Volunteer fire brigade’s much-loved historic hose cart gets major refurbishment by local Men’s Shed

The Brunswick Volunteer Fire Brigade have welcomed back an old fixture to their station, with their historic racing hose cart returning with a fresh coat of paint.

The old cart with broken spokes, worn wheels and faded colours received a major refurbishment thanks to the Brunswick Community Men’s Shed, who repaired and returned the cart to the station last month.

The cart was originally built by the station in the 1960s when members began entering demos against other brigades.

BVFB member Ken Hart said these races were a way of keeping traditions alive while building a strong sense of unity within the brigade.

“Before mechanical fire engines, these were the carts that the hoses were rolled onto before they ran out to the fire,” he said.

“You’d have eight different hose configurations and four, six or eight people around the cart to get it to the fire and get the water going.

“But when mechanical fire appliances came along, this became what we called a demonstration sport, and that’s hung around now for 120 years.”

Mr Hart said the “beautiful bit of machinery” was involved in three State championship wins (1968, 1980-81) before being retired and replaced with a newer model.

The cart left the station in 2016. After taking an impromptu adventure around the town, it was stored in Mr Hart’s shed where several its spokes began to rot and the cart deteriorated.

Coming back to the cart earlier this year, the brigade presented the project to the Men’s Shed who happily took on the challenge to fix it up.

Shed member William Bufton said the crew spent took four to five months fixing up the cart.

“They help us out, so we like to give back to them as much as we can,” he said.

“We’re relieved it’s finally done, but we’re really happy it’s been such a success as well.”

Brigade chief Collin Keys said he was proud to be a part of a town where community groups were willing to support each other.

“It’s really good seeing the community actually sticking together and doing these sorts of things,” he said.

“It’s really good to have it back at the brigade and seeing our older members getting a glimpse of it now it’s fixed up.”

Brigade life member Ross Hogan said seeing the old cart repaired has certainly “turned back time”.

“I ran with the cart for about 20 years back from ‘79 to ‘99, and we did alright with this cart,” he said.

“But I have this old photo at home with the cart from 1984 and I was recently looking at it and thought ‘wow, that was 40 years ago’.”

Brigade member Francis Burgoyne said the tradition of cart racing was important, giving fire fighters from across the country a way to connect.

“You’ll get old firefighters who will come along and say they ran with one of these 20 to 40 years ago, so it’s always a great talking point,” he said.

“When the young ones come up, we can show them what we used to run with, and they can see it’s much heavier than what we have now.”