The Royal Flying Doctor Service
A tv serial??
• Maybe you know the
Australian tv-serial The
Flying Doctors about the
people and the doctors in
Coopers Crossing.
• This serial has made the real
Royal Flying doctors famous
all over the world
John Flynn
• The real Royal Flying
Doctor Service was
founded by John
Flynn
• John Flynn was a
presbyterian minister
• He moved to the
outback in 1911
Problems
Life in the outback was dangerous, hard and lonely
People needed:
• contact with other people
• education
• medical service
Contact and education
• Flynn found pen-friends in the cities for the
lonely people in the outback
• Flynn wrote a book called The Bushman’s
Companion – with information and advice for
people in the outback
• He collected books and newspapers in the cities
for the outback people
Patrolling Padres and nurses
Flynn sent out:
Patrolling padres
• ministers, who visited
isolated places on
horseback or camels.
Nurses
• He also set up more
than 10 nursing
centres in the bush
Clifford Peel
• A young medical
student and pilot in the
army gave John Flyn
the idea of using
aircraft
Alfred Traeger
• Alfred Traeger
invented a radio
driven by a pedal
generator so people
could communicate
over long distances
and call a doctor
Jimmy Darcy
• To raise money, John
Flynn told the story of
Jimme Darcy – a
young stockman who
died a terrible death
because he couldn’t
get at doctor.
H.V. McKay
• The factory
owner H.V.
McKay, who
invented the
Sunshine
Harvester left
Flynn a big
sum of money
in his will
1928
• The first flight was in 1928
1934
• In 1934 the Flying
Doctor Service
became an
independent
organisation seperate
from the Presbyterian
Church
Television serial
• A television
serial about
the Royal
Flying
Doctors was
made in
1984
Television serial
• The service
became famous
all over the world
because of a new
and longer serial
about the doctors
and the people in
a small outback
town – Coopers
Crossing