John Flynn

Known as "Flynn of the inland" was an amazing man by the name of Reverend John Flynn. He is the founder of the Australian rural flying doctor service which in fact is the first ever flying medical service in the world. John Flynn was responsible for being there when accidents happened or medical attention was needed, no matter where in Australia.

John was born in 1880 on the Victorians goldfields and sadly his mother died when he was only 2 years old. After the death of John's Mother his father was left to raise the family. When John was Growing up he his goal was to become a church minister. So when John started working he worked in the bush as a lay preacher (preaching the gospel without official qualifications). John Flynn finally became a church minister after studying hard at the University of Melbourne and he achieved one of his goals.

John Flynn always remembered the loneliness of living in the rural land of Australia with his family so he wrote a book called "The bushman's companion." This book feature very easy to follow steps teaching people living in the bush things ranging from first aid and how to conduct a funeral. John Flynn was always distressed and felt very emotional when he saw lonely bush graves where he lived in rural Australia.

As John Flynn's first job as a minister he was assigned a mission in southern Australia. Many other church leaders were so impressed with his work that they told him to continue with his plans in rural Australia. John would always come to help people in the bush and he would always be prepared and would come with tools to mend things that were broken. John was a very caring person who would talk and he would always listen to what people were trying to tell him or ask him.

John Flynn's goal was to make sure that people living in the bush could be safe and could raise healthy families with medical facilities provided that they needed. So John Flynn built 15 hospitals in rural Australia and they were scattered all over the outback.

John Flynn's work was not yet complete though because he knew that to have a medical service you needed communication and transport. One day John got an idea from World War 1 because he thought that if planes were for transporting medical equipment in the war then why not a plane that flies through rural areas like outback Australia. John Flynn worked extremely hard on his goal and in 1928 the first ever flying doctor service left in Cloncurry, in north-west Queensland. John Flynn still came to a dilemma. His dilemma was that most of the injuries out in the bush were not attended to due to the fact most houses in the outback did not have active telephones because the phone wires were too far away to call for medical help. That did not stop John Flynn. He was assisted by a young inventor by the name of Alfred Traeger. Alfred Traeger invented a wireless pedal powered way of contacting medical services. His work was complete thanks to a young inventor by his side.

I believe that John Flynn is a hero because of all the times he put in not worrying about himself but to help others. John Flynn is a hero because he believed that if people put that little bit in each to help others the world would be a much nicer place to be a part of and he sure did lead by example. John Flynn was an inspiration man with a goal that he achieved so well and in so many ways. John Flynn died in 1951 at the age of 71 but his work is still carried on now. John Flynn revolutionized the way we look at medical assistance in the outback and so many lives have been changed and or spared thanks to the compassion and willpower of one man, John Flynn.