Australian Inland Mission (AIM)
The Australian Inland Mission was established in 1912 by the Rev John Flynn (later founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service) of the Presbyterian Church. The initial focus of AIM was to provide medical services to those living in remote Outback areas. In 1945 an AIM Hospital was opened in Leigh Creek as part of the Australian network which already included Beltana and Oodnadatta.
Dorothy Church
Dorothy Church and her friend Phyllis Jones were the first two Sisters of the Leigh Creek AIM. They arrived in Copley in 1945. At that time the total population of Leigh Creek consisted of 12 families, 20 men living in single men’s quarters and a few hundred men in tents. While at Leigh Creek Dorothy also travelled to Nepabunna, Arkaroola, Beltana, Hawker, Quorn and even Adelaide to attend to patients or bring them south for further treatment. Dorothy had to resign from the AIM when she married Don Knuckey in 1947 as it only employed single women.
Dorothy Church’s Photographs of the Leigh Creek AIM
(Provided by her youngest daughter Kathy Ffoulkes)
