College Houses

RED (COLOUR OF OUTBACK / MEDICAL SERVICES)

Reverend John Flynn (1880 – 1951) – Founded Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world’s first air ambulance, because he saw the need and recognised God’s love could be put into action through this service.

Flynn was a Presbyterian minister whose first posting after his ordination was to Beltana, a tiny settlement 500 km north of Adelaide. The outback intrigued him. He cared about people’s spiritual welfare, but also quickly recognised the need for medical care for residents of the vast Australian outback. He witnessed tragic situations

where operations had to be carried out by untrained people using penknives and flashlights. Many died. During his time as superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission he established a number of bush hospitals.

Flynn dreamed of railroads and radio stations. He wondered why outback children could be educated by correspondence lessons. He laboured for many years to make others share his God-given vision. Gradually his dreams came to fruition. His persistence and prayer won out. Jesus was his motivator, inspiration, source of strength and role model.

By 1917 Flynn was already considering the possibility of new technology, such as radio and the aeroplane, to assist in providing a more useful emergency medical service. The church supported him financially in his vision and the first flight of the Aerial Medical Service was in 1928 from Cloncurry, Qld. Flynn guided the organization, and lobbied politicians and his church, to make the service national.

As well as establishing what is now called the Royal Flying Doctor Service, he organized traveling ministries through the outback and established nursing homes. Today the RFDS is a lifeline for people in rural and remote areas.

Flynn is featured on one side of the current Australian $20 note. The RFDS’s hangar is on James Schofield Drive, Adelaide Airport.

GREEN (COLOUR OF AGRICULTURE / GROWTH)

John Ridley (1806-1887) Devout Christian who invented the stripper-harvester. His invention helped make wheat become the next most important Australian export after wool.

Born in England, John Ridley was interested in science from an early age. When he was 7 years old, he invented a working electrical machine. At the age of 18, he started preaching in the local Wesleyan church. In 1839, with his wife and children, he sailed for South Australia. With wisdom from God, he invented the stripper-harvester in 1843 and by 1845 he had manufactured over 50 machines for other South Australian farmers. His stripper was ideally suited to the hot dry Australian conditions. It harvested the wheat quickly with a minimum of labour and ensured that the grain was kept dry so that it could be exported in good condition.

Ridley believed in sowing back into the kingdom of God. All the profits from his invention and from his flour mill and land investments enabled him to pursue his passion for mission and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

BLUE (COLOUR OF WATER / RIVER)

Captain Charles Sturt (1795 – 1869), famous explorer, man of courage, faith and prayer.

Sturt was responsible for opening up much of Southern Australia to free settlement. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from both Sydney and later from Adelaide. His expeditions traced several of the westward-flowing rivers, establishing that they all merge into the River Murray and that its mouth is at Lake Alexandrina. He loved the majesty of the Australian bush and on a number of occasions his life was spared due to what he acknowledged as divine intervention. Throughout the pages of his journals Sturt shared his faith constantly. He used to pray continually for guidance, committing each day’s journey to God.

In his journal he wrote of his faith and how he constantly took all of his plans and problems to the Lord in prayer. By one way only was peace to be found, and that was through prayer. When he had to jettison almost all his possessions in the remote Australian desert, he refused to get rid of his Bible in preference to an oil lamp.

Sturt’s home, known as ‘The Grange’, is now a museum in the Adelaide suburb of Grange.

GOLD (COLOUR OF $50 NOTE)

George Taplin (1831 – 1879) – First person to translate the Bible into an aboriginal language (the Ngarrindjeri language in 1864).

In 1859 the Aborigines Friends Association appointed Taplin as their first missionary-teacher to work in the lower Murray districts. He lived in Raukkan (Point McLeay). By helping the Ngarrindjeri people become literate and numerate and to acquire trades, Taplin enabled them to take their place as educated people in a changing society.

Those he influenced included James Unaipon and his son David Unaipon, the man on our $50 note. The $50 note also displays the mission church at Point McLeay as it was in the late 19th century. Restoration of this church is being funded by the Indigenous Heritage Program through a shared responsibility with the Raukkan community.