Bill Marsh - Great Northern Territory Stories

Cover

A Committed Team

A True Legend

A True Privilege

Aladdins Lamp

Amazing

An Egg a Day

And Then There Were Seven

Bluesy, the Black Boys and Me

Booties

Camp Pie

Cape Crawford NT

Curtin Springs NT

Daly Waters NT

Dirt to Dust

Dogs Dinner

Dr Clyde Fenton

Ferewana NT

Gods Flock

Got the Scours

Handcuffed

How the Hell

If only

Katherine NT

Knickers

Kulgera NT

Like Bloody Hell

Long Days, Great Times

Looking into the Heavens

Memories of Alice Springs

Mud Happens

Murder

Mystery Photograph

Native Affairs

Nhulunbuy NT

Old Shinny and the Saddle

Old Ways, New Ways

One in a Trillion

Papunya NT

Payback

Plonk

Point On

Rabbit Flat

Sooner or Later

Tablelands Highway NT

The Singing

The Night Horse

The Tangle with the Motorbike

The Tooth Fairy

Theres a Redback on the

Copyright

I guess I should clear something up first. Initially it was John Flynns idea to provide a Mantle of Safety, as he called it, for those living in outback and remote areas. To do that he established the Australian Inland Mission [AIM], which was part of the Presbyterian Church, and that organisation set up outback hospitals and sent out trained nurses and Patrol Padres, of which my father, Fred McKay, was one.

So, the AIM, as it became known, was instrumental in opening up a lot of the outback hospitals, which were staffed by trained nurses, who were recruited and sent out for two-year stints. Then the Flying Doctor Service was, in a way, established to work in conjunction with those services that the AIM and other outback-care organisations had set up. And those nurses relied on the Flying Doctor Service very heavily. Like the Flying Doctor would come and conduct medical clinics and everyone would turn up to see the doctor and, of course, the RFDS was available for emergency services like evacuations and so forth, as well. And, of course, thats developed on a very big scale now. So the AIM and the RFDS were both instigated by Flynn and, even though they were run as two separate organisations, they were inextricably linked.

John Flynns title was Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission and, though I was too young to remember him personally, I wouldve met him when I was an infant. Then, when he died at the end of 1951, Dad was appointed to take over. We were actually living in Brisbane at that stage so we shifted to Sydney, where the AIMs Head Office was, and we moved into a home that had been provided by them for the Superintendent.

Wed been in Sydney for about a year and, I guess, things within the AIM were getting a bit rocky. There were financial difficulties and there were also problems within the Board. Thats no real secret there because its all been well documented. Of course, being only seven or something, I was too young to be aware of what was going on. But, apparently, it was getting to the point where the future of the Australian Inland Mission was in doubt so, when they were having difficulties getting staff at the Bush Mothers Hostel in Adelaide House, out at Alice Springs, Mum [Jean McKay] offered her services as Matron. And she offered to do that for gratis.

So, really, wed just got established at school in Sydney and were beginning to make friends and then we were, sort of, uprooted to go out to live in Alice Springs. Adelaide House had originally been a hospital but then, when they built a new hospital in Alice Springs, the AIM took over Adelaide House and John Flynn redesigned it with the wide verandahs and the natural airconditioning system that uses the soil temperature underneath the building. That was quite revolutionary back then. So Adelaide House became what was called the Bush Mothers Hostel and that was the place where mothers could come into Alice Springs before they had their babies at the local hospital. Then they could also convalesce there afterwards, before going back to their properties.

So, that was how we ended up in Alice Springs. I mean, we all thought it was a big adventure but, of course, Alice Springs wasnt the town it is now. There were only about two or three thousand people living there back then and we lived in a small, square upstairs room in Adelaide House, which is in the main street, Todd Street.

At that stage there were three of us kids in the family; my brother, my elder sister and myself. So when Mum and Dad were there, it got pretty crammed at times with the five of us, all living together at the top of the building where we also had to deal with the extreme heat in the summer and the bitter cold of the winter. But, of course, Dad was still going backwards and forwards to Sydney. So it was basically just the four of us upstairs, with the outback ladies living downstairs and the other staff members. Jean Flynn was there for the first few months also.

Fred McKays plane naming with wife, Meg, and Barbara Ellis from RFDS Broken Hill RFDS

But then, when they started building the John Flynn Church, on the vacant block next door, my father more or less returned to supervise that. So we watched the church being built, which was quite amazing because it also showed a lot of the Flying Doctor story. Out the front theres the two wings, which symbolise a Flying Doctor plane. I mean, they really did an amazing job in designing and incorporating the entire story of John Flynns life and achievements into that building. So Dad was involved with the building of the church and I remember we had the architect staying with us a lot of the time, and what a very eccentric and funny man he was, too.

So we had two years in Alice Springs before we returned to Sydney. Then the following year, in 1956, the AIM started up a home in Adelaide at the seaside suburb of Grange, where outback children could come and stay while they were receiving specialist medical treatment. Once again, my mother offered her services as matron and my brother and I went to live with her in Adelaide, while my elder sister, who was doing her Leaving Certificate, stayed in Sydney.

I remember that as a difficult and emotional year for everybody because the family was, sort of, split in two. Dad was off everywhere, but mostly based in Sydney. Mum, my brother and I were in Adelaide and my eldest sister was boarding with the neighbours in Sydney. Then somewhere in amongst all that my youngest sister was born. So I got another sister, and then at the end of 1956 we returned to Sydney and we were based in Sydney from then on.

But Mum and Dad, they were a real team, and a very committed team. Mum wasnt nursing after we came back from Adelaide but, instead, she was going around and speaking to a lot of womens groups and other organisations. The term they gave it was Deputation Work. It was more or less publicising the work of the AIM in conjunction with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and, I guess, seeking donations and support and manpower and just keeping the work in the minds of, mainly, the church people. So she was quite busy with her speaking engagements and what not.

And Dad, well, as Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission, he spent a lot of time travelling around to the various outposts visiting the nursing staff and the various developments that were happening. Later on hed do a lot of flying some of it with the RFDS but in the earlier days he still drove. Sometimes hed be away for anything up to a month or six weeks. So, we saw little of him and there were even Christmases when we never thought hed make it back home.