Ambulances have changed a lot over the years – from a small vehicle mostly used for transportation to essentially a hospital on wheels.
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Bill Ahearn, who worked as an ambulance driver – or “bearer” as they were called at the time – from 1973 to 1989, knows this better than anyone.
“Ambulances started out very basic,” he explains.
“They were there simply to transport patients from an accident scene or a situation to a hospital.
“Back in my day, we basically just had a few bandages, splints, painkillers and oxygen in the back of the ambo.
“Over the years, ambulances have evolved into a mobile hospital, and they can carry a lot more equipment than we ever could.”
Now aged 78, Bill is a volunteer with the Queensland Ambulance Museum in Charters Towers, housed in the original ambulance station.
It is the oldest ambulance station in the state that is still being used as an operational centre.
The pride and joy of the museum is a 1942 Ford Flathead V8 ambulance that has been lovingly restored, and still makes it out and about for functions, events, parades — and just for fun.
“It’s what they call a Jail Bar, because the grille on the front looks like prison bars,” Bill says.
“This was a purpose-built ambulance that was first registered in Charters Towers in 1946.
“It’s still registered to this day — we believe it holds the record for the longest continually registered ambulance in Australia, and the oldest registered vehicle still in use in Queensland.”
The Ford saw active service at Charters Towers from 1946 to 1951, before moving to the historic gold mining town of Ravenswood, about 90km away.
It remained in Ravenswood until 1978, when it returned home to Charters Towers.
The ambulance was still running perfectly
at this stage, with a half-ton 85hp 51C series motor under the bonnet, but it was looking a bit worse for wear.
“Mechanically it was fine — even now it’s only done about 60,000 miles,” says Bill.
“There was no rust because the ambulance had always been inland, but there was a lot of panel damage.
“It needed to be stripped and restored. Luckily, there was a couple of ambulance officers stationed at Charters Towers who were ex panel beaters!”
The Ford’s body structure is made of timber and sheeted in metal and ply, with a 114- inch wheelbase.
The ambulance officers did as much work as they could before sending the Ford to the panel shop, where the upholstery was restored and other final touches were completed.
“The inside of the vehicle is still mostly original — it just needed a bit of TLC,” says Bill.
“The paintwork was rubbish, so that was redone in the original ambulance colours.
“It still has its original ambulance number plates too.
“Now it’s been fixed up, it’s one of the main show pieces of our museum and our pride and glory.”
Several current paramedics have told Bill that they take their hats off to him and the ambos of the past.
“Paramedics these days are highly trained and educated, but we basically learned on the job,” he says.
“We did whatever we could to save people’s lives and to get them to a hospital as quickly as possible, because we had limited resources.
“There were some incidents, I think I’ve blocked them out in my mind.
“We never had counselling or chaplains or anything like that, which paramedics have today.
“All we could do was talk amongst ourselves.”
Bill and his colleagues covered a huge area of land, sometimes driving for hours to get to someone who needed help.
“The area the Charters Towers ambulance service covers is about 200km bigger than the whole of Tasmania,” Bill says.
“Nowadays they have helicopters and flying doctor services, but we didn’t have that.”
Because ambulances weren’t funded by the Queensland Government at the time, the service had to raise its own funds.
“The ambulance service is a full Government service now with the best of everything.
“But in my day, they only had enough money to pay a certain number of people, so a lot of us had to get a second job to survive.
“I was what was known as a shunter — the guys that take trains apart and put them back together.
“And we lived in a small country town, so I was a member of the local auxiliary fire brigade as well.”
Bill says the restored ambulance is a slice of history, and he’s delighted that it’s been preserved at the museum.
“The new Queensland Ambulance Services are next door to us, and we often have the Ford out as well as the modern ambulance vehicles, so we have the old and the new together.
“It’s so important to remember our past and keep it alive for future generations.”
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