Coventry Climax Pump.
Among the many pressing priorities for Alf Lawrence, the Forests Commission’s new Chief Fire Officer, in rebuilding the firefighting capacity after the catastrophic 1939 bushfires was to invest heavily in modern vehicles and equipment.
Powered pumps like the trailer-mounted Coventry Climax (Godiva) gave firefighters a much greater capacity than ever before to put the “wet stuff on the red stuff”.
Its four-cylinder, four-stroke, water-cooled, petrol motor produced 38Hp and was connected with either 1½ inch or 2½ inch canvas hose for direct attack, or as a filler pump it could deliver 300 gallons per minute at 120 psi.
Some of the first acquisitions included war surplus veterans shipped over from the London after the blitz bombings of WW2.
A fine example of an early Coventry Climax Pump sits in the Altona Museum collection.
In recent weeks, volunteers from the Forests Commission Retired Personnel Association (FCRPA) have been working with professional photographer, Mark Jesser, to systematically photograph the best of the Altona collection and make items accessible on-line in “Victorian Collections”.
It follows earlier work in February with Mark at the Beechworth forestry museum.
The Altona project has been strongly and generously supported by DEECA to enable Mark to once again work his magic.
Just compare some happy snaps taken with an iPhone to Mark’s museum-quality images taken with a high-resolution Nikon SLR, a white background and high-powered flash lighting to bring out the true colours and eliminate most of the shadows.
A bit of tidy-up with Photoshop… and hey presto…
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 