The Royal Flying Doctor Service.
I recently had the pleasure of attending the Royal Flying Doctor Service Masquerade Ball in Brisbane with my partner Ian. It is great to support an organisation like this and hear the stories of lives saved in the outback by the dedicated staff of the RFDS.
It was interesting to discover (with the help of RFDS pilot and historian Ian Wilson) that this life saving community service was actually founded on the basis of providing mental health support to those experiencing the effects of extreme isolation from outback living. Ian advises in his “Genesis of the RFDS” – ” In 1916, John Peel was a young medical student at Melbourne University. Serious, religious, and patriotic, he joined the Australian Flying Corps and headed to the Western Front in November 1917. During his voyage to France, he wrote to the Reverend John Flynn, head of the Australian Inland Mission. Peel had some passionate ideas regarding the use of aircraft to provide transport and missionary services to isolated people in the Australian Outback”
Michael Page writes in his book, ‘The Flying Doctor Story, 1928-1978’ that John Flynn believed aviation could ‘rescue outback folk from spiritual, emotional, and intellectual isolation.’ So, for both Flynn and Peel, at least initially, the idea of a Flying Doctor as an instant messenger of healing was of side benefit to the twin problems of outback mental health issues, and transport in general.
Sadly, John Clifford Peel failed to return from a reconnaissance flight on July 16, 1918 and was listed as ‘killed in action’. He never got to see his ideas brought to fruition by Flynn nearly a decade later and grow to become the iconic Royal Flying Doctor Service”
Organisations such as the RFDS provide critical support on so many levels to people in outback communities. I love their holistic approach to healthcare and admire all the workers and volunteers who dedicate their time to providing these services. They also helped save my sons life when he was bitten twice by a brown snake in remote WA. He was transported in a critical condition from Carnarvon to Perth and received the treatment he required.
The RFDS staff are currently working as hard as ever in delivering vital services to support and treat people during the COVID -19 Pandemic.
If you would like to donate to the RFDS, please click on the following link