This shot is from the small town of Wallan, just north of Melbourne, back in June when I was passing through town. I don’t know why there was a display of classic ambulances, but why not let this shot of a 1957 Ford Mainline and 1965 Studebaker open the door for a look at some of the old ambulances because they were quite different.
I thought I would expand on this photo and tie in to a visit to the Ambulance Museum in eastern Melbourne that I made about 18 months ago as well as the Museum’s display at the Winton Historic races. They have a great display dating back to the origins of the modern ambulance during World War 1. There were earlier automobiles used as ambulances, but as with so many areas the automobile became much more widespread during that terrible conflict. Things were still fairly primitive, aimed at transporting a patient to medical treatment rather than the reverse.
The two above are recreations, but this 1927 Nash started life as an ambulance. The body was built in the motor trade precinct on the north side of central Melbourne, before it was delivered for service in Sydney. It was restored about 40 years ago, with photos of the original used to re-create the body. This Nash is typical of early ambulances – a big, powerful car with space to carry a patient or two, and often an attendant.
While there were exceptions, this is typical of how ambulances were patterned in Australia for many years afterwards. Ambulance services were locally-based and in most cases not properly funded, and the 1957 Ford here is an example of that. It started service on the Snowy Mountain Scheme, the large hydroelectric project in the alpine area of New South Wales, and upon replacement in 1977 was put into service with the North East Victoria Ambulance Service. It was not noted when it finally retired.
Here is the largely standard interior, with a radio of course and the once-universal dymo labels for extra switches. Using a standard passenger car chassis and body as a base made for the most economical ambulance, so long as a stretcher could be accommodated.
This is the business end, showing the basic nature of the fittings. A second stretcher could be slung above using the hook seen at the top of the picture – more of that soon. I suppose if pressed the ambulance could transport 4 patients, without an attendant.
This 1960 Chrysler Royal V8 ambulance that the Museum had on display at the Winton historic races is an example of 40 that were operated throughout Melbourne. This one is based on the station wagon but several different coachbuilders did conversions. In Sydney a Chrysler Royal ambulance was built with a fibreglass body, the first of its type here. Apparently during its unveiling the demonstration of the new wonder-material’s toughness went slightly wrong: instead of the sledgehammer merely bouncing off the side of the vehicle leaving not a scratch, it made a rather large hole. Oops!
The interior shot of this ambulance shows the roof rail that could suspend a second stretcher. This model worked while ambulances were still working on the basis of keeping the patient alive until they got to a hospital, rather than being a mobile hospital. Indeed one of the first Mobile Intensive Care Ambulances (MICA units) is housed in the Museum.
The 1965 Studebaker Cruiser would seem to be much more of a rarity, although they were built alongside the CKD station wagons in the assembly factory in Melbourne. This one has the 259 V8 and was one of five run by the East Gippsland Ambulance Service, based out of Bairnsdale and Sale in eastern Victoria, before being acquired by a Studebaker collector in Brisbane Queensland. He displayed it in a museum for many years, before the Ambulance Historical Society purchased it after his passing.
The final ambulance shown by the Museum at Winton was an early example of the change in direction of Australian ambulances, a 1963 Ford F100. As the years progressed, the evolution of this model would comprise the majority of the ambulance fleet, having space for the additional equipment that would be of use to more and more highly-trained paramedics. This one operated in south-western Victoria.
There is quite the contrast between the 1963 F100 and the last of the line, a 2005 F350. This is one of the last pickup-based ambulances; all current units are based on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van. Full-size US vans were never popular here. The payload required kept increasing over the years; at one point there was a scandal because F250 ambulances were exceeding GVM when fully loaded.
The Museum has one of those too, and surprisingly there didn’t seem to be a lot of difference inside space-wise.
There are several steps in the ambulance story that can be filled in, if there is interest?
A very interesting assortment. In the midwestern US (at least in my hometown) we saw Cadillac ambulances that were built along side of hearses. The local funeral home ran two ambulances and had another couple of hearses that could double as ambulances in a pinch. As you note, their job was to keep someone alive while they got to the hospital as fast as they could.
