Blog

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

The Museum of Fire recently opened our newest exhibition, an art gallery space featuring 30 artworks by primary school-aged children from across Australia. The competition was set to the theme of bushfires, paying tribute to the firefighters who bravely faced the flames to keep us safe during the devastating Summer of 2019/2020. Each child interpreted this theme differently, reflecting on their own experience of the horrific bushfire season. The artworks submitted were phenom

-An Update from our CEO This is my last blog for 2020 but is also my first as the permanently appointed CEO of the Museum, having been acting in an interim role over the past six months. We have had an incredibly busy few months which I’ll try and share as much about as possible about now. My favourite activity the Museum hosted over November was our first ever art competition. This was open to all primary school aged children in Australia and we were blown away with the numb

As Fire and Rescue NSW’s (FRNSW) official heritage partner, the Museum of Fire is often approached to assist in uncovering the origins and ownership of items housed within FRNSW stations. The final heritage reports produced in response to these enquiries complement our regular heritage work of writing brigade or station-specific histories. Today we would like to share the heart-warming story which saw Orange Fire Brigade’s billiard table rehomed to a local charity following c

It is with a heavy heart that I find myself penning this review. The Financial Year of 2019-2020 has delivered extremely challenging times for the Museum with the major impact being the loss of our long serving Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Chairperson Mark White AFSM OAM. Mark was a serving firefighter with Fire and Rescue New South Wales (FRNSW) and sadly passed away whilst on active duty at #77 St Marys Fire Station on the 19 May 2020. I have had the pleasure

Welcome to this fourth blog I find myself writing as CEO of the Museum of Fire. Time has absolutely been flying and the last month has been no different. Our team here at the Museum are amongst the hardest working in not just Australia but the world and as always, I am so proud to work alongside them. Whether it is hosting speciality days at the Museum or attending official functions for Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) our team go above and beyond to represent the Museum in the

In preparation for World Post Day this Friday, we explored the Museum’s photograph and document archives to uncover a range of material with post-related stories! One photograph that particularly stood out to us showed the Museum’s temporary post office at its former location in Walsh Bay (back when it was known as the NSW Fire Service Museum). From 12-18 January in 1983 a temporary post office was established at the Museum to mark the release of the Historic Fire Engines sta

Thank you to everyone who has supported the Museum for History Week 2020! This was a new concept for the Museum but given the topic was “what is history good for?” we could hardly pass up the opportunity to showcase history as we continue to rebuild after the COVID closure and loss of our CEO Mark White. We had been rebuilding slowly but in the few weeks before History Week we were hit by the Government decision to halt all school excursions. Whilst we all understand and supp

History Week continues at the Museum this week and into the weekend. If you haven't already checked out what is on offer then please visit our website https://www.museumoffire.net/history-week-2020 In the meantime we thought we'd share the story behind the most recent addition to our collection. Thomas James Bown (1810-1872) served as a firefighter in London before arriving in Sydney in 1842, where he became the Colony’s first “professional” firefighter. He was handpicked a

It has been a very busy few weeks at the Museum as our team prepare for some upcoming special events and have taken part in some recent station openings. One of the lesser known activities of the Museum is our role as the official heritage partner to FRNSW. It is in this capacity that we act as heritage advisor to FRNSW when it comes to moveable heritage (the most common things being plaques, bells, appliances and even billiard tables) and preserving the history of both the b