High-flying Medicos
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday September 24, 2007
You've seen Dr Tom save lives in outback Australia, now watch the real thing, writes Michael Idato.
For executive producer Julie Hanna, the task of telling the story of the Royal Flying Doctor Service was a little like assembling the pieces of a jigsaw with no real idea of what the complete picture looked like.The idea for a series began with Granada Productions, which took it to the Nine Network - a logical choice given it had produced The Flying Doctors, one of the most popular Australian drama series ever made. Nine used the RFDS, which flies more than 50,000 kilometres a year delivering medical support to Australia's remote communities, as a backdrop for 224 hours of adventure between 1985 and 1993.The new project, titled RFDS, is an observational documentary that tells similar stories of courage, hope and enormous risk with a cast of real characters, including flight nurses Sue Hines and Brendon Kiley, pilot Magnus Badger and new recruit Dr Kai Kursatz - a German migrant who joined the service because he was fan of the TV drama, which was a big hit in Germany.One of Hanna's first tasks was to travel to the operation's hub in Broken Hill with Granada's head of production, Leonie Lowe, and "meet as many people as we could". Hanna spent time with the crews as they flew from job to job to ascertain the logistical realities of filming a series about their work. "It was a matter of talking to as many people as I could and getting on as many flights as I could, to understand the landscape, physical and otherwise, and to understand their motivation for having us there as well," she says.The service covers 1,096,459 square kilometres, with bases in Broken Hill, Dubbo, Bankstown, Mascot, Essendon and Launceston. The "south-eastern section", which covers regional NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, south-west Queensland and northern South Australia, has a staff of 189 - including 40 doctors, 23 flight nurses, seven specialists, one dentist, 54 pilots, 25 engineers and two radio operators.Coming to terms with that, Hanna says, was the first obstacle. "It's quite different to any other production I have worked on," she says. "The most significant issue is that space on the flights is very limited, so you couldn't have a full working crew out there because every kilo matters."As only one member of the documentary team could fly with each plane, "it needed to be the right sort of person who could deal with a variety of technical issues but also who could build that relationship with the RFDS staff, because without a trusting relationship between the producer and the RFDS staff there was no story".Hanna says most Australians are aware of the RFDS but she hopes the show will introduce viewers to a broader, more emotional side of the service. "I think it is about these amazing people, because a lot of them - doctors for example - could be earning a lot more money in big-city practices," she says. "The lack of medical resources is well documented in the bush and without the RDFS some of these places wouldn't exist. The heart of the story is that without this service, we wouldn't have that romantic idea of an Australian outback."An important aspect of the series is how it conveys the pivotal role of the RFDS in the communities it services, from Tasmania to Tibooburra. "In many cases it's a community that comes together around the RFDS clinic," Hanna says. "It might not always be about broken bones or high-end medical stuff but it's about having someone to talk to about a variety of problems and coming together as a community."She was amazed by people's willingness to allow her cameras into their lives. "They are just really generous people and for me it is a real privilege when that happens. At the same time, they don't take any bullshit - they're deeply honest, face-value kind of people and that was revealed more and more as we went along."RFDS begins on Nine on Monday at 9.30pm. See preview, page 18.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald
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