John Flynn's outback care born at Beltana in South Australia's north; flying doctor enabled by Alfred Traeger's radio

The Smith of Dunesk Mission (top) in Beltana in outback South Australia, where John Flynn (centre, featured on a $20 Australian banknote) realised the rigours of remote life. This led to the Royal Flying Doctor Service, starting at Cloncurry, Queensland, through to the jet age. Right: South Australian Alfred Traeger's pedal-operated generator for radio overcame the initial communication gap.

The Australian $20 note featuring John Flynn with the first flying doctor plane, Victory, and beneath it the pedal radio invented by Alfred Traeger in 1929.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service came from a concept born at Beltana in outback South Australia. Beltana was home of The Smith of Dunesk Mission of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia began in 1894 and funded by a gift by Henrietta Smith of Lasswade, near Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1853 to benefit the Aboriginal people of South Australia.

Ordained in Adelaide, Presbyterian minister John Flynn had worked in rural areas of Victoria and South Australia before he arrived in the real outback at Beltana, 500 kilometres north of Adelaide, in 1911. At Beltana, Flynn saw the rigours of outback life and learnt there was no medical care available for inland residents and travellers.

Within a year, Flynn was commissioned by the church to prepare a report on life in the Northern Territory. This led to him being appointed as head of the new Australian Inland Mission. For the next 10 years, Flynn campaigned for an aerial medical service to provide a “mantle of safety” for the people of the bush.  

A large bequest from H. V. McKay enabled Flynn to get the flying doctor service airborne but he lacked the communication technology to deliver services efficiently.

This was solved by South Australian radio enthusiast Alfred Traeger, who had built a high-voltage generator for his final practical examination at the school of mines and industries. Through this device, Trager was introduced to Flynn in 1925. Traeger joined Flynn’s mission on a salary of £500 a year.

In 1926, Flynn and Traeger’s outback radio experiments resulted in Australia’s first radio telegram. Traeger invented a pedal-operated generator to power a radio receiver and, later, created Australia’s first home-made typewriter to help those who couldn’t use Morse code to relay messages on the radio.

By 1929, people living in isolation were able to call on the flying doctor to assist them in an emergency. Traeger later developed a voice-capable transceiver.