- page -
http://www.cdu.edu.au/cdupress
Go Back >> List of Entries
at Manbulloo airstrip near Katherine. Other pilots and crew joined him. He made many emergency medical flights
while other pilots carried army doctors to emergencies. In August 1942 No 6 Communications Flight was formed
with Dr Fenton in command. This unit delivered mail and food supplies to army and RAAF outposts, including a
radar station in the Wessell Islands. They transported men back and forth and searched for crashed pilots and other
missing personnel.
On 25 February 1943 No. 6 Communications Flight transferred to the Batchelor airstrip, the same day that the
enemy bombed the Medical Receiving Station at Coomalie Creek. Fenton continued in command, with the rank of
Squadron Leader, when the flight was expanded into 6 Communications Unit in November 1943. This unit used
probably the widest range of aircraft ever flown by a RAAF squadron, including Tiger Moths, Dragons, Ansons,
Vultee Vengeance dive-bombers, a Hudson and a Beaufort bomber and three Walrus amphibians. ‘Doc’ Fenton
flew with the same dash and disregard for authority as he had in civilian life and drew similar people around him;
but 6 Communications Unit never lost a pilot. His men considered him ‘a one-man air force’ and his Officers’ Mess
was famed for its conviviality. Fenton was demobilised in December 1945. One of his pilots, Jack Slade, remained
in the north to restart the post-war Aerial Medical Service.
Fenton spent the rest of his working years as a quarantine officer with the Commonwealth Department of
Health in Melbourne until his retirement on 29 March 1966. He married a widow, Bonny Catalano in 1963.
He died on 28 February 1982.
He recorded his pre-war flying exploits in a book, Flying Doctor. In spite of a brusque manner he was loved
and respected; the people in the outback knew he would be there when needed. A wartime airstrip was named after
him and he was remembered by Clyde Fenton Primary School in Katherine.
C Fenton, Flying Doctor, facsimile edition, 1982; personal correspondence of C Fenton and Mrs Fenton, and oral history records of P Taylor,
R Edwards, J Slade, in possession of author, AA Darwin, CRS P1 39/567; AA Canberra, CRS A1928, 715/40; Health, vol 16, no 2,
June 1966.
ELLEN KETTLE, Vol 1.
FINNIGAN, TIM: see MAMITPA
FINNISS, BOYLE TRAVERS (1807–1893), surveyor, civil servant and politician, was born at sea on
18 August 1807 off the Cape of Good Hope, eldest son of Captain John Finniss, Paymaster of the 36th and
56th regiments, and Susanna Major. He lived in Madras as a child and was sent to school in Greenwich before
his father went to Mauritius as chief commissary of police in 1824. Finniss entered the Royal Military Academy,
Sandhurst, as a highly promising student in 1827 and was appointed ensign in the 88th Regiment in 1825. He was
promoted to Lieutenant in 1827 and after a brief time with the 56th Regiment was transferred to the 82nd, which
he accompanied to Mauritius in 1833. There he was responsible for supervising the construction of a large bridge.
His regiment was later sent to Dublin where he married Anne Frances Rogerson of Mullingar, County Westmeath,
on 13 August 1835. Shortly afterward he applied in London for a grant of land in New South Wales and when this
was refused he involved himself in moves to establish a colony at Gulf St Vincent, selling his commission so that
he could apply for the post of Deputy Surveyor-General in South Australia.
Finniss and his wife arrived on Cygnet at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, on 11 September 1836 and their
daughter Fanny Lipson was the first white child born in the colony, on 31 December. After some surveying work
on Kangaroo Island and the mainland, he worked with Colonel William Light on the survey of Adelaide, strongly
supporting his choice of site against bitter criticism from many settlers. When he and Light resigned in July 1838
in protest against instructions brought from the South Australian commissioners, they formed a surveying firm
and Finniss was responsible for laying out the town of Gawler. When Light died in October 1839, Finniss acquired
a water mill at Burnside to grind flour and saw timber and when this venture failed he returned to government
service as Commissioner of Police and Police Magistrate. During the 1840s he formed a volunteer militia known
as the ‘Adelaide Marksmen’, of which he was Captain, and later commanded the volunteer Adelaide Regiment.
He succeeded Captain Charles Sturt as Registrar-General and Treasurer in 1847, positions which gave him a seat
on the Executive and Legislative Councils, and was nominated to the new Legislative Council in 1851. In 1852
he became Colonial Secretary and was involved in the drafting of the Constitution Bill. He administered the
government during the six months interregnum before the arrival of Governor Sir Richard MacDonnell and on
24 October became the first Premier of South Australia under responsible government. After a patchy political
career he resigned his seat in October 1862 and lived on his official pension.
His military and surveying background may have recommended him for the appointment of Government
Resident in the newly acquired Northern Territory in March 1864 although it is more likely to have been a sinecure
for an unemployed politician now aged fifty-seven. F S Dutton had recommended him for the position and this
was not opposed by anyone. However, he had little influence over the selection of his officers (apart from his son
Fred), who were protégés of ministers and other politicians, or of his men, who had little notion of conditions
in the north and the work to be done. Following representations from George Windsor Earl and others,
the Hart government had decided on Adam Bay at the western end of Van Diemen’s Gulf as the first location
to be considered for settlement, although the earlier focus of interest had been the Victoria River area where
Augustus Charles Gregory had said there were more than three million acres suitable for grazing. Instructions
given to Finniss by Chief Secretary Henry Ayers in April stressed that Adam Bay should be judged on its ability
to provide a secure, easily navigable and well-located port and a healthy site for a capital, with close proximity
to water and timber. If Adam Bay proved unable to meet this criterion, he was then to investigate Port Patterson,