Fire was a constant source of concern in early Maitland.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Most buildings were made of wood, and fires originating from sparks from the burning of wood or coal for cooking or heating were always possible.
When The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser began publication in 1843, fires featured prominently in its pages.
Some had apparently been deliberately lit by 'incendiaries' (meaning firebugs); others came from accidents. Fatalities occurred.
For years there was no organised community-based response to fires, property owners doing what they could to douse flames using water from whatever local sources existed.
In 1854, a fire virtually destroyed the parsonage of St Mary's Church in Church Street, West Maitland, when a spark from the kitchen chimney set fire to the shingle roof.
A brick-lined pool nearby provided water, and one room was saved.
The church itself was threatened, and 300 yards (270 metres) away the bark roof of a tannery caught fire from wind-blown embers but fortunately that blaze was quickly extinguished.
Two years later, another fire took hold in the Queen's Theatre in High Street which had just been built by showman and actor-manager H Muriel.
Located opposite the David Cohen & AMP; Co warehouse and store, the wooden theatre had an orchestra pit and could accommodate 300 people.
A week after opening, with an evening performance just completed, the building cleared of patrons and the night watchman asleep, a man in the Australian Inn next door was awakened by a glare of light from the direction of the theatre.
He raised the alarm and people from nearby buildings rushed to form a bucket brigade using water from nearby wells.
Despite their efforts, the theatre was consumed along with an outbuilding belonging to the Inn.
The night watchman, who woke only when the fire was well established, suffered burns and the theatre was largely destroyed along with theatrical props and costumes.
Response times, before telephones were available to summon brigade members were always problematic
- Chas Keys
Not long after the St Mary's fire, a meeting at the Rose Inn in High Street had resolved to obtain a fire appliance and form a West Maitland fire brigade.
In 1856 a brigade of volunteers was established: it was the second (after Goulburn's) to be established in New South Wales outside Sydney.
A horse-drawn, water pumping fire appliance with hoses, imported from London, was obtained from the Insurance Companies Fire Brigade (Sydney) and brought to Morpeth by steamship.
It was then drawn by horses to West Maitland, where tests were conducted at a waterhole near St Mary's. The tests, The Mercury reported, "gave great satisfaction", water being thrown more than 100 feet (about 30 metres).
It was presumably this appliance that was deployed to the Queen's Theatre fire, but it was late in arriving. It could only throw water on the smouldering ruins.
A public subscription saw the theatre re-built on the site and it was re-opened in April, 1858.
Response times, before telephones were available to summon brigade members and with the fire engine restricted in its travel speed, were always problematic.
When in 1859 Nott's large flour mill at the eastern end of the Long Bridge caught fire, the pumper took 90 minutes to arrive and was greeted according to The Mercury with "jeering cheers".
Then its suction pipe got choked with mud. The mill was destroyed.
