This is the story of three men. A stockman, a Postmaster and a Doctor, who were brought together by a series of extraordinary circumstances on July 29, 1917. Known forever more by historians as ‘Operation by Telegraph’ – their actions would trigger a chain of events that would ultimately lead to a revolution in medical care delivery in outback Australia and the founding of the organisation that we know today as the Royal Flying Doctor Service. In episode #118 of the Flying Doctor Podcast, Dr Joe Holland’s grand-daughter, Julia Geaney, shares the fascinating recollections from her grandfather’s personal diaries and her own research, of his desperate bid to save the life of a young stockman, named Jimmy Darcy. Julia also tells us the story of the extraordinary and courageous postmaster named Fred Tucket and the incredible efforts and assistance offered by Jimmy Darcy’s family, helpful strangers and indigenous community members, who came to Dr Holland’s aid during his treacherous journey from Derby to Halls Creek. Originally from Sydney, Dr Holland moved to the gold mining town of Kanowna in WA, where he witnessed first-hand the need for life-saving emergency medicine in the remote and often sparsely populated gold fields. He began teaching First Aid classes at night– instructing local men in the treatment of haemorrhage and the setting of common fractures and the like – before eventually moving to private practice in Perth in 1914.
Meanwhile, in the remote WA community of Halls Creek, located some 550kms from Derby, 290kms from Fitzroy Crossing, 380kms from Wyndham and 2660kms from Perth, Fred Tuckett was known as WBL – which stood for a ‘whole Bloody lot’. Tuckett was postmaster, telegraph operator and magistrate, as well as the births deaths and marriages registrar, commissioner for roads and protector of Aborigines. But on the day that Jimmy Darcy’s two brothers, Walter and Tom, rode non-stop for some 400km from Wyndham to Halls Creek with their gravely injured brother, Tuckett suddenly found himself in the role of local medic too.
Jimmy had been helping with the muster at a neighbouring station to Ruby Plains, called Lambo Station. Riding bareback after some runaway cattle, Darcy had been thrown from and then trampled by his horse. It was clear to Tuckett that Jim had sustained life-threatening internal injuries.
After trying unsuccessfully to contact the doctors at both Wyndham and Derby, Tuckett turned in desperation to the only other person he thought could help. It was the doctor who had taught him First Aid at Kanowna. His name was Dr Joe Holland. So on the 29th July in 1917, a phone call came through to Dr Holland’s rooms, asking him to attend at the Telegraph Office, for an urgent message coming through from Halls Creek. And the message was a long one. The receiving operator pushed sheet after sheet of transcribed Morse Code across the table to Doctor Holland. Tuckett had put Darcy into a hot bath in a blanket to relieve the pain - to no avail. He had given the patient laudanum for the pain. But that too was ineffective. As the night wore on, the Morse Code updates from Tuckett continued. ‘Pain so bad patient collapsed. Revived with teaspoon whiskey in milk. Patient cannot pass urine. Patient is alternately hot and cold.’
Tuckett described every symptom in detail to Dr Holland and he even attempted to insert a catheter to relieve the patient’s bladder, but without success. By now, Jim Darcy had gone 63 hours without relieving his bladder and Dr Holland realised an operation was Darcy’s only chance of survival. The only hope for the young stockman was for Tuckett to perform the operation at Halls Creek, with the instructions for each step being tapped out by Dr Holland from Perth. There was no scalpel in the First Aid kit, so a penknife was to be used. The doctor gave instructions on taping a piece of gauze onto the blade of the pen knife so that the incision would not be cut too deeply. And in the cool of the next day, the operation began.
It was the middle of 1917 and the First World War was raging across Europe. Most people in Australia had a son or a brother or a husband serving in the War and they were desperate for any news that might concern their loved ones. But on that day, all news was stopped and the WA lines were kept open for ‘Operation by Telegraph’. Nine Morse code messages were exchanged on the night of August 2nd and it was an all-night vigil. But while the initial operation had been a success, Holland realised there was still a great deal of danger ahead for the patient and the Darcy brothers insisted that everything possible was to be done to save their brother. So Tuckett wired once again to Perth, with the words, ‘Can you come up Doc?’.
With the first available ship, a cattle boat called ‘Moira' leaving from Fremantle to Derby on the 9th August, Dr Holland then set out on a remarkable and arduous round trip to Halls Creek of some 7,400 kilometres. First by ship, then by Model T Ford and then by horse – a return journey that would take some six and a half weeks to complete. Unfortunately, after an exhausting journey, Holland finally arrived at Tuckett’s house only to hear the heartbreaking news that Darcy had died the day before. Tuckett had felt the strain of nearly three weeks of anxiety and was ‘quite broken down’. Holland's autopsy concluded that the malarial fever and chills and shivering attacks, which had started a few days before Darcy died, were the actual cause of his death. Darcy’s coffin was made of old packing cases and the whole population of Halls Creek followed the buggy carrying the coffin up the little hill to the cemetery. But Holland was determined to still make good use of his time in Halls Creek, so he set to work teaching First Aid and doing medical examinations on the people in the town – including quite a few of the local Aboriginal population. He arranged the dispensary and sorted through the medicine chest, taking notes as to what he would need to send back from Perth. Not long after Dr Holland returned to Perth that he had a chance meeting at Perth Railway Station, with a man Holland recognised as none other than the Reverend John Flynn. Dr Holland recounted to Flynn the reality of the almost impossible access to these remote and isolated communities and that many people had requested that he return there one day. ‘But next time,’ he said, ‘I’ll fly!'
"Next time, I'll fly!" Dr Joe Holland
Today, a remarkable sculpture created (and then donated to the RFDS) by West Australian artist Troy Morrison, called Jimmy Darcy’s Horse, takes pride of place at Perth’s RFDS base at Jandakot.
