Help us finish building a museum that could save your life

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For nearly 100 years, it was ordinary Queenslanders who answered the call.

And in our little museum at Highfields, we make sure the next generation understands what that means.

When school children walk through our doors, they see a 1905 ambulance litter — the kind that was carried by hand through the streets of Toowoomba over 120 years ago. They see WWI and WWII first aid equipment. They hold history in their hands.

And then our volunteers — retired paramedics, army medics, St John's Ambulance officers and QAS cadets — show them how to save a life today. CPR. Snake bite treatment. What to do when someone collapses at the footy.

The past and the present, side by side. Because understanding where we came from makes us better prepared for what comes next.

For nearly 100 years — from 1892 to 1991 — if you were sick, injured, or dying, it was your neighbours who came. Trained ambulance officers, yes — but funded by the community, for the community. Local committees ran each centre. Community fundraising events, street collections, fundraising dances, and community donations paid for the vehicles, built the stations, and kept the service running.

It all started with one man — Seymour Warrian, a military medic who witnessed a horse rider fall and break his leg at the Brisbane Exhibition. Well-meaning bystanders tried to help but made his injuries worse by making him walk on the broken leg. Seymour knew there had to be a better way. He called a public meeting, and on 12 September 1892 the City Ambulance Transport Brigade was born — Queensland's very first ambulance service, operating out of a room in the Brisbane Newspaper Company building with nothing but a stretcher and a determination to help people in need. The Toowoomba brigade opened in 1902, and for nearly a century, ordinary Queenslanders made sure their neighbours survived.

It wasn't until 1 July 1991 that 96 individual community-run brigades were brought together into the state-run Queensland Ambulance Service we know and rely on today — a testament to how far this community-born service had grown. The QAS itself still tells new graduates: communities "rightly think they own the ambulance service — because initially it was the community that provided the funds and donated the timber and labour to build the stations and provide the vehicles."

That extraordinary community spirit — and the Queensland Government's ongoing commitment to ambulance services — is exactly what this museum celebrates. That story — YOUR story — deserves to be told. And we need your help to tell it.

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THE STORY

At Highfields Pioneer Village, we are building a brand-new Ambulance Museum — and we need your help to get it across the finish line.

The museum tells the story of Queensland's ambulance services, from their humble beginnings right here on the Darling Downs in 1902, through two World Wars, to the modern paramedic service we rely on today. It is a collection of national significance, built over decades by our Honorary Curator Vince Little — a retired Queensland Ambulance Service officer now in his eighties, who has dedicated his life to making sure this history is never forgotten.

Vince's collection includes a 1905 ambulance litter, WWI and WWII first aid equipment, historic stretchers, horse-drawn apparatus, and artefacts found nowhere else in Queensland. Until now, these precious items have been stored in an ageing building that is simply no longer fit for purpose.

The existing building is too small to safely accommodate a school group — meaning first aid talks to children are delivered outside on the grass and cancelled every time it rains. On wet days, those kids go home without learning how to help someone who is having a heart attack or has been bitten by a snake. That is a chance we cannot afford to keep missing.

When the big storms hit SEQ in March and April 2025, a cyclone tore the external library door clean off. The roof leaked. Several of our irreplaceable historic medical books sustained water damage. Our buildings simply were not designed to handle the volume of water we now experience during major weather events — and with Queensland's weather getting more extreme, that is only going to get worse.

The new building will change all of that.

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WHAT THE NEW BUILDING WILL DO

The new 15m x 15.38m building will give us:

✅ A dedicated lecture room — where the Highfields Local Ambulance Committee will deliver CPR demonstrations, snake bite awareness, and first aid education to over 4,000 school children and 38,500 public visitors every year — currently these sessions are held outside on the grass and are cancelled whenever it rains

✅ Disabled access — for the first time, the museum will be fully accessible to all visitors including our disabled volunteers

✅ Safe indoor storage for our irreplaceable historic ambulance vehicles, currently deteriorating from weather exposure

✅ A souvenir shop to raise ongoing revenue for the Local Ambulance Committee

✅ Open 7 days a week, 10am–4pm — for historians, teachers, students, university researchers, cadets, and the general public

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WHERE THE MONEY GOES

Total project cost: $144,482

This covers everything needed to build and fit out the new Ambulance Museum, including:

• Shed kit and installation

• Concrete slab

• Internal rooms and cabinetry

• Painting and interior fitout

• Insulation

• Electrical, lighting, power points and trenching

• Sliding doors and windows

• Council fees and earthworks

Funding already secured:

Funding Amount

️ Gambling Community Benefit Fund (Queensland Government) $84,951 ✅

PCCN Ltd / Heritage Bank Highfields & Crows Nest $36,465 ✅

Funds raised by Highfields Pioneer Village volunteers $4,129 ✅

Total secured $125,545

Still needed from the community $18,937

Here is exactly what your donations will cover — the costs that fell outside the original grant or weren't fully funded:

• Museum cabinetry and interpretive signage

• Council development application and infrastructure fees

• Earthworks and site preparation

• All the things people don't think of — but that every building needs to be finished properly

Every dollar you contribute goes directly to finishing this building and getting those first aid talks back on — rain, hail or shine.

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WHY IT MATTERS

Our volunteers are not paid. Every single person who keeps this Village running — and who stands outside on the grass teaching school children how to apply a pressure bandage or treat a snake bite — does it for love of this community.

Every dollar raised through our gate takings goes straight back into maintaining the Village. We have no reserves, no government recurrent funding, and no backup plan — just an extraordinary group of retired paramedics, army medics, St John's Ambulance volunteers, QAS cadets, and community members who believe that knowing first aid saves lives.

Because it does.

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PLEASE HELP US FINISH THIS

Whether you give $5 or $500, you are helping build something that will serve this community for generations to come — and that might just help someone save a life when it matters most.

Please donate, and please share this page with everyone you know.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Jody Dodds Treasurer, Highfields Pioneer Village Museum and Park Inc. On behalf of our volunteers, our committee, and Vince.

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Highfields Pioneer Village Museum and Park Inc. is a registered not-for-profit organisation (ACNC registered). All funds raised will be directed to completion of the Ambulance Museum building. Donations of $2 and over are tax deductible.