Royal Flying Doctor Service Visitor Centre

Royal Flying Doctor Service

8-10 Stuart Terrace, Alice Springs NT 0870, Australia +61 8 8958 8412 Website 9am – 5pm Alice Springs Campervan Hire

tongpooch (contributor)

The third stop on our Whistle Stop tour of Alice Springs was the iconic Control Station for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. The Flying Doctors are very dear to the hearts of Australians and in particular the outback and rural areas. Their web site has a great slogan – “The furthest corner, the finest care.”

Sadly all we could visit was the new theatrette where a very interesting video of the work of the Flying Doctors was shown on a large screen.

We made a quick dash through the museum and would have loved to have spent time looking and experiencing the interactive displays, but had to make a choice – something to eat or the museum. Without food we may have suddenly become patients for the famous flying doctors, so eat we did.

They do have an on-site café located in the historic veranda area, but the café operates Monday to Saturday and we visited on a Sunday. However as said on my introductory page on Alice Springs, it was the ladies auxiliary to the rescue with freshly made up sandwiches, cakes and coffee – strangely I did not see any scones which I would have considered to be very much in keeping with the traditions of country women.

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2009.20 (18)
"?Who is it! Oak Cliff, Texas" Snapshot of Sergeant Devos. Page of the photograph album compiled by Sergeant C. P. Devos while the Royal Flying Corps were training in their winter quarters near Fort Worth, Texas, 1917-1918.

BE2c At Sunset
The Be2c was the aircraft used by the Royal Flying Corps in 1914. It was slow, unarmed and very frail but was still retained well into 1916.

138014 3rd Air Mechanic P.H. Marshall
138014 3rd. Air Mechanic Percy Harold Marshall Royal Flying Corps 16th. February 1918 Age 19 Additional Information: Son of William Henry and Rosa Elizabeth Marshall, of the Duke of Clarence, 49, Alfred St., Bow, London Buried at Tring Road cemetery, Aylesbury, Bucks.

Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps. GB124.DPA/1072/37

Royal Flying Corps
Royal Flying Corps, Italy. Donor is seated on the right. GB124.DPA/1439/10

Royal Flying Corps
George, aged 26, in the Royal Flying Corps in 1914. GB124.DPA/1072/144

Royal Flying Corps
World War One, Royal Flying Corps, the donor is on the right. GB124.DPA/1439/16

Royal Flying Corps
Donor in the Royal Flying Corps 1st World War. On the reverse: E.Crapper, 475 Gorton Road, N. Reddish. GB124.DPA/1439/7

Royal Flying Doctor Service
A plane of the RFDS coming into land at the Toowoomba City airport.

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Royal Flying Doctor Service
Royal Flying Doctor Service Pilatus PC-12/47E Registration VH-FXZ

Royal Flying Corps cap
During the first world war, the war became increasingly mechanised, through the use of machine guns and motor vehicles. Aeroplanes were used initially to spy on the enemy, and were later equipped with bombs and machine guns. Accession number: 2005.3002

Allan Smith 8
"En route Texas to Canada April 1918" Photograph of men in Royal Flying Corps uniform marching down a street. The stores they are passing include: Berger Electrical Co., Schiek Auto Col, The Electric Bar Restaurant, Johnson Piano Co. Possibly taken in Fort Worth. The Canadian-based units of the Royal Flying Corps trained in Texas from November 1917 to April 1918 to take advantage of the milder weather. Part of the J. Allan Smith Collection.

Royal Flying Corps officers in front of a BE2b.
Can anyone identify the plane? From the Robert McKenzie fonds, PR1991.0305/56.

[Airman, Royal Flying Corps]
Teitl Cymraeg/Welsh title: [Awyrennwr, y Corfflu Awyr Brenhinol] Ffotograffydd/Photographer: D C Harries (1865-1940) Dyddiad/Date: [c1917] Cyfrwng/Medium: Negydd gwydr / Glass negative Gweld y cofnod catalog | View the catalogue record (6389772) Gweld y ddelwedd | View the image (3891134) Rhagor o wybodaeth am gasgliad D C Harries yn Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru More information about the D C Harries Collection at the National Library of Wales

Royal Flying Doctor Service
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Royal Flying Doctor Service
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Replica Royal Aircraft Factory RE8 'A3930 / B' (ZK-TVC)
c/n 0002. Built in 2011 by The Vintage Aviator Ltd (TVAL) in New Zealand. First flew on 1st January 2012. She represents an aeroplane of 9 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, who flew the type from May 1917 until replaced by Bristol Fighters in February 1919. She made two public appearances in New Zealand before being imported to the UK in August 2012. This was her second and final flying display in the UK, having first displayed at Old Warden the previous Sunday. After the Duxford display she was flown back to Old Warden and then moved by road to the RAF Museum at Hendon, where she remains on permanent static display. Seen at the Imperial War Museum’s 2012 Autumn Airshow. Duxford Airfield, Cambridgeshire, UK 8th September 2012

Sky Pilot and Pilot in the Sky?
A really handsome family group with a Reverend gentleman, his lady wife and their children including a young man wearing an officers uniform bearing a winged O. Commissioned by Mr. Scutt, Creywell, New Ross the boys bear a strong resemblance to the father. Hopefully number one son survived the next 11 months and lived a long and happy life thereafter? Photographer: A. H. Poole Collection: Poole Photographic Studio, Waterford Date:Circa January 25th 1918 NLI Ref: POOLEWP 2758 You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie

