In February 1937 Charles Thomas Tranter left Goulburn with his wife and sons Peter and Ross to open the Griffith Ambulance Service as District Superintendent.
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The first ambulance station in Yambil Street consisted of a shed at the front and a house and office at the rear.
When people needed an ambulance the garage next door lent their one-ton T-model truck to transport the sick and injured to hospital.
The first ambulance (a purpose-built 1937 Dodge) was purchased in 1937 followed by a 1937 Chevrolet sedan into which the patient was loaded through the boot. A second officer, Mr Carrol Gibbons, was appointed.
In 1939 there was a massive heatwave with temperatures over 100 degrees for days on end. Ambulance officers were assisted by local people taking mothers, babies and elderly people to the cool rooms of the Griffith Producers Co-operative.
In 1941-42 the Ambulance Station moved to Binya Street where the buildings again were a house and a shed. A third vehicle, a 1940 Dodge, was purchased.
As many men were away at war Mr Fred Cole came into the service as a full-time officer to replace Mr Carrol Gibbons who had left.
By now Griffith was growing, so two new ambulances were purchased, one in 1946 and the other in 1952. The first ambulance was sold after it had travelled 500,000 miles.
A new ambulance station was opened in May 1959. Tranter Place is named in honour of Charles Thomas Tranter, who passed away in Junee in July 1969.
The present new, modern ambulance station in Wakaden Street was opened in February 2019.
