Darwin Week 30

Sunday 30th January to Saturday 5th February 2022

Sunday

We spent most of the day at home. We did some grocery shopping for dinner.

Charlotte had her second bath at home. This time around she didn’t scream murder.

The rain has really set in and doesn’t look like easing any time soon.

Monday

Today was Wanda’s last day with us before leaving for Sydney in the evening.

We spent most of the day cleaning the house and washing in preparation for the house owners return on Tuesday.

It continued to rain very heavily all day.

Tuesday

We spent Monday night back in the caravan. It was a relatively nice return to normality for us being in the confines of our van.

Everyone slept relatively well overnight. It is going to take some getting use to having the extra baby stuff onboard with us.

Today we went shopping for our weekly groceries.

The NT has been suffering supply shortages due to flooding and destruction of the Stuart Hwy around the SA/NT border. This meant that the shelves at the supermarkets were completely bare for a little under 7 days. No staples and further on in the week no perishables at all.

Lucky the trucks made a detour of 3500km and finally arrived to deliver some stock on Saturday.

We were able to get some staples but still a lot was lacking.

Wednesday

We waited around at Moil house sit for a caravan plumber to come sort out our grill which had a sensor issue following ignition.

At around lunchtime we finally were hooked up and ready to move the caravan.

We’ve been having some issues with our second water tank pump and had to swing by another van repairer to get an opinion. As luck would have it, it worked normally when the repairer looked at it.

We drove to Big4 Howard Springs and parked up the caravan. It was still raining.

Madeline is less then impressed with Charlotte’s middle of the night crying. She even asked us “why are we keeping the baby.”

Thursday

There was a small break in the rain to allow us to go exploring the park.

It was raining pretty heavy most of the day and so we did arts and learning in the caravan. .

Friday

We visited the Darwin Royal Flying Doctors Tourist Facility.

The Beginnings – RFDS

Founded by the Reverend John Flynn, it began its aero medical operations in the Northern Territory in 1939.

Flynn was ordained a Minister of the Presbyterian Church in 1911. He was involved in missionary work in rural Australia. In his early 30’s he was sent to Mission post in Beltana , some 500km north of Adelaide. It was here he witnessed the hardship of life in the outback and the lack of medical help available.

Flynn was appointed head of the Australian Inland Mission, whose purpose was to minister to the spiritual, social and medical requirements for the people of the outback.

In 1916, to a letter to then Prime Minister William Hughes, he vigorously canvassed for a much needed aerial medical service.

On 17 May 1928 Victory, an air ambulance took off from Cloncurry for its first mission. Flynn’s vision had finally been realised. This was the beginning for the National Aerial Medical Service of Australia.

Progress of the RFDS

The NAMSA was renamed Flying Doctor service in 1942 and gained the designation of ‘Royal’ in 1954.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service is one of the largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organisations in the world, providing extensive primary health care and 24-hour emergency service to people that live, work and travel across the 7.69 million square kilometres of Australia.

Within the last year the fleet of 79 aircraft carried out;

337,686 total patient contacts were made through RFDS clinics, aeromedical transports and telehealth consultations

23,633 Nurse, GP and Dental clinics were conducted across Australia

Flew a total of 28,953,688 km’s