For instance, the Queensland section of the RFDS clocked up 5.7 million kilometres in the air last year - that’s enough to take you from here to the moon 14 times!

The Charleville base alone services about 622,000 square kilometres of southwest Queensland - an area almost the size of the United Kingdom – extending from the New South Wales border to the Northern Territory and South Australian borders in the west and east to the Carnarvon Ranges.

Emergency response aircraft are fully equipped to provide airborne intensive care. RFDS doctors, nurses and pilots are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to be quickly on hand when people urgently need a doctor. But the Royal Flying Doctor Service isn’t only there for outback accidents and health emergencies.

To thousands of people living in isolation in Queensland, the Flying Doctor is their family doctor.

Through regular RFDS health clinics, the RFDS provides a broad range of health services including routine medical treatment, child and adolescent health care, women’s health care and mental health care. Last year, the RFDS conducted 31,377 rural and remote clinics and 32,657 telephone consultations.

For those who live in remote areas and need immediate advice from a doctor, RFDS doctors are on call 24 hours a day to conduct medical consultations over the telephone. The RFDS provides and maintains medical chests which contain more than 90 medical items which are used in conjunction with instructions given by RFDS over the phone or radio.

The RFDS has seven bases that create an aeromedical network throughout the State. The bases are at Charleville, Mount Isa, Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Bundaberg and Brisbane. A non-aeromedical base at Longreach specialises in mental health. The Queensland section employs more than 286 staff including doctors, nurses, pilots, allied health, aviation support personnel and administration staff.

To learn more, visit the RFDS Charleville Base Visitors’ Centre, which displays the past and present activities of the RFDS. The centre is open from 8.30am to 4.30pm weekdays and on weekends during the main tourist season (10.00am to 4.30pm). Souvenirs are available from the Outback Shop on weekdays.

Robert Eckel Repairs 88 Edward Street, Charleville Qld 4470 Phone (07) 4654 1358 Service and repairs on all makes and models - 4X4 specialists, EFI, windscreens, LPG service