Around the World in 8000 days: Reverend John Flynn

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Alice Springs - reptiles and flying doctors

Reptile House, Alice Springs

Despite the Overland Telegraph Office being the starting point for the town of Alice Springs, we didn't actually go to see it while we were here. Neither did we go out to the Kangaroo sanctuary, which is run by Chris Barnes, the guy known as Kangaroo Dundee, who has his own TV show. Though we did see him at the Camel Cup, which I'll tell you about in the next post.

Reptile House, Alice Springs

We did go and see the reptile house, arriving at the end of a talk, but just in time to join in with the 'hold the animals' session. We got to hold a couple of lizards and a snake - if memory serves, they were a blue tongued slink, a bearded gecko and an olive python.

Reptile House, Alice Springs

For a small place, there is a large range of reptiles here, and they give good information about how dangerous each type is. They also include a couple of stories, such as that of a guy who was holding his beer in his 'snake catching hand', but decided to try to catch a brown snake anyway. He lost his hand. But hey, he didn't have to put down his beer!

Thorny Devil, Reptile House, Alice Springs

We did rather like the little Thorny Devils, which are apparently quite rare to see. It was also fun to say hello to the free roaming goanna, which I think was called Ruby. She was a reasonably inquisitive creature, so was happy to come up to us.

Reptile House, Alice Springs

My only concern here really was the size of some of the enclosures, especially that for Terry the saltwater crocodile, which seemed rather on the small side to me. Aside from that, it was an interesting and informative visit.

Reptile House, Alice Springs

Flying Doctors, Alice Springs

And of course we couldn't come here without finding out about the famous Flying Doctors. They were set up by Reverend John Payne, after he was appointed by the Presbyterian Church to improve the lives of those living in the outback. He initially set up bush hospitals, but these were no help to those outside of the main settlements.

Flying Doctors, Alice Springs

Lieutenant Clifford Peel heard one of Payne's radio broadcasts about the issue, and suggested to him something that he had seen in France in 1917 - doctors reaching their patients by plane. Sadly, Peel was killed in last year of the war, so never saw his idea come to fruition.

Flying Doctors, Alice Springs

This idea, together with the development of a pedal powered radio, meant that the basis for the flying doctors had been conceived. Ten years later, Payne had got the funding he needed. He hired his first plane, a de Havilland DH-50 called Victory, from Hudson Fysh, one of the founders of Queensland and Northern Territories Arial Services (now rather better known as Quantas), and the first flight took off on 17 May 1928.

Flying Doctors, Alice Springs

In 1934, the service was expanded to a national network, known as the Australian Aerial Medical Service. It changed its name to The Flying Doctor Service in 1942, and then in 1955 it received the endorsement from The Queen and added the 'Royal' to its name.