Memorial for “Flynn of the Inland”
As early as 1944 it was decided that the name of the Rev Dr John Flynn should be perpetuated, and that as part of the proposal, some commemorative structure, with suitable inscription, should be erected at the junction of the North-South and East-West Highways in the Northern Territory.
A letter was written to the Administrator of the Northern Territory in this regard and on the 27 March 1944, the Administrator advised that he had instructed his Survey Officers to make out a site for the cairn or obelisk on the location requested.
Letter to the Department of the Interior, Canberra, ACT – from the Flying Doctor Services – Federal Council (15 May 1947)
Monday 30 July 1945
ADMIRERS of the Rev. John Flynn, “Flynn of the Inland” who was virtually responsible for the establishment of the Flying Doctor Services, and the wireless communication for those services throughout the isolated areas of Australia, will derive satisfaction from the knowledge that the Federal authorities have given the Australian Inland Mission of the Presbyterian Church a piece of land in the Northern Territory for the erection of a monument to this colorful and significant figure of the outback. Triangular-shaped, the land is bordered by the north-south road, and the new road branching off to Mount Isa, (15 miles north of Tennant Creek.) The position is a singularly commanding one, and the monument, when it is erected will be visible to traffic approaching the triangle from either road as the country in the vicinity is particularly flat.
The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 – 1954)
Click here to open “Sketch of the Junction Mt Isa and Stuart Highway – 1944”
(NT Portion 498 is the triangular piece of land)
Monday 19 August 1946
MEMORIAL FOR “FLYNN OF THE INLAND”
A design for a structure to commemorate the life work of the Rev. Dr. John Flynn, OBE (Flynn of the Inland), of the Australian Inland Mission and Flying Doctor Service has been accepted by the Federal Council of the Australian Aerial Medical Services. Designs for the structure, which will be erected at the junction of the North-South Darwin road and the branch road to Mount Isa, were invited last year, and last week the assessors announced that the designs placed first and second were those submitted by Messrs. Meldrum and Noad, architects, of Melbourne. The winning design provides for a triangular local stone structure 20 foot high, with a concrete cross as a terminal feature.
The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA: 1931 – 1954)
Friday 16 April 1948
VISIT OF DR. GEORGE SIMPSON TO CHOOSE SITE OF CAIRN
Dr. George Simpson, President of the Flying Doctor Service of Australia, is due to arrive from Melbourne today. He will leave for Daly Waters by Tuit’s bus and will stop at the Mt Isa turnoff to inspect a site for a memorial cairn to be built to commemorate the work done by Dr. John Flynn.
The site is very appropriate because it is the junction of the North-South (Stuart) and East-West (Barkly) Highways and thus is as near the centre of Australia’s communications as could be found.
“No better site could be found for the cairn”
Centralian Advocate (Alice Springs, NT : 1947 – 1954)
The cairn will be erected under the direction of the Council of the Flying Doctor Services by donations received from flying doctor bases.
Friday 24 November 1950
WILL SEE HIS MEMORIAL PLANS BEFORE HE DIES
NOT every man who has done something big has the opportunity to examine the plan and drawings of a memorial his admirers propose to raise after his death, at the road junction of the Stuart and Barkly Highways, in the Northern Territory, and was well known to all Army drivers during the war.
While appreciating the gratitude of those he has helped, he hopes they will not be bothered with the building of the cairn for a long time.
Now 70, and in retirement, “the inland” is still calling John Flynn. He proposes another trip to Central Australia before the weight of years curbs travel.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.: 1848 – 1956)
Survived by his wife, Rev John Flynn died of cancer in Sydney on 5th May 1951 and his ashes, at his request, expressed through his widow were interred at the foot of Mt Gillen, Alice Springs.
Friday 21 November 1952
FLYNN MEMORIAL FINISHED
The Flying Doctor Service of Australia’s special memorial to the late Rev. Dr. John Flynn is now finished. A great 25ft. pillar is situated on the Stuart Highway’s Mt Isa road junction, right in the very heart of the country Flynn loved and worked for. The fine sandstone pillar is three-sided, topped with enormous upright 13 foot crosses of white cement at each side. Motorists who have travelled past during the last week comment that it is a really beautiful , impressive, though simple monument to the famous man who gave to the outback ‘the Flying Doctor.’ the link with medical aid that means so much to the people of the back country and to the cause of development.
