BMED2401 Lecture 1: Notes on history of Paramedics in australia

• School: University of Sydney
• Department: Biomedical Science (Physiology)
• Course: BMED2401
• Professor: all

Document Summary

Australia"s ambulance system generally began with the first aid training courses which the st john ambulance organisation ran in the colonies from the early 1800s. St john ambulance, an 1870s outgrowth of the british order of st john, soon spread overseas. The first australian st john ambulance "centre " or permanent local st john organisation formed in melbourne in 1883 . The earliest australian class taught and examined on the st john ambulance syllabus had been a group of railwaymen at the eveleigh railways workshop in sydney in 1881. By the 1890s each of the six australian colonies had its own st john ambulance centre. St john"s courses proved immensely popular largely because the working public saw first aid training as a form of self-protective social insurance in a hazardous world. Ambulance services, both civilian and military, were a logical extension of the first aid movement of the late 1870s and 1880s.