The Royal Flying Doctor Service from the Mt Isa base and Dr Ian Robinson were regular visitors to Gregory Downs for the clinics conducted there and at other locations around the Gulf country and Mt Isa district.
The RFDS aircraft was a Beechcraft Queen Air 65 registered VH-FDR and named “John Flynn” after the founder of the service. The pilot during the time Greg Blackmore was manager at Gregory Downs in 1975 was John Murkin (pictured below)
Dr Robinson and his wife Ann had moved to Mount Isa in 1972 where he began his job as the local Flying Doctor.
In 2002, Dr Robinson received an Order of Australia Medal for his services, as well as a Royal Humane Society Award for his assistance during the floods.
Dr Ian Robinson passed away on the 8th February 2017.
Dr Timothy ‘Tim’ Joseph O’Leary (1925-87), also flew in VH-FDR. Irish born, Dr O’Leary was one of the RFDS’s longest serving employees, who worked in Qld until he was forced to retire because of ill-health in 1980.
Three months after O’Leary began working for the RFDS in 1953, he suffered a fractured skull in a plane crash that killed his wife of 6 weeks and an RFDS pilot. Despite this tragedy, he stayed with the RFDS.
After it’s RFDS service, on the 7 August 1985, whilst flying a cargo run for Norfolk Island Airways from Brisbane (Archerfield) to Rockhampton, VH-FDR crashed and was destroyed some 37 km NE of Biloela, Queensland, due to fuel starvation resulting from the pilot’s confusion over the fuel selector positions on a version of the Queen Air he hadn’t flown before.
Previous to the Beechcraft Queenair aircraft, a DeHavilland Drover also carried the registration VH-FDR for the RFDS. This aircraft was damaged on take off at Thargomindah in January 1966 and is currently being restored as a display at the Queensland Air Museum, Caloundra.
Struth it's Blackmores 