Records of the Uniting Church in Australia Frontier Services, 1897-2011

Extending from 1912 to 1996, the records of the AIM and its successor organisation form one of the largest archives held in the Library. The records of the very early years are somewhat scanty, but from the 1930s onwards they are comprehensive. They document the multifarious activities of the AIM and are the most important single source on the Australian Outback held in the Library.

The records include minutes and papers of the AIM Board, correspondence of the Superintendent and General Secretary, administration files, financial records, records of State Councils of the AIM, parishes, padre patrols, nursing homes, hostels for school children, and kindergartens, as well as files on the Aerial Medical Service, United Church in North Australia and Far North Children’s Health Scheme. There are also diaries, registers, press cuttings, photographs, glass slides, maps, leaflets, booklets and public relations material. Among the many institutions represented in the archives are the Old Timers Homes in Alice Springs, St Philip’s College at Alice Springs, the John Flynn Memorial Church, and the hospitals at Andamooka, Birdsville, Coen, Dunbar, Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek, Innamincka, Kununurra, Leigh Creek, Maranboy, Marble Bar, Oodnadatta, Port Hedland and Radium Hill.

Papers of George Simpson, 1928-1959

Papers of George Simpson, medical adviser to the AIM (1927) and one of the founders of the Aerial Medical Service. Occupying ten boxes, they consist of correspondence (1928-58), including correspondence with the AIM, diaries (1929-32), subject files, records of the Flying Doctor Service, speeches, notes and printed items.

Papers of Arthur Herbert Affleck, 1925-1959

Logs, photographs, newspaper cuttings and articles kept by Arthur Affleck, the first pilot with the Aerial Medical Service (1928-31).

Papers of Robert Bruce Plowman, 1911-1956, 2012

Papers of Bruce Plowman, the first AIM padre, including letters (1912-17), mainly to his mother and his wife, a typescript journal (1914), and literary manuscripts.

Papers of John Flynn, 1876-1960

Personal and official papers of Rev. John Flynn, the first Superintendent of the AIM. Filed in 22 boxes, they consist of his letters to his father (1901-28), correspondence (1898-1956), sermons, manuscripts, diaries (1912-41), personal and family documents, AIM correspondence, minutes and reports, Aerial Medical Service correspondence and reports, photographs, maps, publications, and letters of condolence on his death.

Papers of John Flynn, 1912-1932

Further papers of Rev. John Flynn, formerly part of the AIM archives, including correspondence (1912-36), reports, manuscripts, diaries (1916-17), sermons, photographs, and a large collection of newspaper cuttings and printed items.

Papers of Allan Vickers, 1930-1967

Papers of Allan Vickers, who served with the Aerial Medical Service at Cloncurry (1931-34), comprising diaries, notebooks, letters, reports and newspaper cuttings.

Papers of James Atcheson Spalding, 1916-1968

Papers of James Spaulding, who served with the Aerial Medical Service in 1929-30, consisting of letters to his wife, speeches, articles, and notes for talks on the AIM.

Historical accounts

Unpublished histories of the Royal Flying Doctor Service (7 vols) by John Behr, c. 1981-88.

Papers of Reverend Fred McKay, circa 1919-2000

Papers of Rev. Fred McKay, who was a patrol padre (1935-41) and the second Superintendent of the AIM (1951-74). Occupying 85 boxes, they extend from 1922 to 1998 and include correspondence, reports, official papers, sermons, lectures, newspaper cuttings, photographs, slides and publications. There are extensive papers on the Presbyterian Church, the Australian Inland Mission, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Church union and on individuals such as John Flynn, Alf Traeger and Sir Robert Menzies.

Papers of Reverend Arch Grant, 1917-1981

Papers of Rev. Arch Grant mainly relating to his biography of Kingsley Partridge.

Papers of Jean Mittelheuser 1915-1950

Correspondence, photographs and a short biography of Jean Mittelheuser, the nursing sister in charge of the AIM hospital at Maranboy in 1920-22.

