page_title: SA Ambulance Service
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: SA Ambulance Service / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Ambulance in front of garage with six male uniformed attendants, two of which are carrying an empty stretcher
context_page_description: SA Ambulance Service is a State Government agency under SA Health, that provides emergency ambulance transport, clinical care and patient transport services to over 1.5 million people, distributed across an area of 1,043,514 square kilometres in South Australia, Australia.
  The service employs approximately 1200 people, and utilizes 1500 volunteers, working out of 105 locations, operating 385 ambulance vehicles to provide emergency, non-emergency, aeromedical, rescue and retrieval services across the entire state.
context_section_description: In 1949 the metropolitan area was served by:
  SA Ambulance Transport Inc. (originally Hindmarsh Volunteer Ambulance formed in 1921), seven vehicles based at Hindmarsh, Unley (from March 1931 on behalf of Unley City Council) and Port Adelaide (started in July 1922 as Port Adelaide Citizen's Ambulance) 
  Civil Ambulance (Police Department) two vehicles based at Angas St, Adelaide
  Northern Suburbs Ambulance Association, one vehicle based at Prospect since 1 January 1947
  Joe Myren's Private Ambulance, one vehicle based at Glen Osmond Road, Parkside since June 1927
  In a ceremony at the St. John Ambulance Brigade annual review on Sunday 21 September 1952 metropolitan ambulance services in Adelaide (and later the country services) were formally merged to run by the St. John Council for South Australia Inc. which was part of St John Ambulance until 1993. Joe Myren's Private Ambulance was not merged immediately and continued to run independently until 1955 when the business and vehicle were sold to St. John for £500.
  Through to the 1980s, the ambulance service in metropolitan Adelaide, was staffed by volunteers at nights and weekends. After a series of industrial disputes from 1977 and parliamentary enquiries through the 1980s the service moved to a fully paid service in the metropolitan area by 1991 as well as major country centres, representing a huge shift in public opinion from the strong support of volunteerism in 1979.
  SAAS came into being in 1993 as a result of the Ambulance Services Act 1992 which formed an association S.A. St. John Ambulance Service Inc as a joint venture between the Minister of Health and Priory in Australia of the Grand Priory of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. The name of the association was amended to SA Ambulance Service Inc in 2005 and in 2008, SAAS became an agency under the Minister of Health.
caption: Hindmarsh Volunteer Ambulance 1923
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