...nt often meant death and the Inland holds many graves of people ho might have lived had they been able to receive medical aid quickly enough.The late Sir Robert Menzies, Former Prime Minister of Australia 1939-41 1949-66, once very aptly said that the Flying Doctor Service represented the greatest single contribution to the effective settlement of the far distant back country that e have itnessed in our time...The RFDS as the first comprehensive aerial medical organisation in the orld and to this day remains unique for the range of primary health care and emergency services it provides and for the huge area of sparse population and climatic extremes over hich it operates - 24 hours a day, 365 days a yearThe story of the Flying Doctor Service is forever linked ith its founder, the Very Reverend John Flynn - it is a story of achievement that gave courage to the pioneers of the Inland.In 1911 the Reverend John Flynn took up his first appointment at Beltana Mission in the north of South Australia. Flynn became very close to the people of the outback and in 1912 he as appointed as the first Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission AIM, the bush department of the Presbyterian Church.He began his missionary ork at a time hen only to doctors served an area of some 300,000 sq kms in estern Australia and 1,500,000 sq kms in the Northern Territory.Flynn began establishing bush hospitals and hostels in remote outback areas hich alleviated much of the dread associated ith the great loneliness of the inland. But hile they provided an important service, they ere only really scratching at the surface of the problem of caring for people in the outback.The problems of distance and communication remained ith many people dying from the lack medical treatment.Flynn told many tales to illustrate the need for medical care in the outback. One such story as that of Jimmy Darcy, a stockman hurt in a fall near Halls Creek, estern Australia in August 1917.John Flynn had set his considerable fund raising abilities to use for several years, and by 1928, the AIM had sufficient money to establish a flying doctor scheme. Supporters of the project included the industrialist HV McKay, manufacturer of the Sunshine Harvester, Hudson Fysh at QANTAS, and, on the ground, Dr George Simpson, a young Melbourne doctor ho had heard Flynn speak many years before.On 15 May 1928, the Aerial Medical Service as established as a one-year experiment at Cloncurry in Queensland. After many years of dreaming, hard ork and planning the Flying Doctor Service as a reality. John Flynn as born at Moliagul in Central Victoria on 25 November 1880, the same year famous Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly, as executed. His father, Thomas Eugene Flynn, a schoolteacher, married Rosetta Lester in April 1876. The couple had three children - John as the youngest. Rosetta died in childbirth, hen John as only three, and for several years he lived ith relatives, until the family as reunited at Snake Gully, near Ballarat.The Flynn family later moved to Sunshine in Melbournes estern suburbs. Here young John first heard romantic tales about Australias vast outback hen his fathers business partners mounted an unsuccessful business venture to the far north of the country.John graduated from secondary school in 1898 and began school teaching. In 1903 he decided to train as a Presbyterian minister. Initially he financed his studies orking at Church Home Missionary centres around Victoria, and in 1907 commenced a four-year course in divinity at Melbourne University. Flynn graduated in 1910, and as ordained as a Minister of Church in January 1911.Throughout his training, Flynn continued to develop an interest in orking in the Outback, and helped other Presbyterian Ministers like Donald Cameron and Andre Barber ith missionary ork in rural and remote areas in Victoria and South Australia. In 1910, Barber and Flynn published The Bushmans Companion, a small book of information and encouragement for people in the bush hich quickly became a best seller. In early 1911, hoever, John as on the road to the real outback.In February, John Flynn arrived at the tiny Smith of Dunesk Mission at Beltana, over 500 kilometres north of Adelaide in South Australia. At Beltana, he sa at first hand the rigours of Outback life, learnt there as no medical care available to inland residents and travellers. ithin a year he as commissioned to prepare a report on life in the Northern Territory, to be presented to the Presbyterian Church in 1912. The General Assembly acted upon Flynns recommendations and appointed him the head of a ne organisation, the Australian Inland Mission AIM.The Australian Inland Mission AIM furthered Flynns idea of a Mantle of Safety for Outback Australia, by establishing, over the next fe years, several nursing homes, and recruiting a team of Boundary Riders, ministers ho travelled vast outback parishes by camel or on horseback, visiting communities and households, and tending to all the people of the inland. Another great Australian, Fred McKay later to be leader of the AIM, joined Flynns team of patrol padres in 1937.John Flynn as 51 hen he married the secretary of the AIM, Miss Jean Baird, in 1932. The years to follo sa Australia struggle through the Great Depression, and the no-fuss and knoledgeable Mrs Flynn became a great support to her visionary and hard-orking husband.John Flynn, ho as tice moderator General of the Presbyterian Church died in 1951 and is buried at Mt Gillen near Alice Springs, the very centre of the vast territory to hich he brought communication, medical comfort and pastoral care.RFDS founder Reverend John Flynn is featured on one face of the Australian 20 note. Image used by permission.The Australian Council Office collaborated ith the Reserve Bank of Australia on the design of the ne tenty-dollar note, one face of hich features the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia and its founder Reverend John Flynn. In 1928 the dream of a flying doctor as at last a reality but Flynn and his supporters still faced many problems in the months and years to come. The first years service as regarded as experimental, but the experiment succeeded and almost miraculously the service survived the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s.By 1932 the AIM had a netork of ten little hospitals across the centre. As for the flying doctor service, a succession of doctors and pilots folloed elch and Affleck and the Cloncurry operation continued to gro over the next fe years.The Service suffered severe financial difficulties during this period, but the continuing success at Cloncurry caught the imagination of people around the country and the orld and prompted John Flynn and Dr Alan Vickers, a flying doctor, to push for a netork of flying doctor bases spread across the continent, ith government support.In 1934 the Presbyterian Church handed the service over to a ne organisation, the Australian Aerial Medical Service. Over the next fe ...
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