/h with an average flame height of 3-4 metres with flashes and whirls of 8-12 metres.

Figure 6. Scorched and maimed sheep overtaken by fire while being mustered to safety on Gungaderra Station, 15 metres from the author sheltering in a motorcar on bare ground.

Figure 7. Residents of Gungaderra Station, having weathered the fire indoors, prepare to mop-up burning materials 20 minutes after the passage of the head fire. The homestead and main buildings survived the fire.

Figure 8. Resident of Gungaderra Station equipped with a knapsack water spray on mopping up duties, abandoning a burning stock feed shed.

Figure 9. View to the north from Gungaderra Station at about 1730 hours, shortly after a major wind shift from the south-west, drove the fire on a wide front in a new direction. The distant smoke is from the left-hand flank burning away to the north-east.

Figure 10. A part-time fire-fighting vehicle fitted with a slip-on tank/pumper unit damaged by collision with a roadside tree while outrunning the fire through dense smoke on Wells Station.

Figure 11. After a strong south-westerly wind change at 1730 hours, the Hall fire moved rapidly to the north-east as a series of tongues on a wide front 8 kilometres wide, seen here, one hour later burning strongly into the home paddocks and crowning in a pine windbreak at Mulligans Flat.

Figure 12. Shepherds quarters and machinery sheds alight on Mulligans Flat, 30 minutes after the passage of fire.

Figure 13. A light tanker from ACT Parks & Conservation Service working on a grass fire in Kambah on a day of Extreme Fire Danger 1979.