Ford Collection destroyed in Kinglake fire.

[Bigbjorn]

The extensive collection of Ford vehicles from 1913 owned by Wal Martin and his sons was totally destroyed in the Kinglake fire.

Wal is 85 years old and is the Proprietor of Watsonia Garage. The large collection was in the big shed at his house at Kinglake. The family and the house survived with some damage to the house.

The collection, some of which were vehicles unique in Australia was totally destroyed.

I spoke to Wal today. They have a generator for power, and Telstra have routed their land line through to his mobile and are charging land line rates.

[JDNSW]

Unfortunately I fear there is a lot more of this sort of thing going to gradually come out. I am afraid that as well as the human suffering and personal loss, we will find that the country has lost a lot of history, not only in things like collections, but also historic buildings, not to mention many records.

John

[Lotz-A-Landies]

Very very sad. :( :( :( :( :(

How do you start replacing a life-times collection at 85 years old?

[George130]

Not a lot more you can say.
Would be crushing to loose a lifetimes work like that.

[loanrangie]

Sad news, my dad knows Wal and he was only telling me yesterday about the loss. Another one of his friends who lives in Yarraglen lost one of his cars, he managed to drive the Auburn out before the shed went up but couldnt get his Delahaye out :(.

[Shonky]

When I get a place of my own, I am builing my workshop underground (appropriately drained of course).

No fires or storms or cyclones are gonna get my babies down there... :mad:


Tragic... :(

[Lotz-A-Landies]

When I get a place of my own, I am builing my workshop underground (appropriately drained of course).

No fires or storms or cyclones are gonna get my babies down there... :mad:


Tragic... :(Had you thought about floods! Nothing drains when when the water level is above your roof!

[mcrover]

When I get a place of my own, I am builing my workshop underground (appropriately drained of course).

No fires or storms or cyclones are gonna get my babies down there... :mad:


Tragic... :(


Had you thought about floods! Nothing drains when when the water level is above your roof!

Thats the first thing I thought of.

I did a bit of the recovery at a couple of the schools after the 200mm of rain in Melb some years ago flooded them.

Some of the equipment even though not worth much in money terms were very historically significant to the industry.

In one of the floods were 2 of the first motorised wicket mowers used on the MCG which are still being rebuilt and a fergie 35 with the first ever pre production set of australian 5/7 gangs made under license for Ransomes.

There were only a couple of these ever built, 1 set was ratted for parts to keep this set going and this set was in perfect order, had been looked after and appeared to be in brand new condition.

The Fergie was the cleanest 35 I had ever seen, not a single scratch or worn bit of paint on the machine.

Maybe instead of building into the ground, what about a concrete walled and roofed workshop which is then covered in earth with heavy fire doors on the front.

You could make the doors water proof and sealed so that in the event of a fire you could also use it as a bunker.

If the fire got in there then there would be no way you were going to survive anyway.

[EchiDna]

build it into a hill?

actually my thoughts are to build a dirty great big concrete walled wine cellar/larder into the side of a hill containing a couple of 10,000+ litre concrete water tanks as the side walls with enough space between for all my stuff. wack a couple of steel roller doors on the front with a diesel pump powered sprinker system and you could last for hours if the air held up. Add a few sets of dive gear and you would have air on hand to survive in all but the worst circumstances too.

[Disco300Tdi]

I spoke to Wal today. They have a generator for power, and Telstra have routed their land line through to his mobile and are charging land line rates.

Telstra were/are giving out free mobiles to the residents and all at landline rates. The power has been restored to parts of Kinglake. The teams are working 24/7.

[Bigbjorn]

I am told by a Bugattiste and Amilcar mafia god-father that two Bugatti were destroyed in the fires. He says probably a good thing as one was a fake and the other one almost so. Stuart Murdoch's private museum at Yarra Junction is OK. Stuart has about 50 cars, no old bangers or mass produced rubbish. All of impeccable provenance and he has never undertaken an easy restoration. Has a 1913 Delage Grand Prix, several Bugatti including a 57SC coupe, a Type 30 with Paris Motor Show bodywork, and a DOHC Castagna Alfa.

