Jim O’Brien, Terry O’Brien, Joe Reynoldson, Ralph Sutton, Jack Laidlaw, Ron Laidlaw, Jack Cator, Albert Stuart, Claude Sutton and Merv Crawford with the original Strathmerton 1955 Austin fire truck.
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Strathmerton locals hosted a community yard sale on Saturday, January 17 to raise funds for the restoration of the town's original 1955 Austin fire truck.
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The yard sale was held across town, with attendees purchasing a map of addresses at the Strathmerton fire station before heading off searching for bargains.
Strathmerton local and garage sale organiser Heather McCoy said the event was “really successful” and all proceeds would be donated to the Lions Club’s fire truck restoration project.
“It's a good community project,” she said.
Mrs McCoy said they raised $500 for the project, with 22 registrations for the yard sale and more than 90 maps sold.
She said they only expected around $200 from the yard sale registration and were surprised to find many people donating money when they picked up their map.
Strathmerton local Billy Logie with the town’s original 1955 Austin fire truck.
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Strathmerton local Billy Logie said the fire truck was an important piece of the town’s history, and it was a great initiative restoring the tanker to its former glory.
“The driver's door still has the original Strathmerton logo across the door,” he said.
Mr Logie said that the introduction of the first tanker would have made a huge difference, being drivable and holding about 1000 litres of water.
“Before the tanker, they would have had trailers just with a hand pump and 500 litres of water storage ... watered-down hessian sacks on a stick.”
Mr Logie said it would be a long-term project, but once the fire truck was restored the plan was to get a historical number plate and take the vehicle to different community events.
He said families of locals that used to be a part of the brigade still remained in the area, and seeing the truck restored would mean a lot to them.
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