One time when we were visiting that Sydney place we went out to the Museum of Fire at Penrith. It took almost the whole day to go through it reading all about the history of the Fire Brigade and how they went from horse and cart to trucks and onto some very fancy trucks as well. Highly recommend it.
I never knew that in the beginning the fire fighters were all private companies and would automatically respond to a fire but if you did not have fire insurance on your property they stood back and watched it burn. You would display a plaque on the front of your building to show you had insurance.