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Upon his return to Mornington he involved himself in community work to such an extent that, although now in
his 70s, he won a Citizen of the Year Award. For his 12 years in the Territory he may well, had there been such an
honour, been given a Citizen of the Territory Award!
He returned to Central Australia on two occasions in the late 1970s, not just to renew acquaintances, but instantly
to assist, if at all needed, at service clubs and with ideas he thought might benefit people. One such idea was the
establishment of a sanatorium near Mount Gillen and, although it was not taken up as a concept, he was ever a
proselytiser to people ‘down South’ about Central Australia’s climate and attractions.
Late in his life he was seriously injured in a traffic accident, and obliged to use a frame. Rather than complain
he took the situation as a challenge. He became an enthusiastic artist, painting the Mornington landscapes, and
remained independent in his home. He also remained interested in all that happened in the Territory, continued
to suggest to all whom he met that they should travel there to enjoy the scenery and hospitality, and was still
barracking for ‘his’ Melanka/Wests football team when he died just before the finals in 1991.
As Chaucer might have said of him, ‘he was the best of his kind’.
R G Kimber, ‘The Flood Medal’, in Wests Football Club-Bloods, 1990; correspondence with T Flood; personal communications.
R G KIMBER, Vol 2.
FLYNN, FRANCIS STANISLAUS (FRANK) (1906– ), Catholic priest, ophthalmologist and author, was born
on 6 December 1906 in Sydney, one of nine children born to Dr John Flynn and Maud May, nee Witton. John Flynn
had arrived in Australia from Ireland in 1888, where he had been House Surgeon in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital
in Dublin. Frank Flynn commenced his education at the Brigidine Convent in Randwick, Sydney. Along with his
five brothers the Marist Brothers at Darlinghurst, Sydney, then educated him. They all excelled at studies, and all
went into medicine. In 1925 Frank Flynn started his medical studies at the University of Sydney. In 1933 he sailed
to England on Jervis Bay as ship’s surgeon. He studied and worked at the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital (Moorfields)
in London, the world’s oldest and most famous eye hospital. Not yet 30, he made several important contributions
to the study of eye disease, including the introduction of a new drug, which he named Mydriciane, and the design
and patenting of a machine used in operating on detached retinas.
While still at Moorfields, Flynn wrote to his family informing them of his decision to become a priest. He returned
to Australia in 1934, travelling as ship’s surgeon on board the liner Automadon. He joined the Missionaries of the
Sacred Heart (MSC) in December 1935. It was while studying Philosophy at Kensington Monastery in New South
Wales that Flynn first met Monsignor Francis Xavier Gsell, who, appointed as the first resident Catholic Bishop
of Darwin in 1938, was to have a profound influence on the way Flynn approached his later ministry amongst the
Aboriginal people of the north. Flynn was ordained as a priest in March 1942. In response to the many people who
questioned why he gave up medicine for the Church, Flynn later wrote, ‘I never did for any lengthy period divorce
ophthalmic practice from my priesthood. I have been fortunate, indeed, in that wherever I have gone I have found
a union of the two interests, one aimed at healing the body and the other aimed at healing the spirit’.
After ordination Flynn was sent to the Northern Territory where he was attached to the Army as a Major,
serving in the dual role of chaplain and ophthalmologist. Military life and discipline was not entirely new to Flynn
as he had undergone, compulsory, military training at school as a Junior and Senior Cadet, and was later in the
University Regiment. He was attached in succession to Australian General Hospital (AGH) units 113, 109, 117 and
129, and operated at the Darwin Fortress Hospital on Myilly Point and new Army hospitals in Berrimah, Katherine
and Alice Springs.
The first medical problem brought to his attention by the Army was with regard to the severe eye discomfort
suffered by Army convoy drivers. Flynn’s simple solution of the use of goggles by the drivers, rinsing the eyes,
painting a green strip along the top of each windscreen and spacing convoy vehicles, proved effective. As Army
Chaplain Flynn quickly found a use for St Mary’s (then St Joseph’s) Convent and school, the Sisters of Our Lady
of the Sacred Heart having been evacuated to Alice Springs, by turning it into a Soldiers’ Club. Between 1943
and 1946 he was able to travel widely throughout the Territory, and provided a lively and fascinating record of
outback life at the time in his book Distant Horizons, published in 1947. These travels confirmed what Flynn as
early as 1942 had identified, and officially reported; that there was an appallingly high level of trachoma amongst
the Aboriginal people, a finding contrary to the official medical view that trachoma was not endemic in Australia.
This lack of interest was highlighted in 1944 when Flynn, intending to speak to a conference of eye specialists in
Sydney on the subject of trachoma in the Aboriginal population, was approached and asked to choose a subject of
more interest to members from Melbourne and Sydney.
After the war ended Flynn conducted many studies on trachoma for the Commonwealth Department of Health
and in 1957 made a full report on his findings in The Medical Journal of Australia. Flynn constantly urged a mass,
practical programme, and in 1976 an official Australia-wide survey on trachoma amongst Australian Aboriginals
was started under the direction of Professor Fred Hollows. Flynn was appointed as advisor to Hollows, and
arranged for Hollows to visit Bathurst and Melville Islands to study the level of trachoma there before he started
working on the National Trachoma and Eye Health Program. Hollows regarded Flynn as his mentor, and the ‘the
man behind his fight for sight’. The two men formed a friendship that was to last until Hollows’ death in 1993.
Flynn was demobilised in 1946 and took up duties as Administrator or parish priest of St Mary’s, Darwin, a parish
covering 480 square kilometres. He continued to serve the military as part-time Chaplain and Ophthalmologist to
the Royal Australian Air Force, with the rank of Wing Commander. One of Flynn’s first tasks as Administrator
was to ensure that the nuns were among the first women allowed to return to Darwin. The school was the first to
re-open in Darwin after the Second World War, and within a few months was functioning again with 230 pupils.