HISTORY OF RFDS
Timeline of events
■ 1880 John Flynn was born at Moliagul, central Victoria.
■ 1903 John joined the ministry and studied theology at Ormond College, at the University of Melbourne.
■ 1907 He commenced a four-year course in divinity at Melbourne University, graduating in 1910 and was ordained as a Minister of the Presbyterian Church in 1911.
■ 1911 Flynn arrived at the tiny Smith of Dunesk Mission at Beltana, over 500 kms north of Adelaide, South Australia. Here, he saw first hand the rigours of outback life and learnt there was no medical care available to inland residents and travellers
■ 1917, Flynn received an inspirational letter from Lieutenant Clifford Peel, a Victorian medical student with an interest in aviation. The young airman and war hero suggested the use of aviation to bring medical help to the Outback. Shot down in France, he died at just 24 years of age and never knew that his letter became a blueprint for the creation of the Flying Doctor Service.
■ For the next ten years, Flynn campaigned for an aerial medical service.
■ 1927 QANTAS and the Aerial Medical Service signed an agreement to operate an aerial ambulance from Cloncurry, Queensland.
■ 1928 the first pilot took off from Cloncurry, he was flying a single engine, timber and fabric bi-plane named 'Victory' (leased by QANTAS for two shillings per mile flown). He had with him the very first of our flying doctors, Dr Kenyon St Vincent Welch.
■ 1929 Alfred Traeger invented the pedal-operated generator that could power a radio receiver. By 1929 people living in isolation were able to call on the Flying Doctor to assist them in an emergency.
■ In its inaugural year, the Aerial Medical Service (which changed its name to the Flying Doctor Service in 1942 and the Royal Flying Doctor Service in 1955) flew 50 flights to 26 destinations and treated 225 patients.
■ 1951 the School of the Air was established in Alice Springs using the Flying Doctor Service network.