The Charleville Royal Flying Doctor Service crew that helps keep planes in the air saving lives

Welcome to the RFDS Outback Project0:01 – 2:32

0:01

[upbeat music] From the wandering journo at Stories That Matter Studios, I'm Nance Haxton, and this is Streets of Your Town, the podcast that takes you on an audio journey highlighting a different slice of Australian life each episode.

Nance HaxtonHost

0:20

Buckle up to meet a great array of ordinary, everyday, incredible Australians.

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0:29

Streets of Your Town podcast would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians on whose land this story was gathered.

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0:36

I acknowledge that for tens of thousands of years, First Nations people walked this country and shared stories on this great land Down Under, and I walk in their footsteps today.

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0:47

I pay my respect to their elders past, present, and emerging.

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0:54

Now to another episode of my special Streets of Your Town series, The Outback Project, bringing the great characters and sounds of Australia's bush to you.

Nance HaxtonHost

1:04

The Charleville base for the Royal Flying Doctor Service serves a vast and isolated population in one of the most remote areas of Australia, covering an area more than 622,000 square kilometers.

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1:18

That's almost the size of the United Kingdom.

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The base is steeped in history, with an RFDS Visitors Center for people to wander through one of the original bases for the medical service, established by Dr. John Flynn more than 80 years ago.

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1:34

The transport used to save injured and sick people in Queensland's outback has changed markedly in the decades since, but the heart of the organization hasn't changed much at all.

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1:45

And while emergency specialists such as Dr. Aidan Furnoglio from our last Streets of Your Town episode are crucial to RFDS operations and saving people's lives, there are many more people in the support crew that keep the planes in the air and the service going 24 hours a day, every day of the year, while doing so, becoming an embedded part of their community.

Nance HaxtonHost

2:08

Courtney Bylat is one of the on-call nurses for RFDS Charleville, and as well as her emergency work, the budding entrepreneur has now started a boutique coffee shop and high-end restaurant to take up her downtime when she's not on shift.

Nance HaxtonHost

2:23

Thank you so much, Courtney, for joining us on Streets of Your Town.