Alice and Surrounds

Flynn of the Inland
Last Saturday I took a drive west of town to take in some of the local sights. On the way I stopped at John Flynn’s grave – a monument to an amazing guy! The spirit of Flynn is around every corner here in the Centre. He is known as ‘Flynn of the Inland’ and gave his life to spread a ‘mantle of safety’ across the Centre – giving every community access to basic medical assistance. His most well known legacy lives on in the Royal Flying Doctors’ Service. But that is only the tip of the ice-berg (hmm, inappropriate metaphor).

It is almost a century since Flynn set up the first Australian Inland Missions (AIM) Hostel in the region. The Alice Springs AIM hostel was established 1926 - at that time Alice was known as ‘Stuart’ and had a population of 70! It still occupies a prominent position in the Alice Springs Mall, right alongside the John Flynn Memorial Uniting church. So much of the current Remote Area Services have grown from his early vision.

Ellery Creek Big Hole
After giving my tributes to the big JF(no K) I continued out west stopping 88km away from Alice Springs at the ‘Ellery Creek Big Hole’. [Had I continued another couple of hours I would have found myself at King’s Canyon – but that will wait for another day] Ellery Creek Big Hole is one of many waterholes around the centre, but few are accessible for public use.

As a beach kid, I had wondered how I would hold up here in the desert centre of Australia. So after one hour cooking in my unconditioned car the prospect of immersing myself in a natural body of that wonderful cool liquid H20 was intoxicating. Nonetheless, as I left the car I immediately noticed the bone dry river-bed and thought that maybe a ‘big hole’ was all that awaited me. Thankfully a short walk brought me to a spectacular water-hole where I frittered away the remainder of the day (getting painfully sunburnt in the process).

Work at 'Congress'
I've settled into a routine working at Congress - well as much of a routine as is possible when faced with such a huge spectrum of medical complaints as each patient walks through the door. Among the frequent issues are:

- Skin sores and infections. Hot weather and poor hygiene makes this a huge issue. Further complicating things is the risk of Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) being triggered by such simple infections. RHD is a disease of poorly resourced countries - yet outback Australia has the highest rates of it in the entire world! So we aggressively treat all respiratory and skin infections, and regularly check kids hearts to make sure they haven't developed valvular disease.

- Alcohol problems. The majority of Aboriginal people don't drink at all. However, I see the unfortunate ones for whom grog swallows all their money, time and life. Just last week I treated three young guys who presented with alcohol withdrawal, two of them well into DTs (delirium tremens). We have many drug and alcohol services, but as anyone who has worked with addiction would understand, the social complications and vast distances out here make providing help all the more difficult

- Cute kids. You probably know my affinity to kids, and working here I get to see some of the brightest, cheekiest kids around. So stay tuned and I can promise some photos coming your way.