On Friday 22 March 1929, a public meeting was held at the Council Chambers to discuss a proposal to form an ambulance service at Young.
According to A.G. Wareham of the NSW Ambulance Transport Service Board, the cost of opening an ambulance station at Young would be 1135 pounds.
Some assistance was forthcoming from the Board and the ambulance was intended to be self-supporting.
The motion to establish an ambulance was carried unanimously at the meeting.
The following provisional committee were elected: Dr Whish, Dr. Cook, Dr. Purchas, F. Cahill, L. Tippett, O. Kimble, J. Crisp, the Rev. P.H. Curtis and nominees from each of the lodges.
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Secretary and convenor of the committee was A. J. Harvey.
One of the first actions by the committee was to start fundraising and quotas were drawn up for each centre surrounding Young.
By the end of June, the Ambulance Board granted authority for the provisional committee to proceed with organising contributions and defined the district as the whole of the municipality of Young and Burrangong Shire, with the exception of Crowther and Koorawatha, as well as Wombat and Kingsvale in Demondrille Shire.
The ambulance service was to be free for all ‘whether they are being conveyed to hospital sick, or being speeded to home, hospital or doctor after accident or injury’.
However, there was the possibility that private patients could be charged a fee.
In August, William H. Davey of Grafton, was appointed to be the ambulance superintendent at Young. Davey, drove the new ambulance into Young on Friday 6 December and ‘wherever it stopped citizens flocked around to see their new possession.’
It was a Master Six Silver Anniversary Buick chassis and the body was the number one sedan type.
It was yellow on the outside and inside it had grey plush fittings. ‘Everything that can possibly ease the pain of the sick and suffering has been installed. The patient lies full length on a well-sprung bed, surmounting a stretcher.’
At night there were three electric globes, frosted to avoid glare, to provide light and each window was fitted with pull down blinds.
The manufacturers of the 800 pound ambulance were Gilbert Bros., the leading ambulance builders in Australia at the time.
On his way to Young, Davey came through Murringo, which had raised over 100 pounds towards the funds to establish an ambulance station in the district.
The photograph with this article, from the Young Historical Museum’s collection, shows the first ambulance for the district and one of the many challenges the ambulance service encountered in its early days.
Karen Schamberger – Young Historical Museum
