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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0379.PDF
FLIGHT, 12 February 1954 177 MANTLE of SAFETY * Australia's Flying Doctor Service Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary: John Flynn's Vision Realized By JOHN SIDNEY TO mark the 25th anniversary of the Flying Doctor Service of Australia, a tenth base is being opened, at Port Augusta in South Australia. Now over 1,000 out back radio transmitters are in touch with ten headquarters radio stations and the dream of the late Reverend John Flynn, O.B.E., D-D., of a "mantle of safety" over the great empty spaces of Australia has reached an even riper fulfilment. On June 1st, 1929, the first Australian "flying doctor" answered the first radioed message for help. Early in that year, six rudi mentary pedal-powered transmitters had been installed at lonely posts in Northern Queensland. The first "fiying doctor" had preceded them by over six months. To Cloncurry in May 1928 had come Dr. K. St. Vincent Welch and pilot Affleck of Qantas. Cloncurry had been chosen as a test area for the infant service because it had a well-equipped hospital in the centre of 250,000 square miles in a sparsely-settled country. Most Australians live round the coastal belt. In the more arid interior, holdings are often as large as an English county and your nearest neighbour may be half or even a full day's journey away, even by car. Here, in the past, men, women, and children were struck down by illness and accident and died before help could reach them. And here, too, are heat, flies, dust-storms and rough bush roads. Sometimes heavy rains and flooded rivers make transport impossible in the wet season. Into the lonely centre of Australia in 1911 came a missioner, the Reverend John Flynn of the Presbyterian Church. His terri tory was between Port Augusta at the head of Spencer's Gulf in South Australia and Oodnadatta, south of the boundary with the Northern Territory. He moved among the settlers—but he was far more than a spiritual comforter. There was no parlour- sitting and tea-sipping for John Flynn. He would help an over worked settler with his tasks; he would hang out the washing or do anything that would ease the burdens of a harassed mother; he pulled out troublesome teeth; he brought comfort to the dying—and he watched them die because aid could not reach them in time. He saw a man with appendicitis rushed 250 miles on the back of a truck and saw him die because neither the doctor who was coming to operate, nor those with the patient, could make a way across the great swollen rivers. The problem concerned not merely these isolated people in South Australia but those all over the areas of the great continent where people are spread thinly—an area about twice as large as Europe. In the mind of John Flynn, and others of his church, was born the idea of the Australian Inland Mission which would, in Flynn's own words, "spread a mantle of safety" over these people. Flynn was made the first superintendent, in 1912. His plan, at this stage, was to establish a network of nursing homes staffed by trained sisters and doctors. But, even with hospitals and doctors, the distances were often too great—even if floods, dust-storms, and the bad roads did not bar the way. In 1917, he saw how it could, and must, be done. Medical aid must be brought above the dust and the floods, and the rotten roads. It must come on wings... FOR Australia's famous Flying Doctor Service it is a happy coincidence that during its 25th anniversary year the Queen should be visiting the Commonwealth; in the course of nearly 10,000 miles which Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh are covering by air, they will see typical areas served by the unique organization whose history and humane work is described in detail in this article. Often operating under the most adverse conditions, its aircraft have been the means of saving hundreds of lives and relieving an incalculable amount of suffering. It may not seem a very significant vision to us now, but in 1917 civil aviation was, to all intents and purposes, yet to be born. Even so, aeroplanes alone could be of little use; and again this far-sighted minister knew the answer—that other new-fangled contrivance, wireless. He began campaigning. Presently he found allies, men like Hudson Fysh of Qantas. Fysh shared Flynn's vision and his company could supply the aircraft. But the radio transmitter with its power generated by cycle-pedals was a tough problem. It had to be simple enough even for a child to operate, it had to be cheap, and it had to be reliable, needing only a yearly overhaul. Flynn sought help from all over Australia and, though he knew nothing about the still-new science of radio, he resolutely began to study it. - In due course he won over the Australian Inland Mission to his ideas and he finally convinced the doctors, who agreed to a year's test of the scheme. Financial life-blood for this initial ex periment came from the generous gift of money from the H. V. McKay Charitable Trust (Victoria). Although, from the begin ning, the public called the scheme "The Flying Doctor Service," its first official name was "The Aerial Medical Services of Australia." This description remained until 1942, when the doctors accepted the popular name and "The Flying Doctor Service" became also the legal title. By 1926 Flynn's dream was half realized. There were doctors and aircraft, but no suitable transmitter. That year, Flynn hired Alfred Traeger, an electrical engineer, to assist him with radio experiments at Alice Springs. The biggest problem was that the pedal generator gave an irregular flow of power, which meant that frequencies were apt to change in the middle of a message. Traeger overcame the difficulty after six months of experiment; then he returned to Adelaide and began to manufacture improved pedal-operated sets in his backyard workshop. The first cost about £A30 each; each comprised a one-valve transmitter and a two-valve receiver. They were W/T. sets, which meant that operators had to learn the Morse code before they could use the sets. Traeger offered to install the sets and to teach the owners the code. The first Flying Doctor, Dr. K. St. Vincent Welch, took up his large practice from Cloncurry base in May 1928. No radio sets had as yet been installed. Advised by telephone and telegram of illnesses, Dr. St. Vincent Welch flew over 20,000 miles to attend 255 patients in his first year of practice. By the end of that first operational year, six sets had been installed and on June 1st, 1929, the first S.O.S. came from Augustus Downs, a lonely outback homestead. It was now clear that the Aerial Medical Service must go on and there must be (Left) The late Rev. John Flynn, founder of the Flying Doctor Service. With him, pointing to a map of the radio coverage (as it was some five years ago) is Dr. John Woods, one of the medical officers whose experiences are mentioned in the article. (Right) A patient, brought in by a Rapide, is transferred to an ambulance otthe Wyndham base in N.W. Australia.
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