Medical treatment in the very early days of Tamworth settlement were very poor by today's standards. Basically, you "either died or recovered". Before motor transport, or the advent of the ambulance as we know it, patients requiring transfer to an available doctor had to rely on horses or, in some emergencies, being carried on a stretcher by humans.
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An instance of this comes with our oldest (1845) gravestone at the West Tamworth Cemetery, that of James Robson, the only European that we know of that was fatally speared by an Aboriginal in the Peel Valley. Shepherding on Goonoo Station, he was discovered in the field with several spear wounds by his wife Isabella. Securing a horse to a 'dog cart' she transported him along the bumpy bush track to the lone AA Company doctor in Tamworth, but he did not survive the trip.
With no phone service in those early days, summoning a doctor usually meant a long ride to get the doctor, with a long ride by the doctor to get back to the patient. It was quite some time before a 'semi-public' stretcher service was provided in Tamworth to assist in transporting the sick or injured to a doctor or hospital. The AA Company had established a very basic 10-bed hospital in West Tamworth in the 1840's, and it wasn't until 1855 that a better hospital facility was opened in Peel St, between today's PCYC and Skatepark.
In the years before the arrival of motor transport, hand-borne stretchers were used as a pedestrian ambulance to convey patients to the hospital. Local police housed the stretcher and arranged an emergency co-carrier, often from nearby pedestrians, to convey the patient to medical assistance.
An improvement came later, around 1900, with the provision of a litter or 'hand-ambulance', a type of cart with two wheels, a bed for the patient and a canvas cover to keep off the sun or rain. Pairs of shafts at front and rear allowed two people to transport the patient within it, the 'vehicle' later being returned to the Lands Office verandah in Fitzroy St, later to the nearby Post Office verandah.
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A branch of the St John Ambulance Association, concerned purely with first aid, was formed in Tamworth in 1897, providing first aid lectures for locals. Their valuable contribution continues to the present day - 125 years - worth celebrating!
When it eventually came to a horse-drawn ambulance the village of Bendemeer was ahead of Tamworth, despite having a far smaller population. Two Tamworth residents pointed out this discrepancy, local blacksmith Walter Smith and timberyard owner Charles Wane, and decided to do something about it. Wane had a horse paddock behind Smith's house on the corner of Bridge and Carter sts, opposite today's BP Service Station. Meeting on Smith's verandah one Sunday morning around 1915 when Wane had visited to pay his weekly paddock rental, they saw a man pushing a two-wheeled ambulance along Bridge St (then our second Peel St), heading for the current hospital site off Johnston St.
Aware of Bendemeer's horse-drawn ambulance, they decided to call a public meeting at the Mechanics Institute in Brisbane St in an attempt to procure one for Tamworth. With only six in attendance at the first meeting, a second meeting attracted 12, where it was decided that a motorised ambulance would be preferable if funding could be obtained. Eventually it was, leading to the purchase of a Model-T Ford, first displayed at a carnival on No.1 Oval on July 16, 1916. Claimed to be the first patient to travel in this new ambulance was Sylvia Solomons, who was injured in a car accident returning from Dungowan to Tamworth, the day after the inaugural No.1 Oval display.
The coming of the new vehicle led to a local Ambulance Society being formed and an ambulance driver being employed. The first driver was Percy Foat, a garage employee, with Bill Langston, another garage employee, also becoming a regular driver. The ambulance was based at the Council Chambers on the site of the present Community Centre, with the driver usually taking the ambulance to his workplace during the day and then to his home overnight.
Robert William Webster, local gunsmith and bicycle-repair man, was the ambulance driver for about six years from 1919. The Model-T Ford ambulance wagon had acetylene lamps fed from a carbide gas container on the side for night service. In January, 1918 the Ambulance Committee made improvements to the ambulance with a set of wet-weather skid-chains, a spare tyre and tube, a repair outfit and two spare spark-plugs. Charles Wane, one of the original motivators, continued his involvement, being a member of the Ambulance Society for 31 years, including the Presidency for his last 26 years.
In those early motorised days there were still many problems getting people to hospital, including accessing the ambulance, which was often locked away, finding patients often sometimes confusing locality instructions. Things improved as the years went by, with the Tamworth & District Ambulance Service attending 23,270 cases between July,1925 to June 1936, averaging over 2,000 per year. They serviced far and wide, including the Shires of Warrah, Tamarang, Nundle, Cockburn, Peel, Mandowa and Barraba, including their municipalities. Following the growth of Tamworth and increasing demands on the service, a permanent officer was employed, Fred Bowdler becoming the first Superintendent. The front room of his residence at 65 Church St became the temporary ambulance station. Supported by the NSW Ambulance Transport Service, the Tamworth Model-T Ford was supplemented by an Austin ambulance.
A big step forward came with the June 22, 1927 opening of the ambulance station in Marius St by Sir Dudley de Chair, Tamworth's ambulance headquarters to the present day, with present plans for building reconstruction. Coinciding with the 1927 opening, the Tamworth & District Police Association presented the local ambulance service with a fully-equipped Studebaker Ambulance Wagon.
In 1934 Humber & Hillman Wagons were purchased, with the annual Combined Schools Concerts raising money for the Service for many years. By 1943 the Tamworth Ambulance District covered an area of 11 000 sq.km. An important innovation came in 1958 when the Marius St headquarters installed an AWA radio-telephone service, so all ambulance vehicles could remain in contact. From 1964 onwards Tamworth Ambulances were each equipped with three life-saving devices - Royal Melbourne Resuscitators, Port-o-Cots and single collapsible stretchers. From 1991 the first Heart-Start machines were installed.
The advent of aviation brought huge benefits with the coming of the Air Ambulance. In the early 1960's East West Airlines and Tamair were conducting Air Ambulance services, with flights from distant North West towns to Tamworth and Sydney.
Considerable debate followed regarding a possible separate NSW Ambulance Board Statewide Air Ambulance Scheme. Eventually in 1967, when the first NSW Air Ambulance Service was formed, a locally-based Beech Queen Air B-80 Flight Ambulance came into use, proving its effectiveness in making 1286 flights, carrying 3799 patients, including 732 'emergencies' within the first two years. During its first five years it travelled over a million kilometres. In 1970 the Air Ambulance Service acquired a second Beechcraft Queen Air aircraft, with a Beechcraft Baron in reserve for Air Ambulance relief. Regionalisation of the service occurred in the early 1970's with the New England Ambulance Region servicing our area.
And so we look back on the growth of our valuable ambulance services. As I was carried in an ambulance from No.1 Oval to Tamworth Base Hospital in 1961 during a High School University Shield Rugby League match, I was thinking at the time - "Thank God for an ambulance!" certainly better than the 'dog cart' back in 1845. I might never have made it!
