Mount Lofty Fire Tower

The Mount Lofty Fire Tower sits on top of Mount Lofty in the Adelaide Hills just to the east of the city of Adelaide, South Australia. The 34m high tower has a commanding view over a huge area of the rural areas surrounding Adelaide, and on a clear day the view can extend to as far as Kangaroo Island to the southwest, Monarto to the east, the Fleurieu Peninsula to the south, and the grassy plains beyond Two Wells to the north. The tower is used to spot fires in the Adelaide Hills and surrounds on days of very high or extreme fire danger during summer. The spotting crew determine the location of a smoke sighting by taking a bearing and then calculating distance using topographic maps. Details of the sighting are then passed to the Country Fire Service Regional Office in Mount Barker who despatch the nearest fire brigade.HistoryThe tower, which sits within Cleland Conservation Park, was built in 1980 and initially manned by National Parks and Wildlife Service officers. The Country Fire Service took over responsibility for the tower in 1987, recruiting a paid staff of three fire spotters on a contract basis who between them maintained an eight-hour watch for the entire Fire Danger Season from 1 December to 30 April. The spotting crew typically reported close to 200 sightings per season. In the mid-1990s a volunteer unit was established specifically to operate the fire tower, and this was then formally recognised as a Country Fire Service brigade in November 2000.