This Feature

MAY 16, 2013
1928-2013
ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE 85th ANNIVERSARY
FURTHESTCORNER,
FINEST CARE
MIRACLE IN THE SKY. P3 • MEDICINE ON THE WING. P6 •
STOCKMAN WHO INSPIRED A LEGEND. P10
PLUS - INSIDE AN AIRBORNE AMBULANCE
Happy 85th Anniversary to Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Dependability and reliability do matter. Beechcraft Corporation wishes the Royal Flying Doctor Service
happy 85th anniversary of bringing the finest care to the furthest corners of Australia. At Beechcraft, we
place high priority on dependability and reliability. We congratulate the Royal Flying Doctor Service on their
very important mission—and wish them continued success for many more years.
Beechcraft.com
©2013 Beechcraft Corporation. All rights reserved. Beechcraft and King Air are the registered trademarks of Beechcraft Corporation.
RFDS — CELEBRATING 85 YEARS 3
MAY 16, 2013
1928
Reverend John Flynn establishes the Australian Inland Mission Aerial
Medical Service at Cloncurry in Queensland. A De Havilland DH50A is
hired from Qantas. Dr Kenyon St Vincent Welch is the first flying doctor.
1929
The Pedal Wireless is invented and installed at the
first radio base station at Cloncurry in Queensland
and then all over the outback at remote stations.
Savanna Addis
with mum
Helen and
Dr Dean
Boyatzis, who
performed a
life-saving
procedure,
right, on an
RFDS plane en
route to Perth
during a
turbulent
flight. Picture:
Bill Hatto
Success against the odds
It took three brain operations to save Savanna Addis’ life during a 17-hour
rescue operation from Kununurra to Perth, writes Angela Pownall
lying thousands of feet
above outback WA,
Savanna Addis is half an
hour away from serious brain
damage, and even death.
With hours until the Royal
Flying Doctor Service plane
reaches Perth, Dean Boyatzis is
forced to operate on her brain
mid-flight.
The Kimberley-based flying
doctor has never done the
painstaking procedure before,
let alone mid-air in turbulent
weather with the 10-year-old’s
worried mother looking on.
With support from a
neurosurgeon by satellite
phone, Dr Boyatzis carries out
the life-saving treatment three
times during the flight.
Earlier that day, Savanna
fractured her skull, causing
bleeding on her brain. She needs
emergency treatment in Perth.
But events are conspiring to
turn what should be an urgent
but routine transfer into a
17-hour obstacle race.
More than two years on, Dr
Boyatzis, Savanna and her
mother Helen reunite in the
same aircraft where the drama
unfolded. They recall the day
when tragedy was averted
against the odds.
Savanna was eating breakfast
at her parents’ mango farm near
Kununurra. It was an exciting
time for Savanna, sister Jamilah
and parents Helen and Ralph
F
Addis who were leaving in a few
days for a six-month trip around
Australia.
Everything changed when
Savanna fell off a chair, striking
her head.
Savanna was born with
Alagille syndrome, a genetic
disorder affecting her liver and
heart. “She doesn’t tolerate
anaesthesia well. She was an
unstable patient before we even
started,” Mrs Addis explains.
Two hours after her fall,
Savanna is in Kununurra
District Hospital where Dr Eric
Beltz operates to drain bleeding
between Savanna’s brain and
skull, guided by paediatric
surgeon Sharon Lee via video
link from Perth 2500km away.
“I needed to get blood out of
my head. So there was one hole
drilled and it wasn’t very
successful, and there was
another hole drilled,” Savanna
says.
It is believed to have been the
first operation of its kind
performed in WA using video
conferencing.
The RFDS crew in Derby gets
the call that Savanna needs to be
evacuated.
Emergency evacuations from
Kununurra are taken to Darwin
or Perth but a cyclone over
Darwin means planes cannot
land.
The RFDS cannot scramble its
only aeromedical jet in WA,
which can fly from anywhere in
the State to Perth within three
hours, because it is undergoing
maintenance.
It comes down to the Derby
RFDS crew to get Savanna to
Perth in its single-engine
aircraft.
An hour after they set off,
Savanna’s condition
deteriorates as the bleeding
continues.
Dr Boyatzis tries to call a
neurosurgeon for advice but the
satellite phone does not work
immediately because, he
explains, they are not designed
to work while moving so fast.
“We finally got through and it
significant challenge. The risks
are death, permanent disability,
infection,” he says.
With flight nurse Jocelyn
Forbes, Dr Boyatzis opens up
the stitches in Savanna’s head.
“It entailed just opening up
the area, trying to explore and
remove the clot. It worked quite
well the first time,” he says.
“During the flight we had to do
it twice more and then more
blood came out.”
“It was increasingly stressful
with Savanna’s mum sitting
there watching me do it. It’s not
usually what you have to do
when you do surgery.”
Fearing the blood will keep
‘Everybody was doing their best but we were
at the mercy of a broken fuel pump.’
quickly became apparent that
something needed to happen
there and then. Waiting wasn’t
an option,” he says.
A drain in Savanna’s head has
become blocked.
“We probably couldn’t wait
another half an hour. It was that
close to pressure being too high,
to cause permanent disability.”
Dr Boyatzis has never
performed this procedure
before. Normally a doctor’s first
attempt is closely supervised by
a senior surgeon. “That was a
building up, Dr Boyatzis
desperately wants to get
Savanna to Perth quickly.
Unfortunately that is not
happening.
The pilot needs to land at the
Camp Nifty mine site to refuel.
But the weather closes in 10
minutes before landing and they
are forced to divert to nearby
Telfer, where they discover the
only fuel pump is not working.
“It was just dreadful and there
was nothing you could do,’ Mrs
Addis says. “Everybody was
doing their best but we were at
the mercy of a broken fuel
pump.”
Eventually a break in the
weather enabled Capt. Nick
Gallet to fly to Camp Nifty to
refuel. It was past midnight
when Savanna arrived at
Princess Margaret Hospital, 17
hours after she hit her head.
