Australian
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The Flying Doctor (1941)

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'Mission of mercy' education content clip 1

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

In a dramatic re-enactment, set on a remote homestead in Australia’s outback, a station worker is suffering an attack of acute appendicitis. A member of the homestead radios for help to a hospital hundreds of kilometres away at the base station of the Australian Aerial Medical Service (AAMS). The Flying Doctor is contacted and given a description of the patient’s symptoms. In preparing to travel to the injured stockman, the Flying Doctor phones his pilot and together they fly to the location.

Curator’s notes

by Poppy De Souza

This clip, which captures the main action within the scripted scenario, does not use source sound, opting rather for an instrumental soundtrack and voice-over narration to build up the drama and accompany the images on screen. The action switches between the stockman, the doctor, his pilot, the radio operator, the base hospital and the AAMS. The narrator gives a blow-by-blow account in a commentary-style voice-over which adds to the intensity of the emergency which unfolds. Together the images, music and voice-over persuasively illustrate the important work of the AAMS and the Flying Doctor in remote communities throughout the country.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This black-and-white clip shows the operation of the Royal Flying Doctor Service by re-creating a real-life emergency in which a stockman’s life is saved. The stockman’s homestead radios a medical base station, which contacts a flying doctor. The flying doctor is seen responding on the radio and then flying to the man’s side. Scenes show the transportation of the man to hospital by plane and then ambulance. Music is used to dramatise the story and the narrator describes events in brief edited segments.

Educational value points

  • The clip promotes the Royal Flying Doctor Service by dramatising the ways it overcomes problems of distance and communication in order to save the lives of those who live in remote parts of Australia. In 1928 Reverend John Flynn (1880–1951), superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission, set out to defeat these problems by using air transport and radio communication to provide an aero-medical service to the people of outback Australia.
  • The clip depicts the process of recovering patients stranded in the remote bush. In an emergency, a call would be placed from a homestead that would be sent to the flying doctor service. An on-call doctor would first advise those at the scene of the incident on how to look after the patient before flying to collect them. Once the plane had taken off, the doctor would then call the nearest hospital, telling them to prepare for the arrival of the patient.
  • The scenario depicted in the clip was probably based upon an actual case that focused national attention upon the need for medical services for those who lived and worked in the outback. In August 1917 Jimmy Darcy, a stockman on a station in remote Western Australia, was injured and later died after a gruelling journey for medical assistance. The story of his fate made headline news and John Flynn related it during fundraising efforts for his new medical service.
  • Flynn’s vision, quoted in the clip, was for a ‘mantle of safety’ for those who reside in remote parts of Australia. His flying doctor service quickly showed its value, treating 255 patients in its first year. By 1939 all states had an Australian Aerial Medical Service, and there were 200 outpost radios and six aircraft serving 2.5 million square miles. Today the service, with its fleet of 30 aircraft and its 24-hour radio service and network of bases, has 100,000 patient contacts a year.
  • Pedal wirelesses of the kind shown in the clip were used by station residents and were instrumental in the development of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. A cheap and efficient two-way radio was needed to link outstations with a radio base in the nearest town. In 1929 Alfred Traeger (1895–1980) developed a wireless transceiver that sent morse signals with power generated by pedals. The radios were installed in outstations all over Australia. In 1934 voice communication replaced morse.
  • The clip provides an early example of an Australian documentary that dramatises the landscape and lives of those living in remote parts of the Australian interior. The use of cutaway images emphasises the importance of speed in responding to the emergency. A panning shot shows the wide barren landscape as the plane takes off, and then the view from the plane emphasises the isolation of the station where the injured man lies.