that day was 39.5 °C with gusty hot northerly winds driving two fire fronts across the heavily wooded suburb. The number of homes destroyed in sparsely populated Beaumaris was reported at between 63 and 100, leaving 'a square mile' burnt out, and 200 homeless. Hundreds of volunteers, including many from the city, with fire brigades from neighbouring suburbs and soldiers who were trucked in, could not control the flames. Householders and holidaymakers cut fire-breaks, but fire leapt every gap, leaving 7 caravans and 5 cars gutted in the caravan park. Scores of people sheltered in the sea for hours from fierce flames in the cliff-top ti-tree, with many suffering exposure as a result and some with severe burns also contracting pneumonia. Although everyone who had lost their homes had been provided with temporary accommodation by the Red Cross and Salvation Army, many in rooms, lounges and corridors of the Beaumaris Hotel that was one of the few buildings left standing, more permanent accommodation was difficult to provide. Damage estimated by the office of the Town Clerk at Sandringham at £50,000 (not including clothing, furniture and other personal effects lost) was done to buildings. The Premier Albert Dunstan convened a special meeting of Cabinet to consider relief measures and, with Sandringham Lord Mayor Councillor Nettlefold, inaugurated a State-wide appeal. Road surfacing, 1960s In 1949, architect Robin Boyd in a regular column in Melbourne's The Age noted that: The appearance of the original 'tracks' were recorded in an album by W.L. Murrell, photographer and Hon. Librarian of the Beaumaris and District Historical Trust. Most of the "ti-tree tracks" that roughly followed the street grid of Beaumaris remained unmade until the City of Sandringham realigned and surfaced them in asphalt between concrete kerbs in a campaign during 1961–67. The tree-clearing required was opposed by many residents, but their protests were successful only in Point Avenue, which remained an unmade private road. Education Elementary education for Beaumaris children in the mid-1800s was provided by the closest 'common school'; a private school started by Frederick and Fanny Meeres in 1855 in a single-room wooden dwelling near the Cheltenham Railway Station. The school was first named the Beaumaris Wesleyan School. In 1863, it became a public school under the control of the National Schools Board, and in 1864, Henry Wells, George Beazley, and Samuel Munby were appointed by the Board to the 'Beaumaris School' on its