The Victoria Volunteer Fire Company.

Rare colonial engraving of the first fire brigade in Sydney, called’ Victoria Fire Company.

The first volunteer fire company in Sydney was “initially a private brigade, set up in the early 1840s, to protect the Royal Victoria Theatre in Pitt Street. In October 1854, the theatre’s new lessee Andrew Torning, an actor/scene painter by trade and member of the theatre’s brigade, supplied a fire engine and renamed the brigade the Victoria Volunteer Fire Company, No. 1. It provided fire suppression services to all in the community and was funded, at least in part, by the subscription and benefit nights. As a result of such support it was able to move to its own premises in Pitt Street in 1857 and was renamed the Australian Volunteer Fire Company No. 1,

From the original edition of the Illustrated Sydney News.

References:
Gibbs & Shallard. Illustrated Sydney News. ISSN 2203-5397.

Collections:
State Library New South Wales: F8/39-40
State Library Victoria: PCINF SLVIC=1853-1872
National Library Australia: Bib ID 440095