English: On 15 May 1928, John Flynn's dream became a reality with the opening of the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Medical Service in Cloncurry, Queensland (later to be renamed the Royal Flying Doctor Service). From the first flight in a single engine, fabric covered bi-plane, the RFDS steadily grew in size, scope and reach.

Although the RFDS began in Queensland, The Queensland Section was not registered in its own right until 1939. The Cloncurry base remained operational until 1964 when it was relocated to Mount Isa.

Information from: www.flyingdoctor.org.au/about-the-rfds/history/rfds-secti...

QSA Item ID 435656 View this and other original records at the Queensland State Archives: Series ID 182

Charleville, a rural town in south-central Queensland, is 660 km west of Brisbane and 280 km from the New South Wales border. It is on the Warrego River, at the junction of the Mitchell and Warrego Highways.

The Charleville region was explored by Edmund Kennedy in 1847 and by William Landsborough in 1862, the latter's report which motivated early pastoral occupation. The Gowrie run (1863) was positioned on a natural stock route between New South Wales and Queensland, Gowrie Crossing where the route crossed the Warrego. A hotel was constructed there and a town reserve of four sq miles gazetted in 1865. Three years later William Tully, government assistant surveyor, laid out the town's streets. An Irishman, Tully likely named the new town after the town of Charleville, north of Cork, Ireland.

COBB & CO

During the 1870s Charleville was a rudimentary rural centre with a store, blacksmith, butcher and a police magistrate. In 1876 Cobb and Co made its first run from Charleville to the Roma railhead, carting woolclip. Charleville became an important stopover point for Cobb and Co routes, and in 1886 the company relocated coach building operations from Bathurst into the town, establishing a major factory and creating the first of several industries which made Charleville something of an autonomous bush metropolis.

During the decade of the 1880s Charleville took on a fuller shape: aside from the Cobb and Co factory, the Charleville Times began publication (1883), a school was opened (1884), a hospital built (1885) and Anglican and Catholic churches were erected. In 1888 the railway was extended to the town from Morven, making Charleville the terminus. The following year bore water was successfully brought to the surface. The school of arts (1890) augmented a Mutual Improvement Society and the Working Men's Club.

By the 1890s town interests felt that the Murweh local-government division was neglecting them, and succeeded in forming the Charleville (town) municipality in 1894. Two years later the town had reticulated water. Unfortunately a short-lived brewer could not tolerate the water quality. Nor did the town's separate municipality status last in the longer term - in 1961 Charleville returned to the Murweh Shire, and was its administrative seat.

Information from: queenslandplaces.com.au/charleville