Centenary Stories

Do you, or a member of your family, have a special memory about your time working for, or receiving support from, the organisation over the last 100 years? If so we would love to hear from you!

We would like to have as many stories as possible as recording our history is something that is vital in ensuring that the story of our work is not lost as we move into the next 100 years of service in remote Australia.

To share your story with the wider Frontier Services family, or to submit some images to be added to our photo archieve, please click on the buttons to the side.

Rev A. Trevor Foote; Ipswich, QLD

The following extracts appear in Trevor Foote's book 'Kimberley Horizons: Life Transforming Experiences', which explores his four years as a Minister in the West Kimberley Patrol, based in Broome WA, under the Federal Methodist Inland Mission from 1967. "Chapter 8: The Patrol Ministry In my first year of ministry on patrol in the Kimberley I travelled 25,000 miles in the Holden station wagon I had inherited from my predecessor. The Mission Board in Melbourne wrote to…

Jessie Delaney (nee Rooke)

The following story was submitted by Jessie's daughter Kay Hartwell of Queensland. Jessie joined the AIM in Cloncurry after completing her eduation and Junior exams in Townsville. She told me many stories of those days including some of the famous Rev Fred McKay. She used to stay back and type letters for him when he passed through. Morse Code was used especially when the telephone lines were down or static made phone or radio conversation impossible. …

Beth Crosby (nee Balfour)

The following diary extracts were supplied by Helen Blackall. Her Grandmother (Nanna, as we called her) lived only 2 miles from their home and was very much a part of their family life. She was born Ethel Frances Balfour (known as Beth) in 1890, married Charles Franklin Crosby in 1920 and died in 1973. Her family was very involved in the Presbyterian Church at Culcairn, NSW (now the Uniting Church). The following extracts of Beth's…

Pat McPherson; Bairnsdale, VIC

AIM HOSPITALS CIRCA 1960s An extract written by Pat McPhersonfor the Kimberley Nurses History Group Conference, Broome March 2000 ABSTRACT It is 1960. Australia is just 25 years off its bi-centenary; a modern nation for modern times, enjoying the last of the long, post-war economic boom. The Kimberley however, is only 80 years old in terms of European settlement and very little has changed, but as the decade unfolds, cataclysmic changes will sweep through…

Dulcie Andrew; Hamilton, VIC

NURSING WITH THE AUSTRALIAN INLAND MISSIONAT HALLS CREEK, W.A., 1946-48 by (Mrs) D. F. Andrew (formerly Sister Dulcie Peel) I was born at Geelong and lived with my parents, sister and two brothers at Inverleigh, about 20 miles west of Geelong, Victoria, until I was 10 years old, and then moved to my father’s farm at Buckley, 10 miles away. I was the niece of John Clifford Peel whose letter to the Rev. Dr John…

Rev Lindsay Faulkner; Felixstow, SA

Flying over northern South Australia towards Alice Springs in May 1956 was adventure enough. There were only a few passengers so one could look out both sides of the Douglas DC3 aircraft and see the dry but interesting landscape slowly pass by. I was 17, going to my ‘job’ away from home in Melbourne and flying towards a lifetime of faith and adventure; but more of that anon. This 1st step was to be the…

Dorothy Knuckey (nee Church)

The following extract was kindly supplied by Dorothy's children. “I completed my Tresillian training at Petersham and that is where I met Phyllis Jones (Hughes). After our training, and after I had completed by obstetrics, Phyll and I applied to the Australian Inland Mission and were accepted. We were appointed to Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia. The South Australian Government asked the AIM to open a hospital at Leigh Creek Coalfields which had been reopened…

Ron Mallyon; Baulkham Hills, NSW

REMINISCENCES OF A SON OF THE MANSE AT LONGREACH QLD. 1947—1951 Ron Mallyon My Father, John Mallyon, completed his studies at St. Andrew's Theological College ('The Hall’ as it was affectionately called) in 1947. He commenced studies in 1939, but World War II intervened. He completed his studies on his return from the Middle East where he served as a YMCA Welfare Officer. Some other students for the ministry also served as YMCA Welfare Officers…

Gwen and Roy Shave; Central Coast, NSW

Gwen Shave with FS Staff member Jeanie Brook

“Retired and interested in the work of Frontier Services we volunteered to visit and photograph Frontier Services staff and their work. To tell the story as it were. During two ‘round Australia’ trips, (1985 & 1987) including Tasmania, we visited and photographed every member of the staff at that time ‘ on the job’. Travelling from Woologoolga to every Frontier Services post, except Coen on Cape York where out vehicle was not strong enough to cope…