SUCCOUR BY AIR.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 May 1925, Page 3

SUCCOUR BY AIR.

for. OUTBACK SKITTERS. | SYDNEY, April JO. One of the greatest hardships sulfered by Australian outback pioneers m the past has been the difficulty ol securing urgent medical or surgical attention in cases of sudden illnesses or accidents. In some parts ol the - lin nwealtli. parlleulaiTy in Queensland Wsetern Australia and the Xortheru 'I errilorv isolated settlers are as much as 200 miles away from the nearest doctor. Malt of that distance might be from the nearest railway station The aiiLomnbile and the telephone alleviated the lot of the sick and maimed of the outback, but a still greater force to overcome the dilliculty «i distance IS the aeroplane, which already , locs been Ire .neatly used by doctors 111 , >i>s where hours or minutes have spelt life or death for a paitelit. j A recent instance of this comes liomj Queensland. Flying in an aeroplane, j thousands of feet above tortuous, almost impassable roads in North Queen- ( sland. Dr Sbeuherdsoii. liealih oilin'.' to the. ( loiKUiry Shire Council, was enabled to reach the stricken residents of the Duchess and Mount Isa mining fields and inoculate them against an epidemic of typhoid lever. Ihe jo” 1 ' | „ey took oldv a few hours, whereas b.v | road it would have taken two days a period which would have been prohibitive. as both the doctor and his hospital matron who accompanied him. could not snare that time to he away front their hospital patients. So successtul was the experiment that two su -sequent trips were made and what "ell might have been a calamity to the unfortunate settlers has been averted. This striking example of the part the aeroplane is playing in opening »P l,nthack Australia is by no means unique.

Fverv month the records ot the iom pany running the aerial service m Queensland (oiitam instances ol how the progress of civil aviation is aiding the settler in distress. A comprehensive proposal has been put forward by the Australian Inland .Miss!, m in West Australia to phinN tbev call it. a -'mantle of salctv over the continent. Briefly, their plan is to call to the aid of bush doctors and nurses, in the most ell'mient possible manner modern invention such as the aeroplane and wireless. The I'hms have been soic-" bat th.'rougldy prepared by tbe SuiHMintendeiit of the mission, and although it may he many, many years before they are put into operation, -...ere are undoubted possibilities in the eo-o|K‘ialion of the aeroplane pdot -ml the doctor.