Alice Springs; Part 2

In my previous post I described how we were bussed from the Alice Springs railway station to an area in town know as the Tourist Triangle. It has this name as there are 3 tourist attractions in close proximity. DH and I started with the National Pioneer Women's Hall of Fame, ( but couldn't spend too much time there due to time constraints) and then we walked along the street to the Royal Flying Doctor Museum.

Australia's population is mainly concentrated in coastal areas but there is a huge area of the country which is rather remote from services and these communities are often located in rather harsh environments. The Reverend John Flynn was instrumental in the setting up of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM) in 1912, which was dedicated into assisting the people of the Outback to access medical services by establishing bush hospitals. But people in the more remote areas were still too far away to access these hospitals. So in 1928 John Flynn  organised a year's trial of the AIM Aerial Medical Service, which was a great success and continues to this day. I think John Flynn must have been an amazing man! The link will take you to a webpage about the history of this service.
If you are wondering how people were able to contact the RFDS, the people of the Outback benefited greatly by the invention of the  'pedal radio'...not only accessing medical help, but also schooling and just human contact.

You can read about this invention here...
So this brief history lesson is over now, so I will share some photos from the museum dedicated to the RFDS.
 There were displays showing models of planes used over the years...originally 'çontractors' were used to fly doctors and nurses but gradually the service purchased their own planes.

Some interior shots of a Flying Doctor plane...Intensive Care facilities are provided including equipment for transferring critically ill newborns to a city hospital.  

Beside the rather modern museum building was this gorgeous old art deco style Alice Springs Control Centre.

DH and I only had 20 minutes in this museum before we were due to board the bus for our next destination. Not nearly long enough to read all the information boards on the exhibits. We did manage to sit and watch a very informative movie about the history of the service though.
The third attraction at this Tourist Triangle was the Reptile Centre but we had to miss that. Our next stop was the Old Telegraph Station...and I loved it too! More in the next post.