This is a sign. It cost some thousands of dollars.
A beautiful sign, n’est ce pas? Crafted by artisans, lovingly rendered, and secured to posts carefully inserted in the rich, lush (but rather rocky) Bellthorpe soil. Soil that has in the past been used to grow timber, and feed fat cows producing rich creamy milk and cheese.
But having said all that, what exactly is the purpose of the sign?
Perhaps it’s to advise you that you’re standing in front of the Bellthorpe Fire Shed. After all, it’s not that easy to recognise a Fire Shed. Even though it might have a sign like this right across the front:
Or, were you facing the side (from the road), you might see this sign. Equally as hard to read, with its lack of a distinctive colour or distinctive typeface. Definitely not one you’d pick up on, seeing that it’s only been placed on the side of the Fire Shed.
Perhaps there just aren’t enough words? After all, the more words there are, the more significant the sign, right? After all, everyone driving past, looking for Fire Sheds (anorak wearers, all of them no doubt) would stop to read all the words. So here is yet another sign on the same Fire Shed! No, I’m not making this up. No signs were injured in the production of this blog post.
But hang about, I can here you say. Is this a wind-up? That’s exactly the same as the first sign, is it not? No shit, Sherlock. Well it’s not exactly the same. It doesn’t say ‘Established 1982’. But it has all the other information, in case you didn’t take in the first sign properly.
So there you have it. A properly signed Fire Shed. A masterpiece of design. One whose image will pass into the annals of Fire Shed Spotters world-wide. And the fact that this is an election year has absolutely nothing to do with it. Nosiree.
Just by the by, I wonder how much fire-fighting equipment could have been purchased with those few thousands of dollars?
There will be a second post in this series. After all, there are some sections of Bellthorpe that are not yet covered with signs. Where you can actually see through the signs, and see trees and stuff. Not many, mind you, but the Moreton Bay Regional Council has its eye on those spots, and will, in dead of night, ensure that they’re signed off. The ultimate objective is to be able to drive through Bellthorpe without actually seeing Bellthorpe. Post number two will also feature my favourite council sign. It’s a sign warning of an upcoming sign.
Feel free to comment; share with the FaceBook button, or just phone and abuse me that way …
A “sign of the times”, Craig? 😉
It’s me, Craig. Trying to be to clever only to realize you had that in the title of the post.
Which of course means you certainly got your headline right! 😉
The people that man Rural Fire Stations give the government and the people of Queensland thousands of hours of there own time and money just to be a volunteer and protect people like you ….!!!!! So how dare you criticize them for being issued with a couple of signs……!!!!
Thank you Bill. Would you care to point out exactly where I criticised ‘the people that man Rural Fire Stations’?
Can you elaborate on what you mean by ‘people like you’?
The Voulteers must have applied for the signs and met the criteria to get them in the first place…..
And people like you , the general public…..
Thank you Bill. Would you care to point out exactly where I criticised ‘the people that man Rural Fire Stations’?
Not one of the volunteers with whom I’ve discussed this was aware of the headline sign until it appeared. Not one.
‘General public’. Is that the group I’m in until I don my PPE and fight fires?
If your brigade did not want the signs all they had to do is say no.
They were forced upon no one who didn’t want them in fact if you had an established station like Bellthorpe one needed to ask for the signage to be provided (although I imagine it may have been offered in conversation between your 1st officer and someone from district office).
The purpose of the sign is uniform branding for all rural fire stations (it’s a station mate, not a shed) and to give an “official” look to the building. With that sign out front it is obviously a government building and can be instantly spotted as such.
The new sign is much closer to the roadway thus enabling a searching driver to see the sign without his eyes wandering near as far from the road. It will also be far more visible in heavy smoke being both blue (one of the colours most visible in a smoky environment) and closer to the road. Red on white on the other hand will just blend in with smoke or fog.
You say that only “anorak wearers” would be looking for fire stations but how about other fireies coming to lend a hand when they are most needed? How about the SES crews or a council water truck driver (or 528 Victor for that matter)? How about an Ambulance or a guy bringing a dozer to cut a fire line? Many, many people need to find a fire station and sometimes in less than ideal conditions. In some instances, having them find said station promptly may be the difference betwixt life and death for someone in your community.
Ok they were expensive but I’m betting they didn’t come out of the equipment budget. The two are entirely separate, this would have come out of the DCS works budget not RFS funds.
Thanks Trailtec. The headlined sign just arrived. No opportunity to say ‘no’.
You make a valid point about the need for a fire shed to be visible and easy to find. By the way, it’s a fire shed if everyone calls it a fire shed. But were you to have driven past it, you would have found that the old red and white signs did the job perfectly. They’re large, visible from any point on the road, and quite legible in fog (which is common in Bellthorpe). The new ones have none of those attributes.
To put it more directly – it’s impossible not to see this fire shed.
You state the purpose of the sign to be uniform branding. To make it obviously a government building. Why is that important? Why does a fire shed need four signs saying (in effect) ‘fire shed’? How is ‘uniform branding’ a good use of taxpayers’ money? Is that uppermost on an SES person’s mind looking for the fire shed? “I don’t want any old fire shed, I want a government fire shed”.
It doesn’t matter which budget they came out of. They’re a waste of money. Taxpayers’ money.
I think somewhere in the blog or title was mentioned they spent $6k on the signs? Surely they could of given that too the volunteers that put in the work. Maybe pay them some money like the army reserve?
We are all tired over poor spending from the govt. More concerned about the high rents the departments pay in the cities or purchases of assets and unnecessary spending of advertising to promote how good they are and we know a lot of departments are incompetent.
Plenty of schemes and a overwhelming amount of paper work generated from the govt, soon we will need a licence to breath, or maybe we already do and they call it something else.
We are over governed by fair, we have govt job positions that are not required and useless.
The positive, any of the emergency response teams (Fire, Police, Ambulance), Hospitals or other health departments, though in any of these there is still a bunch of fat cats up the top making poorly researched schemes and spending.
It is good to see that there are people out there that feel things are a little off with the system we are dictated by.
Great to have a blog to get the word out there, though it comes down to major spending and advertising to get anything done these days. I wish you luck.
I left you a couple of links below that you may find funny and interesting. I think a lot of people in the world are starting to question things and the internet has helped this, the govt is currently working on a filtering system for the internet and dictate what websites we can view and can be used to monitor the citizens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGk5ioEXlIM
and
http://hungrybeast.abc.net.au/ (Has some good info)
Enjoy,
Thanks Brendon. But nowhere did I state $6,000. I simply said “some thousands of dollars”.
Some posters seem to have missed the point, seeing my post as criticism of fire fighters! It’s a criticism of governments spending Other People’s Money without a clear benefit. Reminiscent of the present Federal Government, with the NBN, pink batts, huge aboriginal housing bureaucracy but very few houses, the ‘Building the Education Revolution’ programme with more computers that don’t work, and decreased literacy and numeracy rates.
Sure, these stupid signs are small bikkies compared to those massive wastes of money. But that doesn’t mean that they should not receive critical comment.
Craig, I agree that (going by the photographic evidence) the sign seems superfluous and suggests that the government is taking the opportunity to plaster their self-aggrandising logos wherever they can.
Bill, I didn’t see anything in Craig’s post that indicated criticism of the volunteers. If anything, he made the point that the money could have been better spent on fire-fighting equipment, a point I’m sure most volunteer fire-fighters would wholeheartedly support.