Savanna spent weeks in
hospital and rehabilitation to
deal with the physical
consequences of her injury.
“I’ve got splints now which I
didn’t have before. I’ve got a
helmet now. I’ve got a hole in
my head now. There’s still skin
but there’s no bone. I can’t feel
my legs or my feet now and
that’s changed. I worry more
now,” she says.
After that dramatic day in
February 2011, Savanna raised
$7500 for the RFDS and became
one of the faces of Telethon.
“Given the scenario, Savanna
couldn’t have been further away
from a neurosurgeon anywhere
else in the world. RFDS is the
only way she could get down,”
Dr Boyatzis says. More than 8200
patients were flown by the RFDS
in WA last year, a 39 per cent
increase since 2008.
Mrs Addis says Savanna’s
accident made her realise how
vital the RFDS is in rural WA.
“Families just wouldn’t live
there without the RFDS,” she
says.
MA
1
WELCOME
The Royal Flying Doctor Service is a vital lifeline across
Australia’s vast spaces for those in need of medical help
Message from the Patron
His Excellency Malcolm McCusker, AC CVO QC
Governor of Western Australia
W
FEATURES EDITOR
Mark Mallabone, 9482 3574,
features@wanews.com.au
EDITOR Ben Martin, 9482 3058
STAFF WRITERS Angela Pownall,
Joseph Catanzaro, Geoffrey
Thomas, Alex Massey
COVER PICTURE Roy Morris
Photograph: Lee Griffith
DESIGN Bree Romet, Kelly
Fitzgerald
ADVERTISING
Terence Tay, 9482 9706,
terence.tay@wanews.com.au
Don’t miss our
special online
series celebrating the
RFDS’ 85th anniversary,
featuring videos, audio
and photo galleries
starting next week at
thewest.com.au
hen I talk to people about the Royal Flying
Doctor Service I am always encouraged by
the positive response I receive and it
reminds me just how important this organisation
is to the community.
As Patron of the Royal Flying Doctor Service in
Western Australia, it gives me great pleasure to be
part of this publication celebrating the proud
history of the RFDS in Australia. The Royal
Flying Doctor Service has been serving the
community for 85 years since its first flight out of
Cloncurry, Queensland in 1928. It has been helping
the sick and injured and touching the lives of so
many ever since, and continues to remain an
essential service to this day. It is a lifeline to
people living and working in remote parts of this
vast country, and provides peace of mind to those
His Excellency, Governor Malcolm McCusker.
“The Flying Doctor . . . has now become a national enterprise. As these planes fly here and there
cross the whole of Australia’s vast spaces they throw the shadow of the Cross — symbol of hope
and salvation — upon the earth . . . all this was conceived in the mind of that great dreamer,
John Flynn — ‘Flynn of the Inland’, a name which will be stamped indelibly in the records of
Australian History.” Albany Advertiser, Monday, May 3, 1937
travelling across its sizeable interior. It also
delivers critical support to people who live in
urban centres by providing emergency transfer of
patients between regional and metropolitan
hospitals, as well as interstate.
Using the latest in aviation, medical and
communications technology, the RFDS today is
one of the biggest and most comprehensive
aeromedical organisations in the world.
Each year the RFDS responds to the health
needs of over 270,000 people — that is one person
every two minutes.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service was the result
of Reverend John Flynn’s vision to provide “a
mantle of safety” in the form of access to quality
medical care for people in the outback. It
required persistence, innovation and drive to
bring his vision to fruition and those values are
still very much the cornerstone of the
organisation today.
They also go to the heart of what makes this
country great — serving the community and
helping those in need, no matter who you are, no
matter where you are. It is an organisation that
all Australians can be proud of.
I hope this publication gives you some insight
into the important work of the Royal Flying
Doctor Service and its valuable role in the
community.
A
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D
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pa
as
wo
in
Fl
ex
Na
be
ba
th
Ro
fli
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Through NRW’s A safe day. Every day. program, our safest teams are awarded an amount to donate to
a charity of their choice. In 2012, the Royal Flying Doctor Service was presented with donations from
three of our teams. Congratulations to NRW’s winning crews and to the Royal Flying Doctor Service on
85 years of service.
WOEN0090
NRW IS A PROUD SUPPORTER OF
ROYAL FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE
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o
1935 The first RFDS base at Wyndham was
opened. It was later moved to Derby
from where it operates today.
Fact: There are
785 landing
strips across WA.
A shared load
1936
The Western Australian Section officially registered on June
14, 1936 with the section’s first base opened at Port Hedland on
October 10 and the first medical flight made on the opening day.
Married couple Robyn
and Peter Naglewicz
team up as nurse and
pilot in the RFDS.
Having a spouse who understands the
stresses helps. Angela Pownall reports.
ealing with sick patients,
worried families and
emergency medical
evacuations in the most remote
parts of WA does not sound like
a scenario where romance
would easily blossom.
But hundreds of hours shared
in the air as part of a Royal
Flying Doctor Service crew did
exactly that for Peter and Robyn
Naglewicz. Capt. Naglewicz
began work as an RFDS pilot
based in Meekatharra around
the same time as his future wife
Robyn joined the service as a
flight nurse. Now the couple are
married and have two young
daughters. Capt. Naglewicz said
the isolation of being based in
Meekatharra helped bring them
closer together. “Being a very
small town and working for the
RFDS, it was only natural that
we’d end up flying together. We
had a good working relationship
D
and being a smaller place we
spent a lot of time socially as
well,” he said.
They would fly together three
or four times a week on RFDS
missions as far north as Port
Hedland and Exmouth, all over
the Gascoyne region and in the
Goldfields. “Meekatharra is one
of those locations that allowed
us to see the Gascoyne region,”
he said. “Being people who love
to see new places, it was
fantastic. Other than the
isolation, it was a great place to
gain exposure and experience.”
Mrs Naglewicz said they had
both had to deal with traumatic
accidents and events.
