Fires destroy Mount Stromlo Observatory

Irreplaceable equipment worth millions of dollars was destroyed when the Canberra bushfires ravaged the historic Mount Stromlo Observatory.

Research officer Vince Ford, a 38-year veteran of the observatory, told AAP staff were given 20 minutes' notice to evacuate as a fire storm on Mount Stromlo caught authorities by surprise. A single road through pine forests links the observatory, established by the Commonwealth in 1924, with suburban Canberra.

"There's no way we could have saved it," Mr Ford said.   The fire storm destroyed all the observatory's telescopes and the original observatory building, which dated back to 1924.  "It's gone, it's all gone," Mr Ford said.  "We've lost all the telescopes, the administration building, which was the original observatory back in 1924.  "The first telescope has actually been there since 1910, it's gone.  "The main research telescopes, the 74-inch and 50-inch, they're gone. I've just seen pictures of it from the air and we don't have a telescope left."

The Australian National University (ANU) facility was one the premier astronomy training and research centres in Australia.

"(It's a huge loss) from a historical point of view, from a cultural point of view, from a scientific point of view," Mr Ford said. "It's an absolute disaster."

Observatory staff still hope they may be able to salvage some of their research, stored on computers in office buildings that might have escaped the worst of the blaze.  The observatory offices are believed to be standing, but have been water damaged.

"At least we should be able to recover the hard disks from some of the computers, but at this stage we're guessing," Mr Ford said.  "All we know is the observatory is gone."

Some back-up files would also have been stored at the main ANU campus in Canberra.

"But a lot of the work will be at the observatory," Mr Ford said.  "Some of us, being suspicious sods, have stuff at home, but most of it would have been on the computers or in the offices up at the observatory."

ANU vice-chancellor Ian Chubb was due to meet observatory chiefs to be briefed on the extent of the damage.

Submitted by Brian Fraser