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Billy Be Safe's father was 'born' at Green Valley Ambulance Station. His dad's name was Billy Band Aid and he was created by intensive care Paramedics Mick Bull and Bill Taylor in the 1970s and 80s as a way of promoting the importance of calling Triple Zero.
In 1985 Gary Francis created Billy-Be-Safe while he was at Green Valley. He also developed Billy’s sister Betty. Gary is pictured here with Billy and Betty who he not only created but drew and painted as well. Gary is a self taught sign writer and commercial artist.
Billy had to get to emergencies somehow so the Green Valley Ambulance Station staff built a mini ambulance for Billy. The original Billy was a cut out, brought to life in the form of marine ply and was so successful that, with the support of Metropolitan Superintendent Jack Hawkins, a further six were made (some with an inbuilt TV screen simulating ambulances on the way to emergencies under lights and sirens) to meet an increasing demand.
The original Billy signed by Gary Francis in 2004
Ambulance Officer Len Staples was able to capture the essence of Billy and created his first colouring in book when he worked in Sydney's PR Unit.
Leon Sawyer had this Billy Be Safe unit built by Wollongong TAFE Students and his family engineering company provided the materials to build it. The kids loved it with the video screen up front with scenes of ambulances going to various jobs with the siren on. Today it is found in the Temora Ambulance Museum.
Billy and Betty Be Careful travelled around the State to educate children on a range of ambulance and first aid topics and the importance of calling Triple Zero in an emergency.
Former Intensive Care Paramedic Pat Kennedy wrote the draft of a book about Ambulance Paramedic Billy Be Safe more than 20 years ago and decided to blow the dust off the manuscript and get it published after decades of writing five other books. In 2022 Billy's book appears in a fun and engaging series of books aimed at educating parents and children on road safety, back yard pool safety, being safe around hot water and other topics. But Billy is not just about safety-he has fun too in this rhyming book series.
The author saw plenty of tragedies involving children in his time as a paramedic. So he has asked Billy to raise awareness of driveway safety in particular given the large numbers of children injured and killed on driveways and yards each year. As a result of these figures driveway safety is one of the themes in the first book.
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