WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

I have been wondering what the original reason behind the colours of ambulances last century were. White is fine, but why the Black 'nose'? Must have been something uniting, as all Ambulance services Australiawide had these colours on their vehicles until the introduction of the Sprinters.

Any ideas?

Black bonnets reduce the glare of the sun on the bonnet to the driver.

SJA and most other Aussie ambulances are now going with green - the accepted international standard colour for ambulances.

WPXZBP wrote:SJA and most other Aussie ambulances are now going with green - the accepted international standard colour for ambulances.

Who else has a green colour scheme? I only know of South Australia, but I don't know if still current. NSW is predominantly red/white with HiVisibility red+yello, queensland white with blue and red, Tassie red/white and Canberra white/HiVis yellow. No idea about NT...

Toottoot wrote:Black bonnets reduce the glare of the sun on the bonnet to the driver.

Ah! Makes sense. And now with the different styled sprinters that is no longer needed.

BUT: What about all the police cars and other white bonnet vehicles?

Well its possible that they dont have patients on board who will die if they stack. Up in the Kimberleys we used to see a number of govt vehicles on the highways with black bonnets - brand new falcons - pure white with black bonnets. They looked crazy like they should be on stumps on someones front lawn. I think the cars are designed to eliminate sun glare effects these days.

WA & SA = Green decals & green uniforms at that. (SA have high visibity silver on there trucks as well)

VIC/TAS/NSW/QLD/NT Have a form off either red/blue/yellow between them high visibility decals.

Looking across internationally mainly europe is green/high visabilkity yellow/orange and in america well goes without saying from one extreme to another.

Not sure if this part answers the question - but SJA Uniform did used to be Black and White a very long time ago - in the era of the Fords - But state wide now, are reverting to Green uniforms now.

Our cadets at VFAS still have the Black and White uniforms - and I beleive our counterparts over in the East do as well.

G

...........

Another reasion Blue was removed from WA ambulance officers, is to reduce the confusion between police and ambulance officers

for instances in night clubs and drunk people, trying to convince some one who is drunk that your a ambo and not the police when your in a blue uniform was proving to be a challenge.

G'day All,
the reason going to green, was part of a push by a few ambulance services wanting to do that. NSW, QLD, NT and Vic, have always been blue and in instances whit white. Someone said green is supposed to be the international 'medical' colour. Though start looking in other countries around the world and it only really exsists in the UK.

Though GREEN is the internationally accepted Safety colour, this is the last colour that is seen often in smokey or obscure conditions. SJA (WA) has no intention of changing the colour. The uniforms over the years in WA have been Khaki brown with white shirt (commandry decided against black uniforms for SJAB & ambulance personnel), Blue (though more emphasis was on going to the so called 'medical' colour) and Green. I've worn all 3 colour types.
NSW went to a completed blue end of last year .
http://www.ambulance.nsw.gov.au/docs/ne ... iform2.pdf SA changed from green to blue last year http://www.saambulance.com.au/publicweb ... 0in%20navy%
So WA is the only State/territory that wears green now. No other ambulance service has the same problem of being confused of being police. NSW and QLD had same pants issued to Ambos as to police.. Even at night the white shirts and blue jackets in very dark conditions were still identified as ambulance and not police. It is more like media hype and a sales pitch to change and make it more appealling. The joke now is that ambos look more like Transperth..
We are entitled to our opinions..