Drive 1.7 kms along Kelly Road to reach the Linton Firefighter Memorial.
Deep in the bush here, a small granite memorial, dedicated in December 1999, marks the spot where five volunteer Geelong West firefighters died at this site in a bushfire that raged in this area six kilometres north of Linton in December 1998.
On 2 December 1998, a bushfire burned through private land and state forest near the township of Linton and fire fighters from the Department of Natural Resources and Country Fire Authority (CFA) were deployed to fight the fire.
At approximately 8:45 p.m., two CFA tankers and their crews were trapped and engulfed in fire following an unexpected wind change. The crew of one of those trucks, five men from Geelong, all volunteers from the Geelong West Brigade were killed. The coronial inquest examining the fire and the deaths was one of the longest-running inquests in the history of the state. This inquest led to changes in safety operating procedures in the CFA.
