Once a month the Barkly Mobile Clinic fly around many stations on the Barkly Tableland. You see we all live so far from town – 5 hours, 6 hours, 9 hours or even more. This is such a fabulous service and really quite convenient. The RFDS plane fly’s a Doctor & Nurse around the stations over the period of a few days. They overnight at certain stations.
The doctor can be from anywhere – Newcastle, the Sunshine Coast, Perth, Adelaide. This time our Doctor was Bruce and he was from Tassie. The Nurse is based at the Elliot town clinic, a tiny community in the middle of nowhere about 2 hours north of Tennant Creek. Our nurse this month was Charlotte and she is originally from Melbourne. Wow, what a culture shock it must have been moving to the NT and to such a remote tiny place such as Elliot. Our Pilot was Heather, she just commenced with the RFDS back in July and is originally from Victoria too. Heather is based down in Alice Springs.
From Left to Right: Bruce (Doctor), Heather (Pilot) & Charlotte (Nurse)
When they arrived there were a few storms lurking in the distance. I could hear the rumbling of thunder and had just quickly pulled all my clothes off the line due to the dark sky. I headed up to the Airstrip to collect them.
We only just managed to get everything in the car before the rain came pouring down. Oh so much rain. I couldn’t believe it. It was like it came out of nowhere. It absolutely teamed down.
We headed back to the station with our muddy shoes and had some lunch. There weren’t many patients for them to see. It was actually just just my kids. They have a couple of cuts that won’t heel so I thought it best to get them checked out. Isn’t it just so convenient that the Doctor and Nurse come to us… like our own private Plane, pilot, doctor and nurse! As DD would say “Better to be born lucky than rich, Dan!” … I totally agree DD. (FYI: DD is my wise Mum)
When the rain stopped I took Bruce, Charlotte and Heather over to our house, I mean what could be better than your own private medical crew than doing the consultation in your own lounge room! Yes please. Clancy wasn’t impressed and thought he might need his toe cut off. Turns out it was lucky we did get them checked out, they are both now on antibiotics and all sorted.
After the quick consultation we decided to head back up to the airstrip to check out the situation there and see if they could take off for the next station.
I was glad I had put my gumboots in the car last week, they came in very handy.
There were still a few storms around so we just waited up at the strip thinking they would soon pass. We did a couple of laps of the gravel strip and Heather inspected the turning bay – we use the term turning bay quite loosley….
The storm didn’t pass quite as planned. Once again it started pouring, we took cover in the car and headed back to the station through all the water. The water that was lying around from such a short downpour was just amazing.
Poor Bruce drew the short straw and had to brave the downpour and open/shut the gate.
So it was back to the kitchen to wait it out. They even helped me peel my veggies for dinner. I was sure they would be stuck here for the night, because: so much water! Our all weather airstrip (gravel) is only 700 meters but it was long enough to take off on.
This is the strip they landed on – it is our 1000 meter strip but isn’t all weather – as you can see…
This is obviously after the rain. Definitely NOT taking off on that one!!!
When the rain stopped Mr Chardy took Heather back up to the strip to suss out the situation once again. Yep – good to go. So we piled into the ute and buggy and headed up through all of the water. Looks like Charlotte drew the short straw this time and had to ride on the back of the ute. Yep, don’t worry Charlotte, you have definitely slotted into outback life ok.
They had managed to get the plane onto the gravel strip and it was ready and waiting in place.
And off they went… I was a little worried they weren’t going to make it off the strip in time as you can hear from my commentary. But all was good.
Heather got that PC-12 (note to self, don’t tell a pilot her plane is a King Air if it is a PC-12, sorry Heather, ha ha ha ha) up and away like a pro under difficult circumstances. Way to go!
So there you have it. Our brief but memorable doctor visit. Do you have any questions… please say hello in the comments section below and feel free to ask me anything, I do love a chat. No question is too silly.
What does your doctor visit look like?
Is there mud involved?
A private plane, pilot, doctor and nurse all to yourself?
Thanks for sharing your outback medical services.
Hi Miss Chardy Our whole family love reading about your station life especially the kids. Makes them appreciate town life. Good to see you are getting some rain. We are waiting for the rain to reach us today. The wide bay had over 300 mm y’day and it’s coming our way.
Any rain yet Mel? I love that your whole family reads this blog, that is so great, thanks so much!!!
Love your work Ms Chardy, I don’t think your lad is overly impressed about seeing the Doc.
No he most certainly was not 🙂
Love your stories Miss Chardy it excellent for the coastal people to learn about life in the outback
Love to bridge the gap Barbie. xxx
I love to bridge the gap Barbie. xxx
Great piece Miss Chardy. Really demonstrates a doctor’s visit under difficult circumstances and all done with a smile. We can begin to appreciate all the things that need to fall into place to keep the Flying Doctor moving on their visits to outback clinics.
Glad you enjoyed it Dee. Never a dull moment, right. ha ha ha
Hello Miss Chardy, I have thoroughly enjoyed your posts in relation to the trials and tribulations of living in Outback Australia. I am a medical Practice Manager at an after hours GP clinic in suburban Melbourne. Our struggles are similar but not the same. I admire your resilience and intestinal fortitude. You mentioned the outback town of Elliot. My son travelled throughout Australia in the 90’s and ended up working at an extremely remote and very expansive cattle station in Elliot. He really appreciated the attitude of the owners of the homestead towards their station hands and stayed for over a year. It was a wonderful experience for a young man and he now runs his own successful business in suburban Melbourne and I am sure he applies the same skills he learnt all those years ago to his own workforce. Take care and kind regards, Gayle
Hi Gayle, so lovely to hear from you and about your life down in Melbs. Did your son work at Newcastle Waters Station? I am glad you have enjoyed reading my posts and thanks so much for doing so. Love hearing from you. Dan x
The RFDS flew me from Karratha to Perth in an emergency at 7 months preggers over 17 years ago. I think they provide an amazing service. Thinking about medical home visits reminded me of the vet in Nigeria who did house calls, and castrated our cat on the kitchen table.
Hello there Sarah… are you still in Moscow??? Love hearing your stories!!! How amazing. And no words for the cat on the kitchen table, ha ha ha ha.
We were moved out of Moscow over the summer with very little warning after a ‘surprise’ restructuring of the company and plonked down in Houston, Texas around the same time as Hurricane Harvey. After 4 years in Moscow it was a very hard move as it happened too quickly and we didn’t get to say goodbye to some of our nearest and dearest plus our eldest was halfway through the IB. I’m slowly getting my head around it all and to end on a positive note, I am loving the warmer weather.
Wow Sarah, that is crazy. Total whirlwind. I am sure you are in a big mess but will settle in and at least you are looking on the bright side. x
Hi, I am the mother of Heather, your pilot. Thanks so much for your wonderful blog and the great photos and video. We have shared them with relatives in Canada as well. Great chance to see our daughter at work!
Cheers, Jean
Hi Jean, so lovely to hear from you. They were such a great crew and Heather did an amazing job under difficult circumstances. It was a bit of excitement too just quietly, ha ha ha. So much water!! Thanks so much for sharing all around the world.
I’m glad that it worked out well for you guys! Bruce and Charlotte both enjoyed it lots!
Oh it really was quite fun, just quietly, ha ha ha. They were a great crew.