Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Very Reverend John Flynn, OBE, DD, also known affectionately as Flynn of the Inland, was born at Moliagul in central Victoria on 25 November 1880 and died on 5 May 1951. My seat of Flynn is a large, rural electorate covering over 133,000 square kilometres. It is home to thousands of graziers, station hands and miners living in rural and remote areas, often hundreds of kilometres from services such as base hospitals. It is this remoteness that provides a link between so many of Flynn's residents and the man for which the electorate has been named, John Flynn. Many in this place may know Everald Compton. I think I have seen him lurking around the House today, actually! He has written a book about the great man; I thoroughly recommend it.

During his infancy, Flynn's family lived in various parts of Victoria, finally ending up in Sunshine in Melbourne. Here, John first heard romantic tales about the north, the vast outback, when his father's business partner mounted an unsuccessful business venture to the far north of the country. After graduating from secondary school, a young Flynn became a schoolteacher. In 1903, he joined the ministry and began studying theology, followed by divinity. He graduated and was ordained in 1911.

He began work in a missionary in the north-east of South Australia. At Beltana, he developed an appreciation for life in the bush. He was commissioned to prepare a report on life in the Northern Territory to be presented to the Presbyterian Church in 1912. Flynn's report included proposals for inland missions prompted the general assembly to act upon his recommendations, and they appointed Flynn the head of a new organisation called the Australian Inland Mission, AIM. The purpose of the AIM was to administer the spiritual, social and medical needs of the people of the outback.

It was through reading a letter from Victorian medical student and war hero, Lieutenant Clifford Peel, that Flynn began to develop his ideas of using air travel to provide medical services to the great interior. Over the next 10 years, Flynn campaigned for an aerial medical service. His vision was to provide a 'mantle of safety' for the people in the bush. His vision became a reality when his long-time supporter, HV McKay, left a large bequest—some 2,000 pounds in those days—for aerial equipment which enabled Flynn to get the Royal Flying Doctor Service airborne.

With the assistance of Qantas founder, Hudson Fysh, the Royal Flying Doctor Service became a reality with the lease of a Qantas aircraft. The first flying doctor flight took off from Cloncurry, in central western Queensland, on the 17 May 1928. From this pioneering beginning with a single-engine biplane, Flynn developed the aerial service into an irreplaceable bastion of country life. Through the development of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Flynn was at the forefront of a myriad of changes that made the lives of those in the bush much safer and easier. This included innovations like portable, pedal-powered radio sets—these were replaced by transistor sets—that allowed full communication between patients and doctors. But also made it possible for people to now communicate with each other. This technology led to the first School of the Air opening in Alice Springs in 1951, which is a service now synonymous with life in the bush.

The life of John Flynn was an important one. He served the people of outback Australian is an ever-increasing role. He improved the living standards for those who lived and chose to live in the bush. There is something that each and every resident of the Flynn electorate will take to their graves: that is this great man, who did so much for the bush.

House adjourned at 16 : 59