Papers of Reverend Les McKay, 1951-2008

Diaries (1964, 1969) of Rev. Andrew McKay (the brother of Fred McKay) kept while he was a patrol padre based at Birdsville.

A small collection of 19 maps on 21 sheets was received with the Australian Inland Mission archives. Mostly undated, they include:

• A.I.M. jubilee map : the Australian Inland Mission of the Presbyterian Church of Australia (maps 1 and 2)
• Inlander Map of Australia (1922) (map 3)
• Flying Doctor Service : the A.I.M. experiment May 1928 to Sept. 1939 (map 4)
• A.I.M. nursing homes (map 5)
• A.I.M. patrols : by which our loneliest frontiers and our busiest cities are being "bonded" (map 6)
• Aerial Medical Services : an adequate plan (map 7)
• A.I.M. radio experiments (map 8)
• A chart of the Australian Inland Mission of the Presbyterian Church : A.I.M. activities (map 9)
• The A.I.M. resident staff (including partnerships) (map 10)
• A.I.M. radio system (map 11)
• Flying Doctor Service of Australia (map 12)
• Chart of outpost radiocommunication services showing control stations & associated outpost stations (map 13)
• Map of Western Australia showing pastoral stations and local authority boundaries (map 14)
• Map of Western Australia (map 15)
• Pastoral map of South Australia (map 16)
• Robinson's political map of South East Asia (map 17)
• Map showing sanctioned Charges and Home Mission stations stretching along the Queensland coast (map 18)
• Map of part of Northern Territory and Queensland showing Australian Inland Mission pedal powered radio outposts, radio control stations, aerodromes and landing grounds (map 19)

Collection of pedal wireless sets and parts, and other items relating to the Australian Inland Mission and the Royal Flying Doctor Service

The Library holds 18 objects that were received with the AIM archives. They mostly consist of radio equipment, including portable transceivers, an automatic Morse keyboard invented by Alf Traeger, sets of pedals, and cassettes used in portable transceivers. There are also projectors used by padres and a Flying Doctor Service tin medicine chest.

Fred McKay interviewed by Alec Bolton

Reverend Fred McKay reflects on his upbringing in Queensland, his journey to becoming a Minister, his work with John Flynn and the Australian Inland Mission, and his role in establishing services like the Flying Doctor Service and hospitals in remote areas. He also discusses his experiences as a military chaplain during WWII, his succession as AIM Superintendent, and his involvement with the Uniting Church and mining communities in Northern Australia, as well as his later work as an archivist and minister in Sydney.

Margaret McKay interviewed by Jenny Gall

Margaret McKay discusses her Scottish roots, her family's missionary work in Australia, her impressions of John Flynn, her nursing studies, and her life supporting her husband, Rev. Fred McKay, in his mission and Church roles.

A substantial collection of photographs was received with the AIM archives. They include about 4400 glass slides, glass negatives and lantern slides, mostly dating from 1912 to 1955. About half were taken by John Flynn, the earliest being photographs of Buchan and the Otway Ranges (1906-7). Many of the slides were used by Flynn and others in lectures. The subjects include portraits, indigenous families, patrols, missions, churches, hospitals, hostels, schools, aircraft, radio equipment, homesteads, camp sites, towns, roads, railway lines, cattle stations, mining settlements, teamsters, pearl luggers, prospectors, hawkers, fettlers and landscapes. Among the places depicted in the photographs are Alice Springs, Beltana, Broome, Carnarvon, Darwin, Dunbar, Innamincka, the Kimberleys, Marble Bar, Mornington Island, Oodnadatta, Port Hedland, Tennant Creek, Thursday Island and Victoria River Downs.

In addition, the AIM archive contains many boxes of photographic prints and albums. Several personal collections also contain photographs, including the papers of Arthur Affleck, John Flynn, Fred McKay and Jean Mittelheuser.

