Correction: Bay’s ambulance service started back in 1946
In the article titled “St John launches local appeal for building and equipment” that appeared in The GB Weekly of 25 June, Gerard Hindmarsh stated that the Golden Bay ambulance service began back in the mid-1970s, based in George Masters’ Garage at Collingwood.
The writer recently received information from Collingwood resident Denny Gillooly that actually pushes the origins of the Golden Bay Ambulance right back to 1946. Before that date, any person needing to be taken to Nelson Public Hospital in an emergency relied on the local bus company in either Takaka or Collingwood to take them by taxi.
That all changed when Collingwood resident Jim Wigzell died from a ruptured appendix on 7 July 1946, near Upper Moutere on his way to hospital. That fatality was seen as a result of his having to wait several hours for the taxi to come back from a job at Mangarakau. Following this, locals met urgently and decided to canvass for funds to raise money for a dedicated ambulance that would serve all of Golden Bay.
The princely sum of 2,500 punds was collected—from Upper Takaka to Anatori, and Bainham to Farewell Spit—and the proceeds handed over to the Nelson Hospital Board, which purchased a 1946 Ford ambulance. All previous requests had been turned down.
For many years, Golden Bay’s first ambulance and its replacements were kept in a garage at Collingwood Motors, and early drivers included Rex Thompson, Claude Wilkens, Tom Gillooly, Bill Gibb and George Masters.
Around 1976 the ambulance was moved to the Joan Whiting Memorial Hospital, but in the 1980s it was taken to be headquartered in Takaka, first at the Takaka Maternity Hospital then later to the medical centre, where it is still staffed by St John members.
Gerard Hindmarsh
