Angels in the Outback

$30.00

This is a remarkable story told for the first time in all its detail and with he understanding of an insider.

Just before World War I the Reverend John Flynn, a young Presbyterian clergyman from Victoria, set out to ease the loneliness of many outback people.  Working under the banner of his Australian Inland Mission he eventually was helped by travelling padres who held religious services where two or three people and a child or two were gathered together, and by the young nurses who opened makeshift hospitals far from the doctor’s surgery.  The difficulties they faced are traced in this book.  We see Sister Latto Bett travelling on an open trolley along one of the few outback railways, and holding up an umbrella to protect her from the intense heat. We glimpse Padre Plowman riding a camel, for it was still the main carrier in a cast arid area.

Out of stock

Category: Tag:

Description

This is a remarkable story told for the first time in all its detail and with the understanding of an insider.

Just before World War I the Reverend John Flynn, a young Presbyterian clergyman from Victoria, set out to ease the loneliness of many outback people.  Working under the banner of his Australian Inland Mission he eventually was helped by travelling padres who held religious services where two or three people and a child or two were gathered together, and by the young nurses who opened makeshift hospitals far from the doctor’s surgery.  The difficulties they faced are traced in this book.  We see Sister Latto Bett travelling on an open trolley along one of the few outback railways, and holding up an umbrella to protect her from the intense heat. We glimpse Padre Plowman riding a camel, for it was still the main carrier in a cast arid area.

Here in the late 1920s the world’s first flying doctor service was founded.  it was made possible by Flynn’s supporters; a young and dedicated Melbourne doctor named George Simpson; Alfred Traegar of Adelaide who devised a pedal wireless that linked outback homesteads and camps with the faraway pilot and doctor; and the engineers who managed to fit a stretcher inside the cramped cabin of the tiny Qantas aircraft of the era.

After Flynn died, his role as leader was taken up by Fred McKay, a North Queenslander, and then by Max Griffiths, the author of this book.  the brisk revival of outback mining in the second half of the twentieth century, and the changing way of life of Aboriginal peoples, multiplied the calls on the organisation that Flynn had founded.  Max Griffiths carries the story into this new era.

 

 

 

 

Additional information

Weight .700 kg
Dimensions 22.5 × 15 × 2 cm

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “Angels in the Outback”