Bean and Birtles: Roadster drive to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctor Service

The drivers of this open-top car learned a sort of resilience of their own as the trekked through the Australian outback, where they discovered how tough country Aussies are while raising funds for charity.

Resilience has a different definition in the bush – just ask the doctors, nurses and pilots of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

“We received a call from a farmer who had burnt himself from his navel to the top of his head when a radiator hose burst,” said senior pilot Sam Love at the RFDS base in Mount Isa.

“He was on his own and needed help but did not have an airstrip,” Mr Love said. “We got in the air while he got in his tractor and graded his driveway so we could land.”

When the RFDS plane reached the station the badly burnt farmer had elevated the bucket on his tractor and tied a sheet to it to act as a windsock.

“That is resilience,” Mr Love said. “Forty per cent burns and in danger of losing an eye and he sorted it out. He kept his eye and was discharged from hospital several weeks later.”

The Daily Telegraph’s Team Bean arrived at the RFDS base on the Queensland leg of the recreation of Francis Birtles 1927 drive from London to Melbourne in the same model Bean 14 car.

Matthew Benns and Warren Brown on board the Bean roadster wave to an RFDS plan. Picture: Nigel Wright

Matthew Benns and Warren Brown on board the Bean roadster. Picture: Nigel Wright

The red open-topped roadster showed its own customary resilience in the 45C heat as co-drivers, cartoonist Warren Brown and editor-at-large Matthew Benns, wilted under the searing sun.

RFDS doctor Judy Paterson, nurse unit manager Jamie-Lee McCarr and pilot Brady Thrift were about to airlift a non-urgent patient and took time to tell the Bean team about the resilience they found across the burning interior of northern Queensland and the Northern Territory.

“It is easy to miss diagnosing a fracture out here because people don’t like to make a fuss,” said Dr Paterson. “Something that people in the city would call an ambulance for does not even mean a day off work here.”

The team often flies at night and has to land at bush airstrips with no lights. “Toilet rolls are the answer,” said Mr Thrift. “We tell people to put them in a tin, soak them in diesel and light them as we approach.”

Matthew Benns and Warren Brown are joined by RFDS pilot Brady Thrift, Dr Judy Patterson and nurse unit manager Jamie-Lee McCall. Picture: Nigel Wright

But the makeshift landing strip still does not tell the pilot coming in to land about mountains, trees and other hazards including kangaroos.

Ms McCarr recalled a recent night landing that then involved a 100km drive in a ute to pick up a cocky who had come off his horse while mustering cattle. “It took more than four hours to get him back to the plane because he had a broken pelvis and suspected spinal injuries,” she said. “It was a long night.”

And just days before when the Bean was fighting its way through a torrential monsoon downpour with bolts of purple lightning a determined RFDS crew from Mt Isa was above us, threading their way through the storm clouds on another desperate mercy mission.

The Bean’s long drive from London, across Europe, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and on to Singapore has been done to raise money for the Flying Doctors and set off from Australia House with the blessing of RFDS – Friends in the UK patron King Charles.

But it is in Australia that the real appreciation of these quietly spoken medical heroes is felt as people come up at service stations and push $50 notes into the collection tins because “it’s a bloody cause mate”.

Matthew Benns and Warren Brown (centre) are joined by RFDS pilot Brady Thrift (left), Dr Judy Patterson and nurse unit manager Jamie-Lee McCall. Picture: Nigel Wright

Dr Shannon Nott, Chief Medical Officer for RFDS South Eastern Section, said every dollar donated was vital in helping to keep the planes and medical teams in the air.

“Whether it’s $2 or $20 – whatever you can spare – every dollar raised by the Birtles and the Bean team for the RFDS will go towards emergency supplies, vaccination programs and primary health services for remote communities all over Australia. Every dollar counts and helps us to save lives,” he said.

Just $33 pays for a range of life support medication such as sedatives, pain relief and antibiotics while $64 sends a lifesaving medical chest to a remote community.

So far team Bean has raised more than $115,000 which will pay for the full range of life saving medications to allow Flying Doctors to attend 3,557 emergency situations. But it is nowhere near enough.

“Without the Flying Doctor, the skin check that finds a melanoma doesn’t happen, that chronic condition flares unchecked, and the expectant mother and her baby might not get the help they need,” Dr Nott said. “We are a lifeline for rural and remote communities around Australia, but we cannot be there without your valuable support. Every dollar raised by the Birtles and the Bean team helps us to save lives.”

To donate go to:

Click here to donate: Royal Flying Doctor Service – Birtles and the Bean fundraising for the Flying Doctor.