DR. JEAN WHITE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 18

DR. JEAN WHITE

TO ASSIST FLYING DOCTOR

Dr. Jean White,..who has been, ap-pointed.-assistant to. the-Flying. Doctor, Dr. G. W.. Alberryyat Cloncurry, is the first woman doctor to be appointed by the Australian Inland Mission. Her work will include part of the joint medical services for Normanton and Croydon, states the "Sydney' Morning Herald." • .;

It is possible that in cases of emergency she will be called upon to attend patients in the difficult Cape York country:

Should Dr. Alberry be called to the south, for instance, and- help was needed in the Gulf area, arrangements can be made for Dr. White to fly up, said the secretary of the mission (Mr. C. P. Hughes) recently, and the case will be dealt with expeditiously.

Dr. White does not hold a pilot's licence, and it is not considered necessary for the flying doctor to be a pilot, Mr. Hughes said, because the mission realises that the doctor must frequently attend to his patient in the air, and the' council considers that he should not be worried with details of flying as well. AIR TRANSPORT IS BEST. Almost unfordable rivers,, and . no roads worthy of the name, make travelling by any other means than air extremely difficult in this remote part of the continent. "There are several Church missions in the area, which is thickly populated with aborigines," said Mr. Hughes. "On the coast are the mining centres of Weymouth Bay and Portland Roads, which are completely isolated except' for the ship which calls monthly." Next month, however, a request of long standing will be granted, and a transceiver, the transmitting and receiving wireless set perfected by the A.1.M., will be installed, so that as well as being able to obtain assistance, news of the outside world will be received with greater frequency.

An A.I.M. padre is at present patrolling the peninsula by pack-horse. Cars are not much good there. The ones that do manage to reach Portland Roads are hauled in by a windlass on the last stage of the journey. The name of the settlement doesnot refer to land communication; It is used in the sea sense, because roads as they kre known in the south simply do not exist there. . ' Dr White, who is. most enthusiastic about her appointment, graduated from Melbourne University in J929. She arrived In Cloncurry several weeks ago.