“One of the worst things is
when young people in the
community lose their fingers or
part of their arm. It’s disfiguring
and they are young,” she said. “I
really, really feel for them. I try
not show it on my face but inside
We are proud to support and partner with the Royal Flying Doctor Service
and congratulate them for 85 years of indispensible service.
WOEN0090
of
RFDS — CELEBRATING 85 YEARS 5
MAY 16, 2013
While flying is what they’re known for, health care is what they do best.
The RFDS On the Road Program travels via 4WD to deliver health
information and training to individuals and groups in regional and remote
communities across WA.
I’m wishing they have
people around them who can
really support them.”
Capt. Naglewicz said
“talking shop” after hours
came with the territory for
them, but it helped both of
them. “I think having
someone in the job who
understands what we do is
immensely helpful. This is
where Robyn and I are very
fortunate that we have each
other,” he said.
Would you like to make a difference and save lives?
The Royal Flying Doctor Service employs 300 staff across WA.
They include:
• 60 doctors
• 50 flight nurses
• 50 pilots for a 24-hour-a-day,
365-day-a-year service
• 20 engineers to maintain the
aircraft fleet
• 20 co-ordination centre staff to
organise flights
• 20 primary health care clinicians and
educators
• Plus corporate and administrative staff
If you would like to make a positive
difference every day, why not
consider a career with the RFDS?
Send your curriculum vitae and a cover
letter to employment@rfdswa.com.au
6 RFDS — CELEBRATING 85 YEARS
1937 Dr Jean White is appointed as the
first female flying doctor to the
Western Australian section
MAY 16, 2013
Fact: There are five bases across WA: Jandakot, Meekatharra,
Port Hedland, Derby and Kalgoorlie, and plans to establish
a base in Broome.
1942 The name Flying Doctor
Service of Australia is
formally adopted.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service lands in
Eucla.
Roy Morris relaxes.
Dennis and Robyn Nash at Rawlinna Station.
Medicine on the wing
The Royal Flying Doctor Service is best known for its emergency
evacuations. But for the people living on the Nullarbor, its
fortnightly GP clinics are a lifeline. Angela Pownall reports.
Pictures: Lee Griffith
quatting inside the cramped
interior of a light aircraft,
Roy Morris examines his
patient, a strapping jackaroo
injured in a motorcycle accident
in one of the most remote and
inhospitable parts of Australia.
Flies buzz irritatingly around
the flying doctor’s
unconventional consultation
room and there is little room to
move as Dr Morris tends to
Philip Wilkinson, who sits
hunched on a small stretcher.
The small Cessna 402 offers
the only privacy and shade out
on the airstrip at Rawlinna, a
sheep station on the Nullarbor
almost 400km from Kalgoorlie.
And there are fewer flies in
the cabin than outside, where
the desert sun beats down
relentlessly and a strong wind
takes the red dust airborne.
This is business as usual for
Dr Morris, the senior medical
officer at the Royal Flying
Doctor Service in Kalgoorlie,
which does a fortnightly GP
clinic to remote locations along
the Trans-Australian Railway to
Eucla, close to the South
Australian border.
“We do it in lots of interesting
places,” he said. “It could be
inside a barn, an aircraft
hangar, the plane as just now.
We go into people’s homes, the
homesteads and the roadhouses.
It’s very varied.”
S
Look inside
the Royal
Flying Doctor
Service
headquarters
and aircraft
Go to
flyingdoctor.
org.au/
Virtualtour
Or scan this
QR Code
For people like Mr Wilkinson,
72-year-old Rod Campbell who
has shingles and Shae Sutton
who is heavily pregnant, the
Royal Flying Doctor Service is a
lifeline and a safety net.
Temperatures on the
Nullarbor reach almost 50C in
summer and plunge below
freezing in winter. It is so far
from anywhere else that it has
its own, albeit unofficial, time
zone. Central Western Time is
the scattered Nullarbor
community’s compromise
between WA and South
Australian times.
An hour’s flight from
Kalgoorlie, Rawlinna Station is
Dr Morris’ first stop. It is one of
Australia’s biggest sheep
stations at more than one
million hectares and home to
48,000 sheep and 15 staff.
Mr Wilkinson, a jackaroo at
Rawlinna for the past year,
damaged his knee with a
suspected torn cartilage and
pulled ligaments when he was
mustering sheep on a
motorcycle.
“I’ve gone around a bluebush
just trying to get the mob back
along the fence,” he explains. “I
was watching the sheep more
than anything. I hit a log and it’s
twisted my knee.”
Without easy access to a
hospital and deciding not to call
out the RFDS’ emergency plane,
Roy Morris examines jackaroo Philip Wilkinson.
Mr Wilkinson has waited in
pain for 11 days for the RFDS’
GP clinic.
Dr Morris tells Mr Wilkinson
he needs to see an orthopaedic
surgeon in Perth for further
tests and gives him advice and a
prescription for pain relief in
the meantime.
Rawlinna Station manager
Dennis Nash and wife Robyn
have lived on the Nullarbor for
37 years and brought up two
daughters there.
“The RFDS comes out every
fortnight, so they are a lifeline,”
Mrs Nash said. “Without them, I
don’t know what we’d do. It’d be
very isolating and it’d be a long
drive into Kalgoorlie if you have
to go and see a doctor.”
It’s a five-hour drive by dirt
road to Kalgoorlie — a trip Mrs
Nash only makes every two or
three months when she needs a
haircut. For them, the isolation
is a benefit not a hardship.
‘The feedback we
get is that it’s
really essential.’
— Roy Morris
“It doesn’t bother me in the
least,” she said. “I love the peace
and quiet, especially at
Rawlinna. If you go into the
homestead, it’s an oasis of green
lawns and lovely stone
buildings. It’s very easy to live
in Rawlinna and it’s only a
five-hour drive to Kalgoorlie,
which is really nothing.”
The flying doctors are as
much a part of life for people on
the Nullarbor as the School of
the Air and quarterly dry stores
deliveries.