[Shonky]

When I get a place of my own, I am builing my workshop underground (appropriately drained of course).


Had you thought about floods! Nothing drains when when the water level is above your roof!


build it into a hill?


Echidna's on the money. ;) Obviously I wasn't going to dig a hole, push my treasures in and put a roof on it! :lol2:

Truth be told, I would probably settle for a besa brick structure with a tin roof, with internal and external sprinkler systems and a BIG firebreak...

Not fire proof, but very resistant.

[Shonky]

Maybe instead of building into the ground, what about a concrete walled and roofed workshop which is then covered in earth with heavy fire doors on the front.


Like a Pizza Oven! :D

[JohnF]

Had you thought about floods! Nothing drains when when the water level is above your roof!

So you do buy on a hillside, and put the bunker into the hill. If on top of a hill, water runs down, hence drainage will not be a problem. I have been thinking of putting in a workshop pit at home. We have a gully near by, so strorm water drain would go to that gully, as it can flood in our drive, to a few inches--not feet. We are on a slope. That drain will not be for grease, etc., just if water floods into the pit. Will have a flap valve on outlet into gully, to keep nasties out of the drain. Now thinking it heeds fireproof cover on it, so it could be used as a bunker. We do live in the bush.

[bobslandies]

Today's Age has this story:

A Holden haven now turned to ash | theage.com.au (http://www.theage.com.au/national/a-holden-haven-now-turned-to-ash-20090216-899x.html)

In the coming weeks there will be more reports of losses of collections (motoring and other) but these reports will be only a small percentage of the heritage we have collectively lost.

In recent years truly immense numbers of vehicles and farm machinery have been collected up (and even stolen) by scrappers with no thought that some were worthy of preservation. Motor vehicle registration authorities did not even require recording of anything being crushed, even if they still had current registration plates attached.

The "Global Financial Crisis" (in our case read drop of silly steel price) has now given us all the opportunity to save some of what is left.

Bob

[Lotz-A-Landies]

So you do buy on a hillside, and put the bunker into the hill. If on top of a hill, water runs down, hence drainage will not be a problem. ...<snip>Some of the worst flooding occurs on hillsides, especially mudslides, just ask the people living on the escarpment around Wollongong particularly places like Balgownie, Coledale, Mt Kiera and Mt Pleasant.

Granted that floodwaters don't innundate the house like the floods of the western plains, but there have been many mudslides that have innundated houses, covered their roofs and even washed them down hill. I'm not sure I would want to be in a bunker when it was covered with metres of mud-soon-to-be earth.

Now perhaps it should be a heat resistant, concrete barge that is impervious to fire, resistant to hurricane force winds and will float on floodwaters!

Diana

[Shonky]

not so much a hill, as a slight incline? All you need is for there to be *some* point lower than the shed to plumb adequate drainage into (the drainage preferably being outside the shed so that the water runs away before wetting everything! :lol@)

[3toes]

Some of the worst flooding occurs on hillsides, especially mudslides, just ask the people living on the escarpment around Wollongong particularly places like Balgownie, Coledale, Mt Kiera and Mt Pleasant.

Granted that floodwaters don't innundate the house like the floods of the western plains, but there have been many mudslides that have innundated houses, covered their roofs and even washed them down hill. I'm not sure I would want to be in a bunker when it was covered with metres of mud-soon-to-be earth.

Now perhaps it should be a heat resistant, concrete barge that is impervious to fire, resistant to hurricane force winds and will float on floodwaters!

Diana

Can state from experience that flood waters rise up to your property while run off comes down the hill into your property. While the damage resulting is the same the difference is important as my insurance assessor pointed out. Most policies do not cover you for flood damage.

Lucky for me the assessor considered that the damage was the result of the run off rather than the flood water as we had both at the same time. Water came in from both the front and back doors at almost the same time.