What anniversary is the Royal Flying Doctor Service celebrating?
80th anniversary of its creation in 2008: “The service began in 1928, originally as an experiment known as the Aerial Medical Service (AMS) which was to run for a single year. This experiment was based in Cloncurry, Queensland. It was formed by Reverend John Flynn, the first Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM), a branch of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.” “By 1928, Flynn had gathered sufficient funds through fundraising activities to launch the experiment of the AMS on 15 May. Its supporters included industrialist HV McKay, medical doctor George Simpson, and Hudson Fysh, one of the founders of Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service, the company which would go on to become Qantas. Qantas supplied the first aircraft to the fledgling organisation, a De Havilland DH.50, dubbed “Victory”. On 17 May, two days after inception, the service’s first official flight departed from Cloncurry, 85 miles to Julia Creek in Central Queensland, where the plane was met by ov
