Our worn and wormed copy of the l932 book, Flynn of the Inland , by Ion L. Idriess was a tribute to the Australian Inland Mission (AIM) under the energetic leadership of Reverend John Flynn . The organisation gradually spread the mantle of safety to various parts of the isolated outback , with nursing homes , an aerial medical service which attracted attention overseas, and pedal radio sets .
The illustrated book includes an " Inlander " map of Australia showing certain "amenities of civilisation " in sparsely populated areas , especially the nucleus of an AIM aerial medical service and nursing homes .
Another worn map, above, shows AIM frontier services in l931. Always struggling for funds , with a big picture outlook on the needs of isolated people , Reverend Flynn was tireless , receiving the support of many prominent people, including Sir Sidney Kidman,known as Australia's Cattle King , and Ronald G. Macintyre ,C.M.G., O.B.E., D.D.
The book reveals that AIM had high hopes that after the death of Darwin " millionaire" Felix Holmes, who died in Sydney in l929 , it wold receive a reported 300,00 pounds as a residual legacy for hospital work in North Australia .
Holmes was an early entrepreneur who had a pearling fleet and ran many businesses in Darwin . From Holmes Corner in central Darwin , he sold ice, cordials, frozen foods, meat and bread . In addition, he owned many blocks of land ,had an interest in the Don Theatre and even produced the towns electricity. He owned a large number of horses which he raced in Sydney and Melbourne .
Becoming seriously ill in June , a plane was chartered to fly him from Darwin to Cloncurry in Queensland , from whence he was taken by train " in easy stages " to Sydney .Upon his death, on August 1, l929 , at his sister's residence , attended by two nurses, it was widely stated that AIM would benefit from his will .
However, AIM received a bitter disappointment .The author wrote : " Alas, the dead man's estate have been lamentably over - valued by popular opinion . There was no residue at all !"
