Sheryl Persson - The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia: Pioneering commitment, courage and success

The history of the Royal Flying Doctor Service cannot be separated from the life story of its founder, John Flynn. From the time he began his work as a missionary in the early 1900s in remote Victoria, Flynn became aware of the terrible isolation and deprivation that people suffered. Before there were any flying doctors, serious illness or an accident often meant death for people living in the outback because they had no access to medical assistance. Flynn was determined to place a Mantle of Safety over these people and provide an effective medical service for them.

The Reverend Flynn became Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM) in 1912 and worked tirelessly setting up a network of nursing hostels in remote northern Australia. When World War I broke out in 1914, there were still only two doctors serving an enormous are a: 300,000 square kilometres in Western Australia and 1,500,000 square kilometres in the Northern Territory. Flynn wanted to do more for outback communities and gradually the inspired idea to create an aerial medical service took hold.

In vastly different ways, the contributions of three menClifford Peel, Alfred Traeger and Hugh McKaymade Flynns vision an actuality. Lieutenant Clifford Peel, a medical student from Victoria with an interest in aviation, became aware of John Flynns idea. In 1917, Peel wrote to Flynn from the boat that was taking him to France to serve with the Australian Flying Corps. Peel suggested that it would be possible to use aircraft for air ambulance work.

It was Alfred Traeger, an inventor and a pioneer of radio communications who developed a two-way radio that could be used for communication in the outback. The pedal radio proved to be a reliable and accessible form of communication for bush people. Alfred Traeger is said to have given the outback its voice.

When Hugh V. McKay, the inventor of the Sunshine Harvester, left a large sum of money in his will to the Australian Inland Mission, the funds were used to establish the Aerial Medical Service (AMS) and to put the first flying doctor in the air.

On 17 May 1928, an aircraft, appropriately named Victory, took off from Cloncurry in Queensland to fly to Mt Isa to pick up an injured youth. The doctor on board was Dr Kenyon St Vincent Welch. The plane was leased from a small bush airline, Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd, (QANTAS) at a cost of five shillings per mile. The pilot was Arthur Affleck.

During the first eleven months of the AMS, the plane made 50 flights. Affleck flew a distance of 28,980 kilometres and Dr Welch treated 225 patients who might otherwise have received no medical assistance at all. The daring adventures of the flying doctors had begun.

During the 1930s the AMS was developed on a national basis by Reverend Flynn and became the Australian Aerial Medical Service (AAMS). The name was changed again in 1941 to the Flying Doctor Service. The extraordinary work of the flying doctors was acknowledged in 1955 when the prefix Royal was granted by Queen Elizabeth II. Since that time the Royal Flying Doctor Service has become a household name.

From its modest beginnings, operating out of one terminal in Cloncurry in Queensland, the RFDS now provides its services through eight autonomous divisions, coordinated by the national body, the Australian Council. The sections operate 23 bases covering every Australian state and territory.

The aim of the RFDSto provide a medical service to people in the bush equal to that available to Australians living in major citieshas not changed since 1928. Nor has the need for flying doctors diminished since John Flynns day.

Today, more people than ever before are living and travelling in outback Australia, but in many areas the development of facilities has not kept pace with developments in the cities. A shortage of health professionals, and a lack of public transport and access to communication net works mean that people living in the bush, including indigenous Australians, are still disadvantaged.

The twentieth century saw extraordinary medical advances and as a result people are living longer and the Australian population is ageing. This has led to an increased demand in the cities and the bush for improve d technological medical intervention and has also led to an increased number of patients being evacuated to large, well-equipped city hospitals each year. The RFDS has responded to all these changes and continues to introduce new services and initiatives.