LIFE SAVERS -

“A nurse had been seriously injured in a car accident [120 miles south east of Perth near Narrogin] and was in danger of losing both legs, and possibly her life, if she was not flown to Perth for immediate specialist attention...

We flew out of Guildford airport into darkness so thick as to be almost felt, wondering how we were going to locate Narrogin without navigational aids – and how wee were going to land when we found it. We knew the town had two airstrips, both on farm property; one very rough and one with a fence across it. We assumed that some kind of landing guidance would be provided, and flew on with nothing but the glow of the compass to guide us.

We need not have worried. Two large clusters of lights rose over the horizon – one the township itself, the other the headlights of more than a hundred cars. The towns folk had organised themselves to provide this lighting for the airstrip, so that it looked more like an international terminal than a bush airfield…

We learnt that the cars had come in response to an appeal broadcast over the local radio, and the discipline and organisation of the whole manoeuvre was inspiring. None of the motorists left his car, and there was no gaping crowd of people elbowing around. They all stayed quietly in position, waiting for the signal to turn on their lights again for take-off.

The patient was taken to hospital in record time and although the doctors could save only one leg she made a record recovery and is now back at work. A useful life not only preserved by the skill and devotion of the medical teams but also by the scores of anonymous folk who gave their help.

Thus are human beings at their best. It is well to remember such things when encountering them at their worst.”

From: Flying Nurse by Robin Miller. (Robin was the daughter of Dame Mary Durack and Horrie Miller, Co-founder of MacRobertson Miller Airways (fondly known as Mickey Mouse Airways due to the MMA first letters of the name.) Sadly Robin died of cancer aged only 35.

Robin was known by the Aboriginal people of northern Australia as The Sugar Bird Lady.

A couple of quotes made about her:

"One was a solo flight from Paris to Australia. And in another one, I think she actually came across the Pacific. Later, did a copilot flight across the Atlantic. So she circumnavigated the world. She was one of the outstanding women pilots of the 20th century and we should recognise her as such."
Nancy Bird.

"She was so used, for example, to doing things like flying in through a thunderstorm to an outback station where there was nothing you could really call a landing ground, and getting down there and then picking up someone who had perhaps been gored by a bullock, you know, with a great wound in the abdomen, getting them into the aircraft, and flying back to Perth or Broome or wherever it was where the nearest hospital was. But she was, er ... 'Well, you know, what's so interesting about that?'"
Michael Page.

Find out more about Robin at Heroes and Heroines

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