Continued on page 8
Medical support spans the Pilbara
In safe hands
It was Boxing Day 2012 when expectant
mum Louise Boshoff went into labour in
the remote Western Australian town of
Newman. What should have been an exciting
experience was everything but, as her baby
wasn’t due for another two months.
GP boost for Newman
We’ve all experienced the frustrations of waiting to see a doctor when you’re injured or
unwell. Add to that, being 1,200 kilometres from Perth and needing specialist medical care.
For those living in the Pilbara, it’s not always easy to get the
specialist medical attention they require, when they need it.
Thanks to additional funding from BHP Billiton, the RFDS’ Rural
Women’s GP Service in Newman, now has an extra female doctor.
Today, up to 20 people can be seen each day at the medical clinic
in the Parnpajinya community near Newman. The service supports
Indigenous women living in Newman as well as Indigenous men
and children, and operates for three consecutive days each month.
Brett Swayn, Vice President of Health Safety Environment and
Community at BHP Billiton Iron Ore is proud of the company’s
role in helping to improve health services throughout the Pilbara.
“Additional funding for this partnership will allow a female GP
to regularly visit Newman to deliver essential medical services
to the local Indigenous community,” he said.
Open 24/7
After being assessed by a local doctor, Louise was bundled
into a Royal Flying Doctor Service aircraft and flown to
Perth in time for medical staff to stop the labour. After a
somewhat turbulent start, a healthy, happy Skyla Rose
was born at the end of January. Louise was relieved to
finally have her new child safely in her arms.
Her happiness was short-lived as two months later
Skyla developed a fever and fell ill. The two were about
to embark on their second journey to Perth in as many
months via the RFDS.
“I have never been so worried in my life. It’s an awful
feeling to see your baby so unwell, and not know what
is wrong with her. The Port Hedland RFDS team was
fantastic. They closely monitored Skyla and took time to
explain everything they were doing because they could
see how distressed I was.”
Skyla spent a week at Princess Margaret Hospital
for Children where it was confirmed she had viral
meningitis. She is now fully recovered and back at
home in Newman with her family, however her mother
Louise will be forever grateful the RFDS could respond
so quickly to transport her daughter to Perth to receive
urgent medical attention.
The Port Hedland RFDS base has been operating
for 73 years. A dedicated team of doctors, nurses
and pilots are on call 24 hours a day, seven days
a week ready to respond to emergencies.
A new hangar at Port Hedland, which was sponsored by
BHP Billiton, means the RFDS can respond more quickly to remote
emergency situations. BHP Billiton provided $800,000 towards
the construction of the hangar which was completed last year.
“We are proud to work with the RFDS to improve health services throughout the Pilbara,
implementing programs that have direct and long-lasting benefits to the community.”
Brett Swayn, Vice President of Health Safety Environment and Community, BHP Billiton Iron Ore
www.bhpbilliton.com
Baby Skyla recovering at Princess Margaret Hospital
for Children.
Kybo Station, an eight-hour drive from Kalgoorlie on the Nullarbor, has 6500 sheep.
Right: Shae
Sutton and Sally
Haines, 2, at
Madura Plains
Station.
Left: Rod
Campbell gets
medical
attention at
Kybo Station.
‘I love the peace and quiet at Rawlinna.’ — Robyn Nash
From page 6
“You have to be organised and
buy in bulk,” Mr Nash said.
“Once you’re organised and you
know what you’re going to use
over a period of time, it’s no
problem.”
Next stop is Kybo Station,
which is the creation and life’s
work of Rod and Jill Campbell,
and Mr Campbell’s brother
Graeme in the early days, who
built the sheep station and their
home — made of railway
sleepers — from a virgin block
in 1965.
Mr and Mrs Campbell keep
6500 sheep on their 308,000ha
station, which is an eight-hour
drive from Kalgoorlie, but Mr
Campbell, now 72, says life in
the outback is not as easy as it
used to be.
“It’s getting harder now
especially since I’ve had this
debilitating illness, trying to
keep everything going,” he said.
“I can see the station’s running
down. We’ve got to do something
shortly.”
Mr Campbell is recovering
from shingles. He has been
flown to hospital twice by the
Royal Flying Doctor Service —
once with pneumonia and last
year with head injuries after he
came off his motorcycle.
“It’s a marvellous service, no
doubt about it,” he says.
Mrs Campbell, 70, was
diagnosed with skin cancer this
year.
“I had to have three weeks of
radiation,” she said. “Even the
weather affects you out here.”
But she still loves the
Nullarbor life.
“It’s a great country, perfect
pastoral country,” she says. “I
would hate it (living in the city)
and would get sick of it. You go
in and do what you have to and
I’m always glad to get back.”
Not everyone on the Nullarbor
has been brought up living on
the plains.
Dr Morris next sees two
young women who came to
Madura Plains Station for work
and new experiences two years
ago and have settled to raise
their families.
Mel Haines, 25, left the
verdant German landscape to
travel to Australia where she
met husband Matt, Madura
Plains Station manager.
“It’s green and lush and not as
hot in Bavaria, so completely
different to here,” she said.
Mrs Haines gave birth to her
second daughter Kiara three
months ago. Along with
daughter Sally the couple live on
the remote 708,000ha station.
Mrs Haines says she enjoys
the Nullarbor lifestyle and does
not worry about what’s going on
in the rest of the world.
“We’ve got our little
community and catch up with
the neighbours, who are about a
two-hour drive away, two or
three times a year,” she said.
“The kids can play together. We
have barbecues and casino
nights.”
Jillaroo Shae Sutton, 21, is
expecting her first baby with
partner Mike this month. She
has had monthly and, more
recently, fortnightly check-ups
during her pregnancy by the
visiting flying doctors.
“I think it’ll be good,” she
said. “There are other little kids
in the community for him to
Below: Roy
Morris weighs
and measures
three-month-old
Kiara Haines at
Madura Plains
Station.
play with. I’ll just take each day
as it comes, I guess.” Her only
worry is going into labour early
at the station.
