BLACK FRIDAY FIRES IN AUSTRALIA.

Black Friday in Australia.

The Black Friday fires of 13 January 1939, in Victoria, Australia, were considered one of the worst natural bushfires (wildfires) in the world, and certainly the single worst in Australian history as a measure of land affected. Almost 20,000 km² (4,942,000 acres, 2,000,000 ha) of land was burnt, 71 people died and several towns were entirely destroyed. Over 1,300 homes and 69 sawmills were burnt and a total of 3,700 buildings were destroyed. It was calculated that three quarters of the State of Victoria was directly or indirectly affected by the disaster. Considered in terms of both loss of property and loss of life, the 1939 fires were one of the worst disasters to have occurred in Australia and certainly the worst bushfire up to that time. Only the subsequent Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983 and the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009 have resulted in more deaths. In terms of the total area burnt, the Black Friday fires are the second largest, burning 2 million hectares, with the Black Thursday fires of 1851 having burnt an estimated 5 million hectares.

Please remember this as the phrase Black Friday now seems to reference a sales event here instead, as it does in the United States.

Learn more about Australia’s Black Friday at Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub
Learn more about Australia’s Black Friday at Wikipedia

 

Black Friday in The United States.

In the United States, Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and Apple runs a One Day Sale. Unfortunately the “Black Friday” sales are gaining popularity in Australia as well so despite the name, Geekworks will match or better Apple one day specials for this day stock allowing.