Celebrating 90 years of free ambulances

There was a time when an emergency ambulance ride in Wellington or Kapiti would later see a bill show up in your letterbox, but that ended at 8am on November 9, 1927.

‘‘It just sums up Wellington really, doesn’t it? Wellington, being so generous in making sure it looks after its own,’’ Wayne Norwood said, grandson of WFA founder, the late Sir Charles Norwood.

To be fair, Wellington Free Ambulance (WFA) actually attended its first callout the night before, when a Constable Devonport suffered fractured ribs in a collision between his car and a tram on Jervois Quay.

‘‘No time was lost in rendering assistance, and the injured man was taken to the Wellington Hospital,’’ the Evening Post declared at the time.

Sir Charles Norwood only served a two-year term as mayor, but in that time created the legacy that would go on to employ more than 300 staff and run a fleet of 25 ambulances through Greater Wellington and Wairarapa.

Time delays had been his biggest frustration, after he’d seen a sick man lying on the cold footpath on Lambton Quay and a crowd standing around asking for an ambulance.

‘‘He then got to work and said, we should have an ambulance for everybody in this community,’’ WFA chief executive Diana Crossan said.

Sir Charles Norwood was Australian, and perhaps that was the reason he kept such good company with those behind a free ambulance service in New South Wales he described as ‘‘spectacular’’.

He told the city that the system, funded by voluntary subscriptions and donations, ’’cannot fail to appeal to the people of Wellington’’.

After collecting support from the local authorities and the Wellington Harbour Board, the free service was born.

Ninety years on, Wellington Free Ambulance remains the only completely free ambulance service in the country and, as it’s understood, the world.

The first base was at the Old Naval boatshed – today’s Wellington Rowing Club with three ambulance cars. ‘‘Now we get six new ambulances a year,’’ Crossan said.

Each one clocks up about 110,000kms on Wellington’s winding roads every year.

In 1932 WFA moved to a new building in Cable St, now the St John’s bar. The old insignia is still branded on the outside.

Wayne Norwood and Crossan have no doubt the service will reach a centenary, but wanted to grab the chance to celebrate the 90th milestone, which will be marked with a gala in November.