The Club fundraises for a number of important Australian charities. Over the years we have donated more than $80k to the Royal Flying Doctor Service alone. We were delighted to be able to present a cheque for $2,000 to Brett Lever, Senior Community Fundraising Coordinator at the RFDS, at our January general monthly meeting. Our donation will help support the vital aeromedical retrieval services the RFDS provides across rural and remote Australia 24/7. Brett spoke to the Club and gave us an update of the key functional areas of the RFDS now, as it has developed over the years into more than just emergency medical assistance by air.

Today the RFDS is involved in a wide range of medical services such as:

  • Health education
  • Primary health care clinics such as the Clive Bishop Medical Centre in Broken Hill
  • Inter hospital transfers
  • Alcohol and drug treatment and education
  • Dental health
  • Telehealth services
  • Mental Health services

In particular, in the more remote and less advantaged areas of the country, the RFDS plays a large part in assisting with the services mentioned above, especially to Indigenous communities. To learn more about the organisation, please refer to their annual report.

The RFDS has an operating budget of roughly $90 Million with approximately one third of that coming from donations each year. So whilst our donation may seem small, we are one of their longest running donors and valued highly because of that consistency.

During our meeting, Brett showed the following video of “The Outback Car Trek”, one of the RFDS’s larger fundraising efforts. It is well worth a look. We hope you enjoy it.