Dr Morris gives little Kiara a
check-up, weighing her on the
Haines’ veranda, and checks Ms
Sutton’s unborn baby with an
ultrasound scan as she lies on
two-year-old Sally’s bed. While
the public may hear more about
the Royal Flying Doctor
Service’s emergency
evacuations, clinic services are
an important part of its work.
Dr Morris and the other four
doctors at the Kalgoorlie base go
out to 11 clinics every month.
Last year, the RFDS saw 542
patients in these remote clinics
along the Trans-Australian
Railway and Eyre highway, a big
increase on the 333 people seen
in 2008. Flying doctors saw more
than 31,300 patients in 2435
clinics across WA last year.
“The feedback we get is that
it’s really essential,” Dr Morris
said. “It’s just because of the
tyranny of distance. People here
would be travelling for a
day-and-a-half sometimes just to
get somewhere where they can
get some service. So if we can do
something to try and help, that’s
good.”
Sole help for the
next 1500km
For a long and lonely 1500km
stretch of the Nullarbor, the first and
only permanent point of medical
help is nurse Wendy McGuinness.
She is on 24-hour call at the small
health clinic in Eucla, the easternmost community in WA where some
40 people live just 13km from the
South Australian border.
She never knows what the next
call-out will entail and who or what
will come through the door for help, Wendy McGuinness
but she says in her three-and-a-half
years in the job, she’s seen it all.
“I can see 10 to 12 people in a day, then none,” she says. “Eighty per
cent comes off the highway and highway traffic is increasing all the time,
as are caravanners with chronic diseases which are typical of the elderly.
“I’m all there is for 1500km from Norseman to Ceduna. It’s a long way.
You name it, I’ve seen it. Everything from a sick dog to heart attacks,
strokes and multiple trauma which is common because there are a lot of
rollovers.”
Silver Chain runs the clinic, which closes for eight days every two
months so Mrs McGuinness can have time off, and is one of 12 remote
nursing posts the not-for-profit healthcare provider has in WA. Every
fortnight a Flying Doctor visits to see patients at the clinic.
Mrs McGuinness says she usually helps with two or three emergency
evacuations a month and recent examples include a man who crushed his
hand between two boats, a roadhouse worker who burnt her hand in oil
and two cyclists knocked off their bikes.
Available from:
Watches of Switzerland
38 King Street Perth
Ph (08) 9322 8800
JR Duty Free
772 Hay Street Perth
Ph (08) 9322 2688
Smales Jewellers
143 Rokeby Road Subiaco
Ph (08) 9382 3222
real watches for real people
Oris Royal Flying Doctor Service Limited Edition
Automatic mechanical movement
Inside turning dial ring for second time zone
Pulsation scale on dial
Limited to 2000 pieces
Ph (03) 95 100 200
RRP $1,900
www.oris.ch
A percentage from each watch sale will be donated to the RFDS to continue their lifesaving work.
10 RFDS — CELEBRATING 85 YEARS
1956 The RFDS’ first fatal plane crash in the
Leopold Ranges in the north of Western
Australia. All five people onboard killed.
Robin Miller was known as “the sugar bird
lady” to outback children when she was
giving polio vaccine in sugar lumps.
MAY 16, 2013
Fact: RFDS services an area of
2,500,000 square kilometres in WA,
known as Western Operations.
1960s During this decade the RFDS began to
buy its own aircraft and employ pilots and
engineers. Before that contractors were used.
MA
1
Legacy lives on in
the nation’s skies
Cast of characters helped inspire and make RFDS the
vital institution it is today, writes Joseph Catanzaro
n 1917, in the rough-and-ready
reaches of the WA outback, a
stockman named James Darcy
was thrown from his horse.
His could have been just one
more tragic death in the bush, a
barely lamented casualty of the
harsh and unforgiving outback.
Almost a century on, James
“Jimmy” Darcy has been largely
forgotten, but the legacy that
this simple WA stockman
inadvertently helped inspire
still cuts its way through
outback skies across the nation.
For the tale of James Darcy is
said to have inspired
Presbyterian minister John
Flynn, who spread the
stockman’s tragic story in the
big cities and the towns in order
to highlight a desperate need for
medical care in the Australian
outback.
It was not the single catalyst,
but it was an important link in a
chain of events which led to the
creation of what is known today
as the Royal Flying Doctor
Service.
Mr Darcy was the first of a
cast of characters in WA who
helped inspire and make the
RFDS a vital institution and
modern-day success story.
I
The telegram sent by Dr Holland in Perth to Mr Tuckett
in Halls Creek so he could operate on James Darcy.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
‘She (Robin Miller) was just a
simple girl who wanted to fly.’
Some of those characters, like
the aviatrix Robin Elizabeth
Miller, are well remembered.
Others are best known not to
the history books but to the
people whose lives they saved.
The circumstances
surrounding Mr Darcy’s death
were so extraordinary that they
actually made headlines around
Australia in 1917, at a time when
WWI was dominating
newspaper pages nationally.
Brought into Halls Creek, the
young stockman was taken to
the only man for hundreds of
kilometres with even a passing
knowledge of first aid.
But local postmaster W. J.
Tuckett quickly realised Mr
Darcy’s injuries were internal,
and beyond him. Records held in
the Battye Library show he sent
a telegram to a man of passing
acquaintance in Perth, Dr John
Holland.
Dr Holland, 2280km away,
realised Mr Darcy needed
surgery if he was to have a
chance of survival, and told Mr
Tuckett he would need to
operate.
“Make stab wound one inch
deep, one inch long, half an inch
above pubic bone,” Dr Holland
told the postmaster via
telegraph.
“OK, can do this if it is
absolutely necessary,” Mr
Tuckett sent back.
Using Morse code, Dr Holland
guided Mr Tuckett through the
seven-hour operation, which he
performed perfectly with the
tools at his disposal: a razor and
a penknife.
