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Royal Flying Doctor Service
Royal Flying Doctor Service

Photographs supplied by Diane Watson

The Royal Flying Doctor Base in Alice Springs was established by the women of South Australia in 1939 as a centenary memorial to the pioneer women of the State. Money for the Flying Doctor Base was raised through various activities conducted by women of the Pioneer Women's Memorial Trust, set up in 1935.

The base was opened in a dual ceremony with the unveiling of a statue to Pioneer Women in the Garden of Remembrance in Adelaide on the 19th of April 1941. 

Handing over to the Acting President of the South Australian section of the Australian Aerial Medical Services (Sir Henry Newland) £5,000 for the establishment of the Alice Springs flying doctor base, as a memorial to the pioneer women of South Australia, the chairman of the Women's Pioneer Memorial Trust (Miss Adelaide Miethke), said that the gift came from women in all parts of the State, and that the money had been collected through the Women's Centenary Council during the Centenary year.

She thanked the A.A.M.S. for shouldering the responsibility of maintaining the service when it was established, and hoped that the service would prove a worthy memorial to pioneer women. In accepting the gift, Sir Henry Newland said that he did so with great pleasure, and with gratitude to the women of the State. The S.A. section of the A.A.M.S., he said, would endeavor to prove worthy of the responsibility of maintaining the service with the greatest benefit to the people of the outback, and in accepting this responsibility he trusted that his section would still have the support of the women. 
Chronicle (Adelaide, SA), 28 September 1939.

Although the Alice Springs base of the Australian Aerial Medical Services (S.A. Section) has only been operating a month, the doctor at the base has answered several calls. Regular reports of the activities at the base are forwarded to Mr. J. Churchill Smith, in Adelaide. No date has been fixed for the official opening of the base, but it will probably be early in the new year. In the meantime the base is functioning at capacity, carrying on a daily programme with Mr. Maurice Anderson as operator. The radio station, the cost of which has been met by the gift of £5,000 by the Women's Centenary Council, is in memory of pioneer women of the State. A plane, pilot, and doctor are located at the base, which serves an area within a radius of 400 miles of Alice Springs.
News (Adelaide, SA), 22 December 1939.

Location

Address:Stuart Terrace, Royal Flying Doctor Base , Alice Springs, 0870
State:NT
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -23.703931
Long: 133.8785
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Structure
Monument Theme:Landscape
Sub-Theme:Settlement
Approx. Event Start Date:1836
Approx. Event End Date:1936

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Saturday 19th April, 1941
Front Inscription

This Flying Doctor Base was established in 1939 by the Women of South Australia as a memorial to the pioneer women of the State`s first century

1836 - 1936

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au