A Heart for Bush Kids

A mail truck driver who had regularly driven the 240 rugged miles from Bourke to Hungerford on the Queensland border recalled for me one his memorable trips in the 1930’s. ‘I loaded the two kids in the front and tied a rope across the open door to keep them from falling out. We got to Bourke at four in the morning and there were Mr and Mrs Drummond waiting for them on the railway platform to take them to Sydney for medical help and a holiday. Geez they were wonderful people! They were like Jesus Christ out here in the bush mate.’ 
Nancy Bird, Australia’s pioneer woman flier told me how she met Stanley Drummond in Dubbo as a 19-year-old on a barnstorming tour of NSW. ‘He was one of the first people who believed in me as a woman pilot,’ she said. She was soon based in Bourke flying nurses to remote outback villages for the determined minister’s  Far West Children’s Scheme. This is the little-known story of a couple who I believe are authentic Australian heroes.