The van-based EMS type vehicles took over in the early 70s. The pickup truck-based ambulance is something that is new to me. And I am not surprised at the Stude, as popular as they were down there as police cars.
See hearses didn’t have as high a roof as ambulances here, usually standard station wagon height.
Yes, normal height roofs for Last Riders. There’s mostly less walking about in the back.
Hopefully no sitting up too.
Great article, and I would be happy to read more.
Found this in the woods a few years ago, needs a bit of work:
And this one this summer, a bit more usable:
That Chevy G-Series has to be one of the oldest Ambulances still in service in the whole country.
Ooer! Yeah, let’s do this. 1962 Valiant ambulance, Australia:
Another view of a ’62:
That whine you hear is Virgil Exner spinning in his grave, at a rather high rate of knots…
Oh! I thought it was just the starter!
Looks very “Munsters”.
Looks very like the poor old Val is being mounted by the back of a Bedford bus that had previously backed over a Morrie Minor panel van too.
A different ’62:
Now here’s a ’63 (AP5) Valiant ambulance:
A ’70 (VG) Valiant ambulance:
And a later VH Valiant as shown in this screenshot from various Aussie tv shows like Division 4, Homicide, Bluey, Matlock Police, etc….
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=922201
No Stephane, that was a police van. In Australia, the police have long used panel vans (delivery vans?) for patrol and arrest duties. The unfortunate criminal is locked in the back. No seats, no belts. Such vans can still be seen, the last of the models made before Holden and Ford left the country. In fairness to you, I should add that there’d be quite a few customers who had to call an ambulance after their police ride “accidentally” executed a bit of summary justice by “unintentionally” going over a few extra-large bumps, and round a few suprisingly sharp corners…
Quite hilariously, the actual car you’ve linked here was specially built for a local TV production company, Crawfords, and used in no less than 5 different cop shows over time. Seeems they even put later front panels on to keep it apparently up to date.
So if you’re looking at clips from these shows and thinking, “Gee, that van looks familiar” it turns out that that’s because it IS!
The newer ‘divvy vans’ (divisional van) have seats in the back at least, and might even have belts, but happily I’m not sure.
And if even a Valiant couldn’t get you to hospital in time, well…
That is one cool looking wagon, like a ’55 Nomad even more so. They should have built a production civilian version. I’d never have guessed it was an ambulance or a hearse though, even with the side-opening rear door (which would become common on wagons a decade later).
There was a factory wagon version of the Chrysler Royal, but it wasn’t as sleek as that hearse (which has probably been stretched 3 foot in the wheelbase) – https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-australian-brands/curbside-classic-1958-9-chrysler-ap2-plainsman-happy-accident/
A 2-door wagon wouldn’t have sold in Australia though, I don’t think any were sold here (except small cars).
In Spain your last ride could’ve been in this ’66-’69 Dodge Dart hearse:
Thanks to J-875 for a rich meal—and also to Daniel Stern for the tasty dessert. Only through CC did I come to know of what non-US ambulance livery used to be.
I tip my hat to the ’57 Ford for its 20+ years of service, and salute the ’62 Valiant for overall unexpectedness.
The Ford Mainline featured is a 1955, not a 1957.
Ford Australia had decided to keep the 1955-56 design for 2 more model years instead of bringing the new US design Down Under.
Here the 1957 Aussie Ford Customline brochure.
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/Australia%20and%20New%20Zealand/Ford/1957%20Ford%20Customline%20Brochure/index1.html
and the 1958 model.
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/Australia%20and%20New%20Zealand/Ford/1958%20Ford%20Brochure/index1.html
There are pretty good records kept on ambulances, it’s definitely a ’57. Ford Australia kept the old car in production to amortize costs, they weren’t selling enough in those years. It was probably the right call for this country not to go for the larger North American ’57; the ’59 arrived just before the Falcon so it wasn’t such a problem for dealers.