The construction of the memorial was done by two London stonemasons, Bill Coxhead and George Lakin, who sub-contracted from Mr Drogemuller of Alice Springs. The two men camped at the site of the monument for three months while they steadily worked the sandstone and cement into shape. The job took longer than expected because of certain changes in plans for the ‘finish’ to the pillar. This memorial is one of three to John Flynn in the Centre. The Presbyterian Flynn Church will be another outstanding permanent tribute, and the great boulder at the place under Mt. Gillen, where the ashes of the pioneer were buried, the third.
Centralian Advocate (Alice Springs, NT: 1947 – 1954)
GOVERNOR GENERAL UNVEILS FLYNN OF THE INLAND MEMORIAL
2pm Thursday August 27 1953
“There is no Australian, man or woman, who would not be with us today in thought and spirit to honour Flynn of the Inland,” said the Governor General, Sir William Slim at the unveiling the Flynn Memorial at Tennant Creek today.
“To think of him and his work is to refresh the mind and elevate the spirit, for he gave himself in full measure to the service of his fellow men in their physical and spiritual need.
Flynn was a visionary. He saw his vision and followed it. And now Flynn’s hands are stretched out over this vast inland like a benediction, bringing faith and help to lonely men and women.
However you judge greatness, whether by a man’s vision, by his inspiration of others, by his achievement, or by the effect his life will have on those who come after him, Flynn was a great man.
Australia is fortunate that this great man was also a good man. He had vision, the imagination, but it was controlled imagination which could discern what was practical from what was not. Head in the clouds, perhaps, but his feet were well on the ground.
He knew how to call to his aid the promise of science and to blend it with experience. He gave in this, his sphere, a foretaste of what can and will be done in others to people and develop this land he loved. Above all, Flynn’s work was founded on faith in man and faith in God.
It was to bring spiritual, rather than physical comfort to the people of the inland that he first laboured for them and to the end he never let his work lose its spiritual bias. That is why it will endure and grow.
He was alive to the need that moral standards and integrity in public and private life must keep pace with material progress.
In the years to come, when this great country is more fully developed, when the vast open spaces of the centre and the north are producing, as one day they will produce, those future Australians will remember and honour the name of Flynn who worked to bring healing, security, and spiritual comfort to the people of the inland.
Here, in the outback, to which he gave his life and his love, I unveil, on behalf of the people of Australia ..
His memorial plaque –
COMMEMORATING
FLYNN OF THE INLAND
THE VERY REV JOHN FLYNN O.B.E. D.D
OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – AUSTRALIA ‘ –
1880 – 1951
HIS VISION ENCOMPASSED THE CONTINENT
HE ESTABLISHED THE AUSTRALIAN INLAND MISSION
AND FOUNDED THE FLYING DOCTOR SERVICE
HE BROUGHT TO LONELY PLACES A SPIRITUAL MINISTRY
AND SPREAD THE MANTLE OF SAFETY OVER THEM
BY MEDICINE, AVIATION AND RADIO
Friday 4 September 1953
TENNANT CREEK NEWS
Sidelights of the John Flynn Memorial unveiling: An arrangement made between all local storekeepers to close for a few hours during the afternoon of the 27th August, which resulted in a large attendance (approximately 450 people) at the Cairn ceremony. Afternoon tea organised by the C.W.A. was served, amongst the dust, slightly north of the memorial after the ceremony. Mrs Flynn was presented on behalf of the Tennant Girl Guides and Brownies, with an exact miniature on a board of the Memorial erected to her late husband. Stones from around the base of the memorial were used in the construction. Miss Betty Kleinig was the power behind this presentation. Author and artist, Mr. Harry Hudson.
Centralian Advocate (Alice Springs, NT : 1947 – 1954
The area was proclaimed a Reserve in the Commonwealth Gazette on the 4 April 1957 and placed under the care of the Northern Territory Reserves Board on 18 September 1957.
On the 30 June 1978 the area was declared a Reserve under the Territory Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act. The Reserve’s primary focus being one of historical significance relating to the recognition of Rev John Flynn and others in the establishment of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM)and the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS)
Flynn once said …
“If you start something worthwhile – nothing can stop it”
References ..
Thursday 3 September 1953 – The Central Queensland Herald (Rockhampton, Qld: 1930 – 1956)
NAA -Reverend John Flynn and the Australian Inland Mission – Fact sheet 159
National Archives Australia
Northern Territory Library
Monument Australia.org.au
The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 – 1954)
Centralian Advocate (Alice Springs, NT : 1947 – 1954)
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.: 1848 – 1956)
www.flyingdoctor.org.au
Scotch College Melbourne
NT Police Museum – Tisdell Collection
