About John Flynn
John Flynn was born at Moliagul in Central Victoria on 25 November 1880, the same year famous Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly, was executed. His father, Thomas Eugene Flynn, a school teacher, married Rosetta Lester in April 1876. The couple had three children - John was the youngest. Rosetta died in childbirth, when John was only three, and for several years he lived with relatives, until the family was reunited at Snake Gully, near Ballarat.
The Flynn family later moved to Sunshine in Melbourne's western suburbs. Here young John first heard romantic tales about Australia's vast outback when his father's business partners mounted an unsuccessful business venture to the far north of the country.
John graduated from secondary school in 1898 and began school teaching. In 1903 he decided to train as a Presbyterian minister. Initially he financed his studies working at Church Home Missionary centres around Victoria, and in 1907 commenced a four year course in divinity at Melbourne University. Flynn graduated in 1910, and was ordained as a Minister of Church in January 1911.
Throughout his training, Flynn continued to develop an interest in working in the Outback, and helped other Presbyterian Ministers like Donald Cameron and Andrew Barber with missionary work in rural and remote areas in Victoria and South Australia. In 1910, Barber and Flynn published The Bushman's Companion, a small book of information and encouragement for people in the bush which quickly became a best-seller. In early 1911, however, John was on the road to the real outback..jpg)
In February, John Flynn arrived at the tiny Smith of Dunesk Mission at Beltana, over 500 kilometres north of Adelaide in South Australia. At Beltana, he saw at first hand the rigours of Outback life, learnt there was no medical care available to inland residents and travellers. Within a year he was commissioned to prepare a report on life in the Northern Territory, to be presented to the Presbyterian Church in 1912. The General Assembly acted upon Flynn's recommendations and appointed him the head of a new organisation, the Australian Inland Mission (AIM).
The Australian Inland Mission (AIM) furthered Flynn's idea of a "Mantle of Safety" for Outback Australia, by establishing, over the next few years, several nursing homes, and recruiting a team of "Boundary Riders", ministers who travelled vast outback parishes by camel or on horseback, visiting communities and households, and tending to all the people of the inland. Another great Australian, Fred McKay (later to be leader of the AIM), joined Flynn's team of "patrol padres" in 1937.
John Flynn was 51 when he married the secretary of the AIM, Miss Jean Baird, in 1932. The years to follow saw Australia struggle through the Great Depression, and the no-fuss and knowledgeable Mrs Flynn became a great support to her visionary and hard-working husband.
John Flynn, who was twice moderator General of the Presbyterian Church died in 1951 and is buried at Mt Gillen near Alice Springs, the very centre of the vast territory to which he brought communication, medical comfort and pastoral care.
RFDS founder Reverend John Flynn is featured on one 'face' of the Australian $20 note.
The Australian Council Office collaborated with the Reserve Bank of Australia on the design of the new twenty dollar note, one face of which features the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia and its founder Reverend John Flynn.