Delight at return of fire engine

Dunedin Fire Brigade Restoration Society chairman Paul Clements (left) and Frank Robertson, a...
Dunedin Fire Brigade Restoration Society chairman Paul Clements (left) and Frank Robertson, a former co-owner of this 1916 Dennis fire engine, welcome it back to the city. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
A similar 1916 Dennis pictured outside the Green Island fire station. Photo supplied.
A similar 1916 Dennis pictured outside the Green Island fire station. Photo supplied.

University of Otago graduate Frank Robertson has every reason to be happy that one of Dunedin's oldest surviving motorised fire engines is back in the city after an absence of many years.

Mr Robertson (68), now a retired insurance company actuary, returned to live in Dunedin three years ago, after spending about 20 years in England, Malaysia and Australia.

When he was a university BSc mathematics student in the city in the early 1960s, he and two student friends bought the former fire engine, for the then sizeable sum of 40.

The engine was built in 1916 and the next year became the first of three Dennis fire engines to start operating in the city.

The first fire engine in the city that could pump water from a hydrant, the machine much later ended its firefighting career with the Ravensbourne Volunteer Fire Brigade, being decommissioned in 1953.

The fire engine was later converted for use as a tar spreader and risked being broken up for scrap when bought by the students.

"We had the romantic idea that we may be able to restore it but, being impoverished students, that was never a possibility," Mr Robertson said.

The friends rode in the fire engine a couple of times in university Capping processions and it was then sold again when Mr Robertson left the city to take up a North Island insurance job after graduating in 1963.

The first he had then heard about the fire engine for nearly 50 years was when, at a Probus Club meeting last year, he heard an historical talk by Dunedin Fire Brigade Restoration Society secretary John Ingram, and asked him about the machine.

Within a fortnight, Mr Ingram had traced it to Clyde, in Central Otago, where it had been stored for the previous 10 years.

Its latest owner was prepared to sell, and Mr Robertson and wife Colleen agreed to donate several thousand dollars to enable the society to buy it.

He was "absolutely delighted" to see the fire engine again this week, soon after its return to the city.

Society chairman Paul Clements said it was "fantastic" to have one of Dunedin's first motorised fire engines back to the city and in such good condition.

Another restored 1916 Dennis fire engine in the city is privately owned and began service after the machine once part-owned by Mr Robertson.

It is planned to have the restoration compete in time for the engine to take part in the 150th anniversary of the Dunedin Fire Brigade next March.

Mrs Robertson has also arranged for the engine to be available during her husband's 70th birthday celebrations in May next year.

- john.gibb@odt.co.nz

 

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