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Growth of the Service

In 1928 the dream of a flying doctor was at last a reality but Flynn and his supporters still faced many problems in the months and years to come. The first year's service was regarded as experimental, but the experiment succeeded and almost miraculously the service survived the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

By 1932 the AIM had a network of ten little hospitals across the centre. As for the flying doctor service, a succession of doctors and pilots followed Welch and Affleck and the Cloncurry operation continued to grow over the next few years.

The Service suffered severe financial difficulties during this period, but the continuing success at Cloncurry caught the imagination of people around the country and the world and prompted John Flynn and Dr Alan Vickers, a flying doctor, to push for a network of flying doctor bases spread across the continent, with government support.

In 1934 the Presbyterian Church handed the service over to a new organisation, the Australian Aerial Medical Service. Over the next few years Sections were established across Australia with their operational bases at Wyndham, Port Hedland, Kalgoorlie, Broken Hill, Alice Springs and Meekatharra along with two additional Queensland bases at Charters Towers and Charleville.

In 1936 a coordinating Federal Council was created. In 1942 the Service was renamed the Flying Doctor Service and the Queen granted use of the Royal prefix in 1955.

The growth of the Service made heavy demands on available funds and repeatedly John Flynn and his associates had to launch public appeals for donations. While some Government financial aid was made available on occasions in the early days, regular Government subsidies (both Federal and State) only became an established practice later on.

Even today the Service continues to rely heavily on money from trusts, donations and public appeals for part of its annual funding. Fundraising remains an integral part of the working day for the Service and volunteers, who played an important role in the establishment of the Flying Doctor, are still the backbone of the organisation.

Throughout the seventy year history of the flying doctor there has been a gradual increase in the number of Bases and the area that the Service covers. As needs have changed a number of Bases have also closed down or been relocated to more central areas to the people they serve.