On August 9, 1917, Dr Holland
took passage on a steamer from
Fremantle, heading north in an
attempt to tend to Mr Darcy
after the successful operation.
On August 22, after an
arduous overland journey from
Derby through rough country,
he arrived in Halls Creek to
discover the stockman had died
the day before.
The tragic tale of Mr Darcy
was taken up by Rev. Flynn, and
used to support his campaign to
bring medical care to the remote
Australian outback. In 1928, Rev.
Flynn’s dream finally got off the
ground, after he established the
Australian Inland Mission
Aerial Medical Service at
Cloncurry in Queensland.
Jan
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RFDS — CELEBRATING 85 YEARS 11
MAY 16, 2013
1967
Robin Miller, known as the Sugar Bird Lady, flying sister
and pilot, administers Sabin polio vaccine on a sugar cube
throughout the north of WA in a Cessna 182.
1990 The Aircraft Replacement Appeal launched and
in the following six years raises $9.5 million to
upgrade and modernise all the RFDS planes.
ke
o
Jan and Penny Ende met and married through their work with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Picture: Michael O’Brien
y
nd
en
This de Havilland DH50A aircraft was used by the Aerial Medical Service at the
Cloncurry base, Queensland, in 1934. It was a Qantas plane, built by Qantas at
Longreach, and named Iris. The plane was equipped with radio by wireless
expert Alfred Traeger and Maurie Anderson.
Taken between 1936 and
1939, this photo shows
the first plane and first
doctor-pilot team at the
Port Hedland base —
pilot Max Campbell, left,
and Dr Allan Vickers. The
base opened in October
1935 and the plane is a
Fox Moth DH83 biplane
VH USJ John Flynn.
Far left: The
headstone of
James Darcy.
e
Left: Don
Ende at the
controls of
VH-FDK
“Colin Yates”.
g
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The invention of the pedal
wireless in 1929 and its spread
across outback Australia meant
people in remote locations could
now call for medical assistance.
And in 1934, the Victorian
section of what would become
the RFDS set up shop in the
Kimberley region of WA.
Jan Ende, now 70, began
flying for the Victorian section
of the RFDS in 1969.
Since 1966 he had flown with
the WA section, and his older
brother Don Ende worked with
Eastern Goldfields section.
Like some echo of Mr Darcy’s
fatal accident 49 years earlier,
the younger Mr Ende’s first
job saw him sent out to help a
man injured by a horse near Mt
Hart.
Unlike Mr Darcy, the patient
survived.
In 1970, Mr Ende met a nurse
named Penny who was helping
the RFDS with some of its clinic
visits to remote communities in
the Kimberley. Later that year,
they married.
Often paired up, they
traversed the outback, braving
storms and hurricanes,
navigating by compass alone in
the pitch darkness where they
had to, landing on dirt strips lit
by the uncertain light of flaming
drums.
The couple said lives were
sometimes lost in the outback,
but many more were saved.
Among the often larger-thanlife characters they met was a
young nurse and pilot by the
name of Robin Elizabeth Miller.
History remembers her as “the
sugar bird lady”, the name given
to her by outback Aboriginal
children when she was
delivering the polio vaccine to
them in sugar lumps in the late
60s. By 1969, she had
administered more than 37,000
doses of the vaccine and flown
more than 69,000km.
Her life, cut short in 1975
when she died of cancer at the
age of 35, is all the more
poignant for the good she did.
“We knew Robin well,” Mr
Ende said. “She was just a
simple girl who wanted to fly.”
In 1990, Mr Ende’s older
brother Don, 52, was killed on a
commercial freight run when
his plane went down just north
of Meekatharra.
Three years later, languishing
in a farmer’s shed near
Margaret River, Mr and Mrs
Ende found a little Cessna 180
that both the brothers had flown
in the service of the RFDS.
They restored it and named it
the Don Ende in honour of the
former RFDS pilot.
Mr Darcy, the sugar bird lady,
and Don Ende could not be
saved. But in their own way and
their own time, each of these
West Australians helped inspire
and perpetuate the dream that
has become the RFDS, and in
doing so, continue to help save
the lives of others today.
And they, Mr Ende said, were
just a few names in a long and
growing list of people that
continue to make history by
providing sick people in the
outback with a chance at a
future.
Congratulations on 85 years
of dedicated service to people
in remote areas.
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12 RFDS — CELEBRATING 85 YEARS
1993
The Best for the Bush survey undertaken by the RFDS. Ninetyfour recommendations focusing on specialists services,
preventative, early childhood and mental health implemented.
MAY 16, 2013
Fact: RFDS uses about
5.7 million litres of
fuel each year.
1999 Program of flying female doctors to
rural and remote locations to cater for
all aspects of isolated women’s health.
The flying lifesaver
The Royal Flying Doctor Service in WA uses 15
state-of-the-art aircraft to respond to emergencies,
reports Geoffrey Thomas, Aviation Editor
hey are two of the hotrods
of the sky and they carry
precious cargo — the sick
and injured.
They are the front line of the
Royal Flying Doctor Service and
help make up the fourth-largest
plane fleet in Australia
The twin-engine Hawker
800XP2 and single-engine
Pilatus PC-12 are true
thoroughbreds and the
mainstays of the WA-based
RFDS fleet that numbers 15
planes. Australia-wide the fleet
numbers 61.
According to RFDS Western
Operations’ medical director
Stephen Langford, the Hawker
800 is the only permanently
configured aeromedical jet
anywhere in Australia with the
T
The aircraft are fitted out with a full range of medical equipment.
REVESCO AVIATION
capacity to carry three stretcher
patients and up to three clinical
staff at once.
“The jet can fly non-stop from
any location in Western
Australia to Perth within three
hours and it can undertake
interstate transfers without
refuelling stops in most
circumstances,” Dr Langford
said.
“It can also undertake faster
flying doctor retrievals from
offshore locations, such as the
Australian Territories of Cocos
and Christmas Islands, and has
the advantage of a dedicated
aero medical layout to help us
treat almost any patient.
