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Freotopia > organisations > Fire Brigade. See also fire stations.
Volunteer Fire Brigade
The following note comes from Susan Birch's family history, A Birch Tree. The 'Richard' named in it is her ancestor Richard Birch.
VOLUNTEER FIRE BRIGADE
On 2nd October 1885, a public meeting was convened by the Fremantle Council to officially establish the Fremantle Volunteer Fire Brigade. Richard was enrolled as one of the original members and served as Secretary for a few years. Could his involvement in the Volunteer Fire Brigade have been a result of his experiences with the fire in his brother Edmund's pharmacy in 1874?
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The Fremantle Volunteer Fire Brigade - Richard is in the back row, fourth from the left Photo courtesy of the Fremantle City Library Local History Collection #1762.
[Note the presence of MPs William Marmion on the left and Daniel Congdon on the right. Marmion was both MLC and (later) MLA and was a minister in John Forrest's cabinet in the first representative government. Congdon was mayor of both Fremantle and North Fremantle, as well as MLC.]
The Fremantle Volunteer Fire Brigade received a fire engine in June 1884, when one was shipped from London. Then, in 1887, a Fire Station was built in Croke Street. The Brigade continued until 1892 when it was disbanded and a new body formed. It remained a volunteer organisation until 1905, when it was reorganised and placed under the Metropolitan Board.
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The No. 1 Fremantle Fire Brigade Station, on the SE corner of Mouat and Croke Streets, 1894. The building was erected in 1887. Fremantle Library ref. no. 1983P.
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The No. 2 Station. Fremantle Library ref. no. 1983Q. The Library's note does not conjecture as to the location of this shed. It merely states that the photograph is 'part of a presentation of 18 mounted photos made to Fremantle Municipal Council by the Fremantle Fire Brigade in 1894'.
References and Links
Birch, Susan 2015, A Birch Tree: The Life and Times of Richard and Eliza Birch, privately published: 30-34; partly republished above by gracious permission of the author (without footnotes and images).
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 18 November, 2021 and hosted at freotopia.org/organisations/firebrigade.html (it was last updated on 24 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.