In addition to the quarterly magazine The Inlander (1913-86), the Library holds many published reports, booklets and leaflets of the AIM. The following books deal with the lives of John Flynn and Fred McKay and the history of the AIM:

• Beth Beckett, Lipstick, swag and sweatrag: memoirs of a patrol padre’s wife: the Australian Inland Mission 1947-1955, 1998
• Elizabeth Burchill, Innamincka, 1960
• Margaret Ford, End of a beginning, 1963
• Arch Grant, Camel train and aeroplane: the story of Skipper Partridge, 1981
• Arch Grant, Palmerston to Darwin: 75 years service on the frontier, 1990
• William Gray, Days and nights in the bush, 1935
• Max Griffiths, The hungry heart, 1992
• Max Griffiths, The silent heart: Flynn of the Inland, 1993
• Max Griffiths, Straight from the heart: tales of tragedy and triumph from the nurses of the Australian outback, 2000
• Brigid Hains, The ice and the inland: Mawson, Flynn, and the myth of the frontier, 2002
• Mona Henry, From city to the sandhills of Birdsville, 1994
• Ion L. Idriess, Flynn of the inland, 1932
• Rob Linn, Shifting sands to solid rock: ninety years of Frontier Services, 2002
• Fred McKay, Traeger: the pedal radio man: he gave a voice to the bush and to flying doctors, 1995
• Maisie McKenzie, Flynn’s last camp, 1985
• Maisie McKenzie, Fred McKay: successor to Flynn of the inland, 1990
• W. Scott McPheat, John Flynn: apostle to the inland, 1963
• Michael Page, The Flying Doctor story, 1977
• R.B. Plowman, Camel pads, 1933
• R.B. Plowman, The man from Oodnadatta, 1933

In 1964, at the suggestion of Sir John Ferguson, Jean Flynn presented to the Library the papers of her husband, the Reverend John Flynn. In 1977 the Board of Frontier Services of the Uniting Church of Australia donated an extensive archive of the Australian Inland Mission. Numerous additions were made to the archive between 1983 and 2001, more than doubling it in size. The Library had a long and happy association with the second Superintendent of the AIM, the Reverend Fred McKay and his wife Margaret. They made many visits to the Library between 1982 and 1991 and compiled the listings that cover the bulk of the archive. The personal papers of Fred McKay were presented by his family in 2001.

The papers of Dr George Simpson, one of the founders of the Flying Doctor Service, were donated by his wife Nesta Simpson in 1962. In 1967 R. Cameron Plowman presented the papers of his father, R.B. Plowman, the first AIM padre.

The Australian Inland Mission records are held in the Manuscripts Collection at MS 5574, with the exception of several boxes held in the Pictures Collection. Use the papers finding-aid.

The various personal collections are also held in the Manuscripts Collection.

Use finding aids for:

• John Flynn (MS 5639)
• John Flynn (MS 5639)
• George Simpson
• Fred McKay.

Several of the manuscript collections contain photographs, but the main collection of about 4500 images is held in the Pictures Collection (P 850). Many of these images have been digitised. The objects are also held in the Pictures Collection. The maps are in the Maps Collection and a list is available. The two oral history recordings and transcripts are in the Oral History Collection and the publications are shelved at various locations in the Australian Collection.

John Flynn Place at Cloncurry, Queensland, has a permanent exhibition of artifacts of Fred McKay, mostly relating to the Flying Doctor Service.

This guide was prepared using these references:

• Stuart Bonnington, Beyond the furthest fences: for Christ and the continent: the Inland Mission of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, Brisbane, Presbyterian Church Education Press, 2001
• Graeme Bucknall, Flynn, John (1880-1951), Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
• Rob Linn, John Flynn’s double vision, National Library of Australia News, vol. 14 (5), Feb. 2004, pp. 19-22
• Judith McKay, The Miracle at Birdsville, National Library of Australia News, vol. 15 (11), Aug. 2005, pp. 14-17
• Ann Villiers, Snooping around Flynn’s legacy, National Library of Australia News, vol. May 2008, pp. 10-13