この問題で

Fire. Fifty years after the day which has become known as Black Tuesday, Tasmania still shudders at the memory.

It was February 7, 1967, and bushfires burned on 110 separate fronts that day, from Bothwell to Snug.

The worst of them was in Hobart, a national disaster in the suburbs of the state’s capital city.

Sixty-two lives were lost. A total of 1,293 homes, more than 1,700 other buildings, an estimated 62,000 farm animals, 80 bridges and about 1,500 cars and were also lost.

Fire. It raged again in January and February 2016, this time seemingly all over Tasmania due to random but prolific lightning strikes. No lives were lost, but property and infrastructure was widespread.

In this issue, we remember Black Tuesday and 2016 with two special features. Janette Smith retells the dramatic story of the Black Tuesday rescue of the citizens of Fern Tree, the Hobart suburb perched 400 metres up the slopes of Mount Wellington. It’s a story of fortitude and heroism – without which the Black Tuesday death count could have been considerably higher.

In the aftermath of the 2016 fires, as in 1967, came many stories of community – people helping people for no other reason than the existence of a need. Perhaps the strangest fund-raising effort was a group of recreational divers who got together for a dinner – on the ocean seabed. It was so successful it’s become an annual event. One of them, Jonno Blood, writes the story.

Forty South Tasmania Magazine Description:

Tasmania has been described as the world's best-kept secret, but it's not our fault - we have been telling the world about Tasmania for over 20 years. Forty South Tasmania has been described as a lifestyle magazine with brains. It offers three things: interesting features about Australia's island state, good writing and stunning photography. The magazine is a household name in Tasmania, but also has many subscribers elsewhere - people who have visited this beautiful place and now read the magazine for a regular reminder of an extraordinary experience. Forty South Tasmania offers feature stories, and stunning photography, about Tasmanian places and people, tourism, history and lifestyle, and regular columns on Tasmanian food, wine, arts and culture.