Queensland Railway Ambulance Corps

The Queensland Railway Ambulance Corps was established in 1892 to train railway employees in first aid. It was considered that railway employees, because of the nature of their employment, were “especially liable to accident, and that the knowledge of the elementary rules of the treatment to be followed to preserve life and prevent undue suffering,” was likely to be of great value to them, as they were often situated far from medical assistance.

Members of the Queensland Railway Ambulance Corps (Bowen team) competing for the Commissioner's Shield in the State Final of the annual first aid competition, Brisbane, October 1939. They are seen here constructing a makeshift stretcher.
Photo: Private Collection.

Annual competitions to test the first aid skills of members of the Corps were held from 1914. Teams from all over Queensland proudly represented their region. One north Queensland team – the Bowen team - was extremely successful in the annual first aid competitions in the late 1930s.

In September 1939, the Bowen team defeated Charters Towers, Hughenden and Townsville at Rollingstone, before going on to defeat Cairns, Innisfail, Kuranda and Alma Den at the regional final in Cairns. The team members consisted of Messrs E. Moore (Captain), I.A. Fielding, F.R. Andrews, P. Herlihy and R. Ryan (patient). Team member Ivan Fielding won the individual contest, with 53 points, over W. Ross of Alma Den, and G.A. Bell, of Cairns.

The Bowen team then went on to compete against four other teams for the Commissioner’s Shield, in Brisbane, in October. The competition involved a number of set tasks, including making improvised stretchers from whatever material could be obtained. Each team member was allowed one pocket-knife, and each team was allowed one tomahawk (to be used for splitting saplings). Team members could also use their own items of clothing.

Members of the Queensland Railway Ambulance Corps (Bowen team) competing for the Commissioner's Shield in the State Final of the annual first aid competition, Brisbane, October 1939. Second from right is Ivan Fielding, who won the individual award, the St. John's Ambulance Silver Cup.
Photo: Private Collection.

You can see in the photograph above that the patient’s legs are strapped down using belts and neck ties, and that the bandaging has been made from the team members’ shirts. Even shoelaces could be used, provided they complied with the competition’s regulation length. Challenges for competitors also included an oral examination on anatomy, and carrying a “casualty” over obstacles on an improvised stretcher.

Members of the Queensland Railway Ambulance Corps (Bowen team) competing for the Commissioner's Shield in the State Final of the annual first aid competition, Brisbane, October 1939. Watching on with interest, are members of the Australian Army Medical Corps Militia, and the pipers of the 61^st Battalion Queensland Cameron Highlanders, who in time of war were regimental stretcher-bearers.    
Photo: Private Collection.

Rockhampton won the shield that year, with 448 points out of a possible 530. Bowen came second, with 419 points, and Mayne Junction came third, with 410 points. But it was Bowen’s Ivan Fielding who excelled again, winning the St. John’s Ambulance Silver Cup.

Sources:

Bowen Independent, 15 September 1939; 16 October 1939.

Cairns Post, 14 September 1939.

Brisbane Telegraph, 12 October 1939.

Macno, V., Buchanan, R., and Blake, T., 'More than work', Memoirs of the Queensland Museum – Culture 5 (1), 2011, pp. 107-120.

Empire Parliamentary Delegation - 1926

A visit to Townsville by a group of political delegates from throughout the British Empire in 1926 had the city’s dignitaries in a spin over the opportunity to promote north Queensland as the ideal place to settle British immigrants.

Empire Parliamentary Delegation, outside Townsville Railway Station, 1926. Mayor Anthony Ogden is seated towards the front in the white suit. On his right is the Marquis of Salisbury, Chairman of the Delegation.

Photo: Townsville City Libraries. 

Delegates from the parliaments of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Newfoundland, India and Malta were on a tour of Australia, and their visit to north Queensland included a brief stop in Townsville, before moving on to Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands. The main aim of the tour was to discuss “numerous questions of common interest to the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations”.

One of those issues was immigration, and Townsville Mayor, Anthony Ogden, told the assembled delegates at a function held in the town hall, that the region offered opportunities for settlement that could not be found anywhere else.

“In no part of the world has such a good attempt in the settlement of the tropics been made than that contributed by Australia,” Alderman Ogden said.

The Mayor assured the gathering that there was “room enough here for any number of representatives of the British race to settle and live comfortable and happy lives”.

The Chairman of the Harbour Board, Mr J.E. Clegg, told the delegation he believed that Townsville had never in its previous history been honoured by a gathering of men of such importance from all over the Empire.

With great pride, he told the assembly that Townsville was a port of considerable note. To illustrate, he explained that in the previous year, the value of trade through the port had exceeded £6 million, and the railways which Townsville served, extended 600 miles into the west. However, he thought that if the area was to continue growing, there needed to be more British immigrants in the region.

Mr J.N. Parkes, the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, continued in a similar vein, stating that Townsville’s principal exports were wool, meat and meat by-products, sugar and minerals; and in the previous year 120,000 bales of wool had been exported, with a value of £3 million. He also noted proudly that Townsville, with a population of 28,000, was home to six primary schools, a technical college, Grammar School, and eight State schools.

One of the visitors, Mr Arthur Henderson, who was secretary of the British Labor Party, told a local reporter why north Queensland had been included on the agenda.

“We have come with the intention of getting all the information we can regarding the problems of the Commonwealth, and its development,” Mr Henderson said.

“Recognising that this can only be carried through by a considerable increase in the man power essential to development, the question of migration has been receiving our most careful consideration,” he said.

“We have come north because the people were very anxious to show they are developing the tropical portions of the Commonwealth with white labour, and there is a very natural desire for white population, and preferably that increase should be from British stock.”

But the party only spent two hours in Townsville, much to the disappointment of the Townsville statesmen. The editor of the Townsville Daily Bulletin noted bitterly, “the Empire Parliamentary Delegation yawned over the couple of hours it spent here, after three days of sightseeing in another district”.