The Ford Mainline featured isn’t a 1957 Ford it is a 1955 Meteor ;). Seriously since they were sticking with the 55 body shell they dug out the 55 Meteor grill tooling to give the carry over 57s a new look compared to the US style grilles used in 55 and 56. For 58 they stuck with the 55 Meteor grille instead of using the 56 which I guess was a little too far out there.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/Canada/Meteor/1956%20Meteor%20Brochure%20(French)/index1.html
And that wasn’t the last time they used outdated North American parts from alternate vehicles to freshen up the Fords that were carried over down under. The 65 Falcon got 60-63 Comet front fenders and hood and a unique to down under grille.
The big truck-based ambulance does have its downside, that being a rough ride. A friend’s dad, who was in the process of dying of congestive heart failure, had a false alarm ride one night with his wife. On arrival at the hospital, he proclaimed that next time he would rather just be hauled out on a flat bed truck. Soon after we had heavy rains, and by chance he died at a time the one entrance to their subdivision was flooded out. My friend walked the last block home in her bare feet, wondering how they would get her dad’s body out. Upon turning the corner, she saw that he had gotten his wish: the local funeral home had loaded the hearse onto the back of a flat bed trailer in order to get in to retrieve her dad’s body appropriately. Her dad was a great joker, and all had a good time at the funeral, knowing he had gotten the last laugh on all of us.
For the first 5-6 years that I worked on an ambulance, they were almost all Ford E-350 dully cab/chassis with the ambulance box mounted on. They had a pretty decent ride. Then I got assigned a brand new 2012 Dodge Ram 4500 ambulance. Man what a difference! The Dodge had the exact same box mounted to it and it was like riding on stone wheels with absolutely no suspension. I still really liked that truck with its Cummins diesel and exhaust brake and the truck cab, but boy was it a rough ride. Or so i thought until I got my next new truck. A 2016 International Terrastar. Again, i loved the medium duty truck chassis, but it was virtually impossible to even write your patient report in the back of the truck. When we switched to using laptop computers to do our reports on, it wasn’t any better! They were touch screen Toughbooks, and every time you tried to touch the screen to select something, your hand would bounce and press something else instead!
I don’t think there were a lot of F350/3500s, most were F250/2500s before the transition to Sprinters – which I have heard criticised for their ride.
Ooh, can confirm the Sprinter is no Citroen DS. Had a ride in one about a year ago with a sick kid. I had a thumping headache (stress), the kid was in a mess with a bad broken bone, and the ride was wincingly bad. There’s a whopping amount of stuff inside those machines, the weight of which being the only reason why I can imagine they apparently removed the suspension, because they’re not fast and these days not driven much above speed limits either. Operator gave up trying to enter on touch screens in that too. Not nice (the vehicle, not the operators, who were lovely).
They use Sprinters here in the UK too which crash and bang over potholes and road humps. Not that you ever really get going very fast on mostLondon streets. I’ve no idea if the Bedford CFs they used to use until circa 1990 were any better though.
The Stude must have been a carryover also. Stateside that is a ’64 grille and Canadian GM motors were used for ’65 and ’66. Nice service cars all.
Quite possibly, they built Studebakers into 1967 here.
I think that 57 Ford may be a TV star since it looks a lot like one of the ambulances in the Dr. Blake Mysteries.
I just have to ask (if, as I think, you’re in the US), where does that show turn up there? And I’m most curious to know what you make of such a parochial Australian effort? To be fair to you, my personal view of the thing (made about 55 miles from here) is that it’s relaxing and quite enjoyable but a bit stiff and apparently thin in the budget. (Oh, and the Ford is almost certainly the one from the show).
Great stuff, john, and I’d certainly be interested to see more.
The beige ’63 F-100 and it’s many descendants were always very popular with tradesmen when they had retired – usually with many kilometres up – from ambulance duties, as you could fit large amounts of stuff back there. They also had a lot more power than most other commercials you could get, and I estimate that about 97.3% were converted to run on LPG (1/3 price of petrol here).
And in their third act, they became the thing for a budget trip around Australia, for hippies and students and backpackers. They’d survive long stretches on appalling dirt roads, and could usually be fixed with baling wire.
There was no fourth act, no gentle retirement, because there was nothing left.
But they had certainly all lived!