Historical information

Made of canvas and bamboo slats with hemp ropes, adjustable canvas straps and metal buckles and rings, the rescue stretcher was used for carrying an injured person. According to the Powerhouse Museum, the stretcher and was ‘designed to support and carry an injured person in circumstances where the person has to be lifted vertically’. Known as the ‘Neil Robertson stretcher’, it was developed in the early 1900s by John Neil Robertson as a lightweight rescue device and was modelled on Japanese bamboo litters. An identical stretcher is held in Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum and is thought to date between c.1967 and 1999. The museum’s statement of significance for the unique stretcher elaborates on its cultural values: The canvas is wrapped around the patient and secured with strong canvas straps. A lifting rope is attached to a ring above the patient's head, while a guideline is tied near the ankles and used to stop the stretcher swaying as it is hoisted up. This style of stretcher was specifically designed for use on ships, where casualties might have to be lifted from engine-room spaces, holds and other compartments with access hatches too small for ordinary stretchers. The original name of the Neil Robertson stretcher was 'Hammock for hoisting wounded men from stokeholds and for use in ships whose ash hoists are 2 ft. 6 in. diameter'. Since those times the Neil Robertson stretcher has also been used in factories and mines and for other emergency rescue situations. It is still possible to buy this type of stretcher although the slats are now more likely to be made of wood. The example in the Powerhouse collection was amongst several items of obsolete first aid and rescue equipment donated by the electricity generation company Delta Electricity. It would have been used - or at least been on stand-by - at the company's Munmorah Power Station or the associated coal mine on the Central Coast of New South Wales. Industrial sites and mines are extremely dangerous work places. Throughout the 20th century to the present there has been a drive, especially in developed countries like Australia, to improve workplace safety. Measures taken to reduce injuries and deaths have included safer industrial equipment, safer work practices, staff training, and the ready availability of accident and emergency equipment.It was also used throughout WWI and WWII. There are two other examples of the stretcher are known in Parks Victoria heritage collections.

Physical description

Canvas and bamboo stretcher with straps and buckles. Hemp ropes are attached to the stretcher.