Ian’s long road with the ambulance

Life as an ambulance officer provided some great stories to tell for Pakenham’s Ian Rowed. And the friendly 62-year-old was more than happy to share them, as he welcomed me into his home on a fresh winter’s day.
Even two years after retiring, he still gets stopped in the street by people he has assisted over the years.
Just last month he was stopped in Main Street, Pakenham, by a woman and her 17-year-old son.
“My daughters are always amazed by the people who recognise and stop me in the street and tell me about the time I helped them out,” he said.
“In this case, the woman said ‘do you remember this fella’ and I apologised and said no,” he said with a smile.
“I helped deliver him 17-years-ago, and I actually remembered it – now that was a funny story.”
Ian reminisces about being called to a job in Maryknoll in the early hours one morning and starts to chuckle as he tells the story.
“I walk in the door to find a lady kneeling down on the kitchen floor, bare bum in air,” he goes on, “I can see the bub starting to crown, but dad was doing so well so I let him get on with it and only stepped in to put the clamps on and cut the cord.
“That was a funny one – bare bum in air.”
Though keen to have a chat, Ian was dobbed in to the paper to be featured in the People in Profile page by his daughters because they thought he had a number of stories to tell, something locals would be interested in.
He seems a little disappointed that his daughter Emily can’t be there during the interview.
Family after all is even more important to him since his retirement from the Ambulance Service.
Born in Elsternwick, he never really stayed in one place until he moved to Pakenham.
“I guess you could call me a bit of a wanderer,” he says with a reflective smile.
“I didn’t go out of Victoria, but it’s hard to remember where I grew up. I spent a bit of time in Warragul, most relatives stayed in Warragul for a number of years but health issues moved us back to East Malvern where I went to school and a number of hospitals around there.”
After finishing school Ian worked in the building industry as a cabinet-maker for more than 10 years.
But it was a bung back that got him interested in the ambulance service.
“I actually hurt my back visiting the parents in Warragul,” he says.
“I went and saw a chiropractor who worked for St John Ambulance and started talking about first aid.”
Soon enough Ian joined his local St John Ambulance service in Melbourne and juggled that with his work as a cabinet-maker.
It wasn’t long before he applied to work for the ambulance service now known as Ambulance Victoria.
“I got into Frankston, in those days it was called Peninsula Ambulance,” he says with a smile knowing very well he could continue to talk about the old days, and the red tape that made life for ambulance users and officers very hard, for hours.
“It’s very interesting talking about the old system in ambulance services, it was a bit like the fire brigade is now, individual services – I could go on for days.”
His daughter Rebecca comes in searching for some music by the Dutch violinist Andre Rieu to play while granddaughter Savannah is having her nap.
Ian’s mind soon turns to music.
“I knew about him (Rieu) before a lot did,” he says beaming proudly.
“Austar used to have him on the music channel, downloaded quite a bit of his stuff before I saw his programs in the shops.”
Ian says he has always been a fan of Viennese music – something he got from his dad.
He has been to two of Rieu’s concerts, but says he probably won’t go again.
“The first tour he performed at the docklands, we were too far away, the sound was fine, but the view wasn’t great – it was like watching mosquitoes,” he laughs.
“Then again the following year, down at the tennis centre, that was at least down the bottom, gather he’s coming back, but I think it’s enough, cost wise and everything.”
Classical music isn’t the only music Ian likes. But his music tastes, come from his dad – that’s for sure.
“I reckon over the years you see how the world goes around, music comes back in ebbs and flows,” he says with a smile.
“I also like more modern stuff, some of the pop stuff or rock, Meatloaf, hard rock, not as hard as Pink Floyd.
“The Rolling Stones never grabbed me or new modern groups, it’s all loud noise, cant hear what they’re saying … where were we?”
Ian apologises for getting so easily sidetracked but his enthusiasm for life – and everything in it is catching.
We go back to talking about his most memorable moments as an ambulance officer.
He sits back in his chair while thinking about which one to talk about.
“There really is so many,” he says.
“The weirdest – would you like to hear about that?”
He launches into a story about his time as a relief officer working in country Victoria.
It was the longest job he ever went on, and he wasn’t even rostered on shift.
Relieving in Sale, Ian would stay in a room at the back of the station.
“Noel was rostered on and said he had received a call from the Dargo High plains and would be leaving in about 2-3 hours,” he said.
“It just amazed me that we could get a phone call, but not leave for three hours.
“A guy had been bike riding deep in the bush, come off his bike and his mate spent two hours riding for help at a farm in Crooked River.”
So Ian and Noel waited until 2am so they could arrive at the farm by 4am.
“The weirdest thing was when we arrived we had breakfast with the farmer’s wife and sat out on the verandah watching the sun come up and waiting for the farmer to bring the injured man out of the forest,” he says.
“It wouldn’t happen now, we’ve got choppers – but that was pretty weird.”
After six years of relief work, Ian got married and moved to the Pakenham branch where he stayed until he retired two years ago.
There he wasn’t just an ambulance officer, but a member of the community.
“Sometimes we would get called out to a fatal and I would know my family was out and I just hoped it wasn’t them,” he said.
“Other times I helped police identify the bodies of those killed in car accidents.
“I guess it’s all part and parcel of working in the same area you live.”
He’s got many more stories to tell but we run out of time, so I ask one final question, how does he spend his time in retirement?
“I just potter around here, I’ve been involved first aid teaching since Ash Wednesday, still do some woodwork things now and again,” he says.
“He really doesn’t give himself enough credit,” Rebecca interjects pointing out all of the bookcases and cabinets he has built in the family home. He smiles, trying to play it down.
“At the moment we are trying to design a rocking kangaroo – but can’t get the shape right,” Ian says.
So many stories are left to tell, but it will have to wait for another time as I bid Ian and his daughter farewell.