“Seriously ill babies also
benefit as this jet can easily load
and carry the specialised
Mansell Neocots used by
Princess Margaret Hospital and,
when requested, we will be able
to take babies to specialist
medical care interstate.”
Importantly, the Hawker 800
adds to the State’s disaster
response resources and
enhances WA’s capacity to
respond quickly and effectively
to mass casualty incidents. The
Hawker 800 traces its origins to
the De Havilland 125 which first
flew in the UK in 1962.
Since then the corporate jet
has gone through a host of
improvements while the
location of the manufacturer
has changed many times as the
aviation industry consolidates.
It is now built in the US.
The PC-12 is built by
Swiss-based Pilatus, which was
formed in 1939. Development of
what was to become Pilatus’
best-selling plane was started in
1987, with a first flight on May
31, 1991. Pilatus has sold more
‘The jet can fly non-stop from any location in WA to Perth
within three hours.’ — Dr Stephen Langford
Rio tips in $6m
for vital service
REVESCO AVIATION IS AN OWNER-OPERATED AIR CHARTER
SERVICE THAT BRINGS YOU SAFETY AND COMFORT.
The company also prides itself on:
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Highly-trained flight crew
First class fleet with international capabilities
A high level of planning for each and every journey.
1934794πJPTT160513
REVESCO AVIATION PTY LTD
26 Newton Road Perth Airport WA
6105 Australia
Tel: 1300630737 | Fax: 0893214411
Rio Tinto will continue to fund The Royal
Flying Doctor Service Life Flight aeromedical
jet service for Western Australia for the next
four years at a cost of $6 million.
The new funding agreement will take to
$11 million the support provided by Rio Tinto
for the service.
RFDS chief executive Grahame Marshall
said “since the jet’s first mission in October
2009, the aircraft has flown 2115 hours,
evacuating 867 patients, the majority (74 per
cent) from the more distant Kimberley and
Pilbara regions.
“Many lives have been saved as a direct
result of the Rio Tinto Life Flight,” Mr
Marshall said.
“The Rio Tinto Life Flight jet has been the
realisation of a long-held dream for the RFDS
and the statistics alone prove just how
important it is to continue to provide this
service to rural and remote WA.
“We have experienced unprecedented
demand for our services over the last three
years and the jet has enabled us to respond
to urgent cases in the furthest corners of our
State and Australia’s Indian Ocean
territories.”
The jet — a Hawker 800XP2 — has been a
boon for residents of the State’s north, with
54 per cent of its patients coming from the
Kimberley region and 20 per cent coming
from the Pilbara.
According to Mr Marshall, the capacity of
Grahame Marshall
‘Many lives have been
saved as a direct result of
the Rio Tinto Life Flight.’
the Rio Tinto Life Flight jet allowed the RFDS
to conduct the first double critical care
transfer, where two critically ill patients were
transported at the same time, each with their
own critical care doctor and nurse team.
Rio Tinto president of Pilbara operations
Greg Lilleyman said Rio Tinto was proud to
continue to be associated with such a vital
service in remote medical care.
Geoffrey Thomas
Aviation Editor
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An RFDS Hawker
800 aircraft.
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The impressive cockpit of the Hawker 800 aircraft.
THE
PLANES Pilatus PC-12
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Hawker 800XP
Cruise Speed: 682km/hr
Range: 4732km
Ceiling:̀13,666m
Capacity: Three stretcher
patients and three clinical staff
than 1200 and the plane is still in
production.
The RFDS Rio Tinto Life
Flight jet service is also
supported by the WA
Government which underwrites
the cost of the operation by up to
$1 million per year.
The RFDS in Victoria has also
made a $3 million contribution
towards the purchase of the jet.
Locally, the RFDS Flying 1000
fundraising group in WA has
also raised $750,000 towards the
purchase of all the portable
medical equipment required on
board the aircraft.
In order to modify a plane for
its demanding role in the RFDS,
it needs to be transformed into a
Cruise speed: 500 km/h
Range: 4149km
Ceiling: 9,150 m
Capacity: Two stretcher patients
and two clinical staff.
full flying intensive-care unit.
This is a two-stage process
which can cost more than
$2 million to complete.
The landing gear needs to be
modified for dirt runways and
reinforcements added.
Another challenge is fitting a
cargo door wide enough to allow
for easy loading and unloading
of stretcher patients. Next is a
custom-built stretcher system
with a hydraulic lifting device to
raise and lower patients to and
from the plane.
The second stage involves
equipping the interior of the
aircraft with a full range of
medical equipment, including a
defibrillator, ventilator, oxygen
Inside the Medevac/Air ambulance
and suction system, medical
cabinets, monitors and
stretchers. A separate medical
battery must be installed to
supply power to all the
equipment. An integrated
communication panel must be
added to ensure medical staff
can make emergency satellite
phone calls while in flight.
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14 RFDS — CELEBRATING 85 YEARS
Fact: In 2011-12, the RFDS
conducted 2,435 clinics and
saw 31,305 patients.
MAY 16, 2013
2011- A $3.3 million expansion of the Port Hedland
2012 base was completed to cope with the
population expansion from the mining boom.
Fact: In 2011-12 financial year, RFDS Western
Operations aircraft flew 7,619,781km. That’s almost 20
times the distance from Earth to the Moon.
Tales of heroics
C
t
For one good Samaritan, the RFDS has always been there,
on call to save countless lives. Alex Massey reports.
M
with horses smarter than myself. I had
frequent flyer points with them before
Qantas worked it out,” Mr Lanagan said.
“They saved my dad’s life when he
suffered a ruptured ulcer at Myroodah
Station (260km east of Broome), they
picked my daughter up once when she
had pregnancy complications and flew
her to Perth from Perenjori in the
Wheatbelt . . . they’ve carted quite a few of
my family and just countless patients
over the years.”
