Tragic Fire Destroys Most of Australia's Mount Stromlo Observatory

January 21, 2003

Violent bush fires ravaging Canberra destroyed most of the facilities at the Stromlo Observatory. Fortunately there were no additional human injuries or casualties. More details on the loss of Gemini's Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph can be found at the links below.

• Astronomy projects in ruins as observatory obliterated
• Aussie Fires Destroy Mount Stromlo Observatory
• Australian fire felt in Hilo
• Gemini Near-Infrared Integral-Field Spectrograph (NIFS): Destroyed by Bushfire January 2003
• Historic Australian observatory gutted
• The Mount Stromlo Fires: A Major Heritage Loss For Australian Astronomy
• Mount Stromlo Observatory Destroyed by Fire
• Pictures of the aftermath of the fire of Saturday, 18 January 2003, at Mount Stromlo Observatory