Yorketown. Water tower art 2021. Two important images of the town the Royal Flying Doctor plane which takes the seriously ill to the Royal Adelaide Hospital and a windmill. The town had a windmill manufacturer for many years
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BE2c RFC Sutton's Farm 1916
The BE2c was the standard-issue aircraft for the Royal Flying Corps in 1914 but was soon totally outdated. By 1916 London was being bombed by night from German airships such as the Zepelin or the Schutte-Lanz. The people of London demanded protection and eventually the Government formed 'home defence' squadrons based around London. As all the latest aircraft were needed on the Western Front, these squadrons were often equipped with the oudated BE2c. One such squadron (39 Squadron) was based at Sutton's Farm in Essex (in a later war, this field was to be known as RAF Hornchurch). On the night of 2/3 Sept. 1916 Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson flew a night patrol as German airships were thought to be over London. He stood little chance of seeing one of these airships as they were faster than his plane and could fly at a much greater altitude. Suddenly Leefe Robinson caught sight of the German Schutte-Lanz SL11. After losing the craft in cloud, he found it again and, using the new incentiary bullets was able to shoot it down. For this action he was awarded the Victoria Cross and promoted to captain, although he always maintained he was simply 'doing his job'. Captain Leefe Robinson VC was posted to the Western Front and was shot down in a Bristol Fighter by the Richtofen 'Flying Circus'. He survived and was captured and made several escape attempts. He died on 31st January 1918 of the Spanish Flu.

Marree. The Royal Flying Doctor Service offices.
Marree/Herrgott Springs. These semi desert Aboriginal lands were first sighted by white men in 1840 when Edward John Eyre and his exploration party reached Lake Eyre. For some time people thought Lake Torrens and Lake Eyre was one big inland sea but explorations by Surveyor General George Goyder in 1860 proved that the lakes were separate. At that time Governor MacDonnell named the lake after Eyre (now Kati Thanda). It is about 90 kms from Marree. This area of SA is underpinned by deep artesian waters contained under great pressure and in some places they bubble to the surface forming springs. Salts and other minerals from the saline waters eventually create calcium walls around the springs as the water evaporates hence the term mound springs. When Sir Charles Todd was heading the construction of the Overland Telegraph in 1870- 1872 from Port Augusta to Darwin a camp was located at Herrgott Springs which was the first European name for the site of Marree. It was named after explorer John McDougall Stuart‘s botanist Joseph Herrgott who discovered a mound spring in 1859. There are over 5,000 mound springs in SA and they were vital to the construction of the Overland Telegraph. The town emerged when the Great Northern Railway reached Herrgott Springs in 1884. Before the survey a hotel and a general store opened in 1882.From the beginning the locals and towns people called the place Marree but the government railway station was Herrgott Springs. The Police Station and Post Office opened in 1883 and the school in 1884. During World War One this German name was changed to Marree in line with previous local usage. By 1885 the town had the two storey Great Northern Hotel, two general stores, two butchers, three saddlers and an iron Wesleyan Methodist church and it had 600 residents. This church was used as the government school which was only built in 1908. The Post Office began in a tent until a building was erected in 1886 and it doubled as a repeater station for the Overland Telegraph. The Marree hospital opened in 1912. The railway was the focus of the early town and in 1891 there was a government survey to see if a railway line from Marree up the Birdsville was viable. Another survey was undertaken in 1916 but nothing eventuated. Supples went up and down to Birdsville by camel trains Many Afghan cameleers were based at the springs as this was the starting point for camel trains to Birdsville, Oodnadatta and elsewhere. Around 1900 about 1,500 camels were based in Marree with 800 owned by just one Afghan. Although motor transport developed in the 1920s the Birdsville track cameleers were in Marree until 1949. Recently a replica Muslim mosque has been erected in the town to commemorate the role the Afghans played in servicing the Birdsville track. The first Mosque open by 1884 and was replaced twice before it closed. Its prayer rugs were sent to the Gilbert St. Mosque in Adelaide. Afghan names in Marree included Dervish, Moosha, Khan, Balook, Wahub, Dadih, Goolamdeen etc. Tom Kruse ran a truck mail service to Birdsville from 1936 to 1963 although the service continued until 1975 when an air service took over. 300 or so date palms were planted in Marree as a trial in 1884 but they did not thrive after about 30 years. The new standard gauge railway to Marree opened in 1957 employing about 85 men as the Ghan to Alice Springs changed gauge here from standard to the narrow 3’6” gauge. This railway closed in 1980 and the town has declined but tourism keeps it alive. Marree has a population of about 100 of which 60 % are men so it is a great place for women to find a partner! Marree Aboriginal School has two primary and one secondary class and six part time teachers. The town also has a Royal Flying Doctor service office, old Commonwealth Railway deserted train engines, and one of the trucks used by Tom Kruse from 1936.

Royal Flying Corps mechanical workshop
From the Robert McKenzie fonds, PR1991.0305/54.

Royal Flying Corpsmen and a crashed Avro 504.
France. From the Dent Family fonds, PR2009.0781/29.

Royal Flying Doctors dentist chair
Dentist chair of the Royal Flying Doctor

Royal Flying Doctor Service Visitor Centre

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