The beautiful building spotted behind the Post Office in old photographs of Forbes was the fire station.
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Dale Ible wrote to the Advocate last week asking whether anyone could identify the building, which has a distinct domed roof topped with a cupola.
The Advocate had a quick response to the request.
Malcolm Goodwin brought in a postcard marked 1902 - from his wife Lyn’s collection - that identified the building as the Fire Brigade Station.
The distinctive roof was the firemen’s lookout.
The Forbes Advocate of 18 December, 1911 describes the service:
The present station is a brick building, with two floors and a look-out from which a fine view of the town may be had.
The bell is a bit small, and not remarkable for its sonorousness, or its sonorosity, but it is always listened to with a great deal of interest.
The equipment consists of one manual and one hose reel, and 1800 feet of first class hose, together with two chemical fire extinguishers. The brigade numbers nine men, and the officer, Captain F. Peters, who is also secretary.
There is also a branch station at North Hill, which has one hose reel, and 800 feet of hose in good order.
There is no horse to convey the firemen and gear to a fire, and so they have either to commandeer a horse, or run like a gang of convicts, sometimes for miles, for the municipal area extends nine miles from the town in one particular direction.
Bathurst and Orange, where no fires occur, have a pair of horses each, but none of the other western stations have one.
Four men sleep in the quarters, so that there is always someone there—in fact, there are never less than two.
The full article is available online at trove.nla.gov.au
The fire brigade station was built in the early 1890s - newspapers report the foundation stone was laid in June 1891 and it was fully operational in 1893.
The brigade was in need of new quarters as the previous location was demolished to make way for Town Hall.
They were granted the front portion of the old telegraph station site adjoining the post office and the Town Hall architect Gordon McKinnon of Parramatta designed the brigade station.
The Forbes History Book reports that although the building was impressive in appearance, it was inadequate for its task as it only measured eight metres wide and 10 metres deep with a metre in the rear yard.
The crowded ground floor housed the equipment.
The Board of Fire Commissioners of NSW was offered the adjoining bank property in 1911 but had to decline the offer from lack of finance.
In following years there was friction between the board and the local council about improving the brigade’s resources.
The issue came to a head in 1922 when a major fire in Rankin Street destroyed two large shops and a billiard saloon.
The local paper at the time commended the excellent job done by the local brigade and made caustic reference to the “antiquated fire appliances and unreliable water supply”.
In 1928 the current Templar Street site was purchased and the brigade moved into the two-storey station in 1929.
Local historian Kathie Tisdell has traced some of the history of the Lachlan Street station from there.
The Country Women’s Association opened the doors of their newly established baby health centre clinic in the first floor rooms, described then as “an attractive building”.
Baby health centres were a rarity in country New South Wales at this time, and the centre opened amidst much rejoicing after an immense amount of hard work and lobbying by local CWA members.
The Baby Health Centre, operated by a trained nursing sister for the benefit of district mothers, was still in the building in September 1931. The bottom floor was vacant.
