Darwin & the Royal Flying Doctor Service

Have you ever looked closely at a $20 note? Can you see a picture of a human torso with numbers on it? Way back in the 1950s, Nurse Lucy Garlick developed the body chart to help doctors diagnose the illnesses of patients living in the Kimberleys. This chart consisted of torso parts labelled with numbers (front) & letters (back). Communication between doctor and patient was via radio with the patient identifying the part of their body where the pain/injury was and the doctor prescribing the relevant numbered/lettered medicine from the medical chests that had been placed on all the stations. This very same body chart is still in use today and was immortalised on the $20 note in 1994.

Next to the body chart on the note is John Flynn, the founder of what was first known as the Australian Inland Mission, and is now known as the Royal Flying Doctor Service after the Queen (that would be the one we still have now) recognised the service by allowing Royal to be put in front of the FDS in the 50s. When the RFDS first started in Conclurry, QLD in 1936, they did not own any planes; they leased them from Qantas for 2 shillings per mile flown. They also had only one pilot and two doctors. Now they own 61 planes and employ 146 pilots. They flew 26,863,558 kilometres last year; that’s the equivalent of 34 trips to the moon and back, or more than 600 flights around the Earth!! They provide acute and preventative health care to 278,000 Australians living in remote and rural regions, covering 80% of our total land mass; that’s a patient every 2 minutes. Amazing...

Having now driven through outback Queensland and parts of the Northern Territory, we have a greater appreciation for just how self-reliant and resourceful the people living and working in remote Australia have to be, and just how vital the RFDS is to them being able to stay on the land.

This is our final full day in Darwin before we fly home to Melbourne tomorrow for a few days. Don’t worry, we will be back to Darwin on Friday 17th May to start our 4 wheel drive adventure of the Kimberley’s so you can pick up our footprints then.

It will be nice to spend a few days with home comforts and spend time with Jaime.Lue lisää