THE STORY OF DARCY -

Before the advent of the flying doctor, life in the outback was very precarious and a fall from a horse could cost you your life. In the early hours of 28th July 1917, a buggy clattered into the isolated Kimberley town of Halls Creek carrying a young stock-man named Jimmy Darcy who had been thrown from his horse while mustering on Ruby Plains Station the day before and was in agonising pain.

Halls Creek's only link with the outside world was a single telegraph line to Derby and from there to Perth. Sending a telegram back then was not a simple matter with a number of repeater stations along the 2283 miles of line that stretched from Halls Creek to Perth. The message had to be copied down and re-sent by a series of operators and the same for any returning message. This caused frustrating delays and was hardly suitable for relaying messages during an actual operation.

Darcy's brothers had been in Wyndham and when they were told of their brother's injuries they rode 80 hours to get to Halls Creek and be by his side.

The Halls Creek postmaster, F.W. Tuckett, was known to his few neighbours as "W.B.L.". which stood for "Whole Blooming Lot", as well as proficient in duties as a telegraphist was resident magistrate, registrar of births, deaths and marriages, commissioner of roads, warden and protector of Aborigines and was the only man with any medical knowledge. He gave the stockman his only injection of morphine and called Derby by Morse. Derby's doctor was away on a lugger and was not expected back for weeks. In desperation, Tuckett raised Perth and asked the G.P.O. to bring Dr. Holland to the telegraph-room. With an operator transmitting his questions and translating replies, Dr Holland questioned Tuckett. From Tuckett's description of Darcy's symptoms he diagnosed a ruptured urethra with consequent stoppage of the bladder. Unless an operation was performed quickly, he said, the stock-man would die.

Although he had no anaesthetic, no disinfectant other than Condy's crystals and no surgical instruments, Tuckett decided to operate.

Willing assistants sharpened and boiled razors and penknives, scrubbed an office table and placed it near the telegraph set.

Tuckett keyed his set: "Ready"

The Morse sounder in the little post-office started to click out Dr. Holland's distant first instructions. Tuckett listened and made his first incision with a razor.

After carefully following telegraphed instructions, he completed the operation at about 4 p.m., almost 36 hours after Darcy had been thrown from his horse. Two more operations were necessary but Darcy was getting weaker by the day.

Dr. Holland boarded the first available ship for Derby and six days later set out for Halls Creek. He took just a day and a half to reach Fitzroy Crossing. A phone line connected the two towns and Holland raised Tuckett to see how Darcy was going. He even spoke to the stock-man and told him he was on his way.

From Fitzroy Crossing the road became little more than a track. The car used to carry the doctor broke down several times and it took 6 days to get to Halls Creek.

Dr. Holland arrived just one day too late, Darcy had died the day before the Doctor arrived.

Tragically, the young stockman had not died of his injury or the effects of Tuckett's surgery. Before he fell from his horse he had not fully recovered from a bout of malaria and as he lay in Halls Creek, the fever returned with fatal virility.

Dr. Holland performed an autopsy and reported that the operation had been faultless.

Darcy's funeral service was a simple one, read from a book called 'The Bushman's Companion' written by Rev. John Flynn.

Darcy's grave can still be seen in the small cemetery behind Halls Creek Lodge. The ruins of the old post office where the operation took place, still stand only a few hundred yards from the grave.

On its own Darcy's story is just one of many similar instances of people suffering and dying in the remote and unforgiving outback, but Darcy's plight was widely reported by the news papers and is credited with being the inspiration for the creation of the Flying Doctor Service by John Flynn.

Flynn arranged for two nurses (Sisters Madigan and Rogasch) to be stationed at Halls Creek in 1918 under the auspices of the Australian Inland Mission. The 'temporary' hospital that they operated from was a small run down structure built in the 1880s and originally used as a mechanics institute. This 'temporary' hospital was to remain in service for at least the next 30 years.

​Darcy

A strapping young stockman
rode in from the hills
his face was all twisted with pain
Out mustering cattle, he'd taken a spill
but he climbed on his horse once again

For two days and nights
he rode for The Creek
his only hope lay in the town
His spirit was strong but his body was weak
but he didn't give up and lie down

He made it at last
to the post office there
the Post Master brought him inside
He rested a while on a post office chair
while he told of the pain in his side

The telegraph line
to Derby ran out
The Post Master tapped at the key
The reply soon came back
'There's no doctor here
and no body else we can see.'

The call went to Perth
Doctor Holland replied
'You'll fix up young Darcy right there'
So they gave him some whiskey
and opened him up
after strapping his arms to a chair

The telegraph tapped
as the Post Master cut
The sweat trickled down in his eyes
He fixed up the problem in poor Darcy's gut
not balked by the young stockman's cries

The doctor came north
on the very next ship
and hoped that he'd get there in time
but malaria struck, and young Darcy did slip
and that was the end of the line

And then back in Perth
when Holland met Flynn
he said that he wished that he'd flown
The idea took hold, and grew from within
and from that a great service has grown

* * * *

Now through out the outback
the Flying Doctor tends
the sick and injured people waiting there
But few have heard the story
about Darcy and his friends
How he died too many miles from proper care

So spare a thought for Darcy
and his lonely little grave
For those who sought to save him
and the path they sought to pave

(c) June 2000 Written in Rockhampton, Qld.
Darcy's grave can still be seen in the little grave yard out at Old Halls Creek

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