Mr Lanagan was barely 18 when RFDS
“legend of the north” Dr Lawson Holman
talked him through the delivery of a baby
at a remote station.
He said the Aboriginal mother had been
rejected by her people because of “tribal
reasons”. There was no one else around.
“So I thought, well, I better go have a bit
of a look at this, you know, I’ve organised
the birth of foals and calves, I thought it
can’t be that much different,” he said.
“That was done with the aid of walking
back and forward to the flying doctor
radio in the middle of the night, crackling
and carrying on, the doctor telling me
Volunteer ambulance
driver Mick Lanagan.
‘I had frequent flyer points
with them before Qantas
worked it out.’ — Ambulance
driver Mick Lanagan
what to do. Of course we didn’t have any
proper umbilical clips or any of that stuff
so we boiled up a bit of butcher’s string
and used that. It was the Queen’s
Birthday so I called the baby Elizabeth.”
An RFDS collection tin at Sandfire has
produced on average $7000-$10,000 a year
since Mr Lanagan arrived more than two
decades ago.
“I’ve seen truckies drop a $50 note in
the tin. A lot of people appreciate the
RFDS,” he said. “You could not count the
number of lives they’ve saved.”
Th
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ke
ra
de
re
fu
ex
an
Aerodrome Management Services Pty Ltd
Congratulates the RFDS on
their 85th anniversary
Your one stop shop for
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www.amsaustralia.com
1951558πSLTT160513
ick Lanagan recalls his first
encounter with the Royal Flying
Doctor Service as if it were
yesterday.
The former stockman-turned-volunteer
St John Ambulance driver, then four,
watched on in awe as Dr Harold G. Dicks
landed his Auster two-seater at Carnegie
Station, 350km east of Wiluna, before
treating the victim of a horse-riding
accident. From that moment, Mr Lanagan
only wanted to be two things — a doctor
or a pilot.
“I never quite got to be a doctor but I
did learn to fly,” the 67-year-old said from
Sandfire Roadhouse.
For the past 22 years Mr Lanagan has
patrolled Great Northern Highway from
his Sandfire base, halfway between Port
Hedland and Broome, responding to
emergency calls 24 hours a day, 365 days a
year. His tales of RFDS heroics stretch
further than the 600-odd kilometres of
bitumen he presides over.
“God knows how many times I’ve had to
call the flying doctor. They carted me
three times when I had disagreements
MA
1950828ϖMHTT160413
013
RFDS — CELEBRATING 85 YEARS 15
MAY 16, 2013
Fact: In 2011-12 financial year, RFDS flew 8,264 patients in
evacutations, hospital transfers and repatriations, a 39 per cent
increase in the past five years.
0
Continuing a fine
tradition of saving lives
The challenge for the
RFDS in WA is to
keep up with the
rapid increase in
demand as the
resource industry
fuels population
expansion in regional
and remote areas
f
he history of the Royal
Flying Doctor service in
WA reflects the pioneering
spirit on which our vast State
was built and which today
continues to drive massive
economic expansion and
population growth.
We are proud of the reputation
we have created over the past 85
years and of the special place our
services and staff occupy in the
lives and hearts of regional and
remote communities.
From humble beginnings in
1928 when the Rev. John Flynn
started an aeromedical service to
provide a “safety net” for
T
o
How to donate
e
If you would like to help the Royal
Flying Doctor Service, head online to
flyingdoctor.org.au or
phone 9417 6400
413
Fact: The Rio Tinto Life Flight jet also travels
to Christmas Island, the Cocos Islands,
Darwin and the Eastern States.
pioneers in outback Queensland,
to today’s 61-strong national fleet,
including 15 aircraft in WA that
last year flew 7.7 million
kilometres and carried 8600
patients, our core focus has
always been the same: to deliver
life-saving medical care to people
in remote areas in times of need.
The challenge for us in WA has
been keeping up with the rapid
increase in demand for our
services as the resource and
other sectors fuel population
expansion in regional hubs and
communities in the State’s more
remote areas.
Our emergency Statewide
telephone number last year
received more than 35,000 calls
for medical assistance and
advice. Never before has the
footprint, and the reach, of the
RFDS been bigger across WA.
But to ensure we are able to
deliver our life-saving services
‘We have to
continually
expand our
reach, and
increase our
capabilities.’
Grahame Marshall
wherever and whenever we’re
needed, we have to continually
expand our reach and increase
our capabilities.
This year we announced our
aspiration to establish a new
RFDS operating base in Broome,
which has now become our
busiest patient hub in the north
of the State, with more than 600
patients moved to and from the
town last year.
The challenge is to turn that
vision into a reality by securing
funding for this $20 million
project. We are seeking support
from the State Government and
our community and corporate
partners.
While the RFDS receives very
strong funding support from the
State and Federal Governments,
and is extremely appreciative of
corporate support such as the
recently announced new
four-year funding sponsorship
by Rio Tinto of our Rio Tinto
Life Flight Jet, we still remain
heavily reliant on community
fundraising efforts to maintain
our services.
You are the reason we fly and
you are our motivation for
continuing, and further
developing, the entrusted legacy
of our past 85 years, ensuring
that we continue to provide
relevant and contemporary
services, and extend our
emergency safety net even
wider as this great State of ours
continues to develop and
prosper.
Grahame Marshall
RFDS chief executive of
Western Operations
Proudly Supports the RFDS
1951558πSLTT160513
Airflite Congratulates the Royal Flying Doctor Service on
their 85th Anniversary and are proud to support the RFDS
Aircraft Maintenance requirements.
Contact Airflite for all Aircraft Maintenance needs.
T:9478 9000
26 Newton Road
Perth Airport 6105
info@airflite.com.au
www.airflite.com.au
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Bronwyn’s story starts with
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See what happens next at mystorycontinues.com.au
The Rio Tinto Life Flight jet - the result of a milestone partnership
between Rio Tinto and the Royal Flying Doctor Service - benefits
people all over Western Australia. It means that life saving care is
no more than three hours away.