Bellingen Fire and Rescue's comical message about appropriate social distancing has racked up thousands of views and shares on social media, even though the sign was physically on display outside the station for only two hours.
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Captain Brian Woollard said he'd sought approval up the chain of command before erecting it, and his bosses agreed it could go up yesterday morning.
Within an hour and a half someone had sent a complaint to the Commissioner and the order came to take it down.
But a photo was on the station's Facebook page and in that short time it had been seen and shared by thousands of people.
Asked who thought up the idea, Brian said one of his crew found it on the internet, on a Lebanese fire brigade page.
"He said, 'It'd be funny if we put this up' and I looked at it and had a bit of a laugh. I said I'd run it by the boss.
"He ran it by his boss, and we got the approval."
With laughter in short supply at the moment, Brian felt the sign injected a welcome element of humour into the message about keeping 1.5 metres away from other people.
Other people obviously agreed, because in just 90 minutes it had been viewed 2500 times.
"We got the word out, we got the point across," Brian said. "It's a little bit of humour that gives people something to talk about other than the coronavirus."
Janene Carey
Janene Carey is the senior journalist for the Bellingen Shire Courier-Sun
Janene Carey is the senior journalist for the Bellingen Shire Courier-Sun
