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House in Sydney. Doug Anthony, the former Deputy Prime Minister, finally launched the Connellan Airways Trust
in the old Connellan Hangar in Alice Springs on 11 February 1983.
Connellan died less than 12 months later on 26 December 1983. Before his death he completed a book and this
was published as Failure of Triumph: The Story of Connellan Airways during 1992.
E J Connellan, Failure of Triumph, 1992; Connellan Papers, in possession of C Connellan.
PETER DONOVAN, Vol 2.CONWAY, AMY ISABEL nee BENNISON, also FANNON and WHITTAKER (1877–1939), housemaid and
boarding house keeper, was born at 1877 at Palmerston, Northern Territory, the daughter of Leslie Samuel Bennison
and his wife Rose, nee Lane. She lived at home with her parents until her marriage to Michael Joseph Fannon,
a seaman, in 1897. In the 1901 census she was shown as a housemaid and having her son with her. Michael Fannon
was recorded on the electoral roll as having left the district so it is assumed he was away at sea.
Before many years elapsed Fannon had died and Amy married a Mr Whittaker. Apparently he also died early
as she married Francis Joseph Conway, a station owner of Pine Creek, in 1918 and on her marriage certificate
she stated she was a widow of Mr Whittaker and was a boarding house keeper. It is believed that she had her
widowed mother, Rose Bennison, living with her in Katherine at the time of this marriage and that Rose continued
to live with her daughter after the marriage. James and Amy took part in Katherine’s public affairs until James
died in 1926. After this Amy continued to run the boarding house in Katherine and was a member of several local
societies. Her main interest was the Country Women’s Association, of which she and her mother were foundation
members.
When Amy died on 17 May 1939, she was buried in Katherine and the Katherine Sub Branch of the Country
Women’s Association erected a headstone in her memory over her grave. Her only son, Frederick Arthur Fannon,
survived her.
Of medium height and build, Amy had blue eyes and brown hair.
Family records.
JOY DAVIS, Vol 2.COOK, CECIL EVELYN AUFRERE (1897–1985), medical practitioner and administrator, was born
23 September 1897 at Bexhill, England, the son of James Whiteford Murray Cook, medical practitioner, and his
wife Emily, nee Puckle. He was about two years old when his parents migrated to Australia.
He received his basic schooling at Southport in Queensland and in 1920 graduated in medicine from the
University of Sydney. He married Jessie Winifred Miller in 1924 and had two sons and a daughter.
In 1923 Cook took a diploma course in tropical medicine and hygiene in London and this was followed by a
Wandsworth Research Fellowship to study the epidemiology of leprosy in Australia. He travelled through much
of the Northern Territory by car in 1925. His research was published as a thesis, ‘The Epidemiology of Leprosy in
Australia’, 1927. For this he received a Doctorate of Medicine and later was honoured as Commander of the Order
of the British Empire (CBE).
In 1927, at the age of 29 years, he was appointed to the Northern Territory as Chief Medical Officer and
Chief Protector of Aborigines. He set out to achieve a completely government run medical service with no
private practitioners, though government doctors were allowed to charge a private fee for obstetrics and surgery.
He introduced a medical benefit fund; but voluntary contributions declined during the 1930s depression and the
fund was heavily in debt y 1940.
In 1929 he started a training school for nurses at Darwin Hospital, with recognition in Queensland, where the
Nurses’ Board conducted the examinations. A local Nurses’ Board was achieved in 1935 followed by a Medical
Board and Dental Officers’ Board. Cook was the chairman of all three statutory authorities.
During Cook’s time in the Northern Territory, doctors were appointed to Alice Springs (1930) and Tennant Creek
(1935) and hospitals were opened at Katherine (January 1935), Tennant Creek (June 1936) and Alice Springs
(March 1939).
In his role as Chief Protector of Aborigines, he recommended that the police in the outback be gazetted
as Protectors. In this role the police received a medical kit and were responsible for the health of Aborigines,
the giving of injections for yaws and the arrest of people with leprosy. This identified the health service with crime
and punishment, an image that took many years to overcome later.
Cook was antagonistic to the missions. He failed to implement that part of the 1928 Bleakley Report, which
recommended increased financial assistance to church missions. In 1931 he reduced the subsidy to missions by
20 per cent and in 1934 withdrew the subsidy from three of them. He refused all financial help for new missions
and stopped the supply of medical kits and the issue of blankets for aged and infirm Aborigines. He demanded
building and hygiene standards on the missions that he could not achieve at Kahlin Compound in Darwin.
Cook rigorously fought early attempts by the Flying Doctor Service to move into the Northern Territory.
He considered it a gross extravagance and that road transport was all that was needed. But in 1934 when
Dr Clyde Fenton came to Katherine with his own personal aircraft, Dr Cook gave him every support. Later,
in 1939, the Flying Doctor Service established a base at Alice Springs, the compromise being that the Department
of Health would provide the doctor and the hospital.
Dr Cook revised much health legislation but the very comprehensive Ordinance for the Protection of Aborigines
was not enacted until modifications were made after he had left the Territory.