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- Mar 29, 2021
- 4 min
And Pigs Might Fly: The Tale of the 1939 Dennis Ace Pumper (ME 260)
What’s in a name? Well, quite a bit if you’re known as the ‘flying pig’... The Ace chassis was first manufactured in 1933 by the vehicle specialist company, Dennis Bros. It was considered to be quite revolutionary at the time, with unusual features such as a setback front axle, bevel pinion diff, and hydraulic brakes. The engine was mounted well forward and so the protruding ‘snout’ (bonnet) of the Dennis Ace soon earned the model the nickname of ‘flying pig’. Funnily enough,
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- Mar 25, 2021
- 5 min
When Flood Comes to the Museum of Fire
Those of you that are avid readers of our blog will have realised by now that this week’s piece is coming to you much later than normal, but we have a very good reason why. As everyone no doubt knows, Penrith; where the Museum is located, faced a flood warning, the likes of which had not been seen in over fifty years. The last time Penrith saw the waters rise like this was in November 1961 when half of the area’s average annual rainfall fell in just two days. Despite the risi
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- Mar 15, 2021
- 3 min
Sustaining the Firies – The Mobile ‘Canteen’ (1942 Ford 21W)
Did you know? The Women’s Fire Auxiliary (WFA), established in the 1940s, was primarily formed to aid the NSW Fire Brigade on the home front during World War II? Albeit an interesting little tidbit of history for you here, you may be thinking: pray, what is the connection between the WFA and a 1942 “mobile canteen”? The Mobile Canteen in question, is a rare example of motorized canteen services used by the Metropolitan Fire Service from 1942 to 1974 and was supported, enthusi
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- Mar 8, 2021
- 6 min
Station Focus: No. 38 Pyrmont (1881-2016)
*This information is an extract from the colour-book produced by the Museum of Fire's Heritage Team to celebrate the re-opening of Pyrmont Fire Station back in 2016. Should you wish to use any of the information and pictures provided we ask that you please reference the Museum correctly and contact the Museum for permission where applicable. The Pyrmont Volunteer Fire Brigade (1881-1886) On Saturday 26 November 1881 some 2,000 people congregated on the green facing Union and
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- Mar 2, 2021
- 5 min
Introducing the Museum's Senior Leadership Team and an Update on current events
We’ve only just begun March and already 2021 has been a very busy year for the Museum and our amazing staff! Following on from the success of the Museum’s 2020 Art Competition exhibition and awards ceremony we hosted our first Heritage Day for 2021. To kick off our heritage days we chose the theme “Dennis”. The reason for this was that it was 50 years ago, back in 1971 that the Board of Fire Commissioners of NSW (today Fire and Rescue NSW) placed 42 new Dennis pumpers into se
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