Soaring success
It’s a case of many happy returns for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), which celebrates its birthday in May. This iconic institution traces its origins to a postman performing surgery on a Kimberley stockman named Jimmy Darcy in 1917, using nothing but a penknife, morphine and instructions tapped out in Morse code. The postmaster valiantly repaired Jimmy, but it took the nearest doctor more than a week to arrive, and Jimmy did not survive. Reverend John Flynn was shaken by Jimmy’s death and vowed to provide a “mantle of safety” for people living in remote Australia. A medical student named Clifford Peel suggested a novel way of doing this: aeroplanes. On May 17, 1928, a plane took off from Cloncurry, Queensland, with Australia’s first flying doctor on board. In its first year, the aerial medical service treated 225 patients. Last year, the RFDS helped more than 370,000 Australians.
They said what?
“I am going to snap if you ask me about a kangaroo!” Rose Byrne joking about the most annoying question she gets asked by Americans.
“But the attention on me is not my natural habitat … The first day was probably a bit nightmarish.”
talking to TV Blackbox about replacing Samantha Armytage as the new co-host of Sunrise.
“She is effectively … the Prime Minister for Women.”
speaking at a press conference about Minister Marise Payne’s new appointment.
“I’ll do eye-gazing with her and sing songs … I chant for 20 minutes every day, religiously … I like to earn my breakfast, so I’ll just have some green powders that I mix with brain octane oil … It’s all quite LA, really.” Orlando Bloom talking to The Times about his baby daughter and morning routine.