Streets of Your Town

DM Podcasts

Join dual Walkley award winning Wandering Journo Nance Haxton in conversation with authentic, sometimes eclectic, and often pre-eminent Australians about the streets of their town. Stories about where they grew up, the environment they live, and what inspires them. Go on an audio journey with Nance highlighting a different slice of Australian life each episode. Find all of Nance Haxton's links and work https://lnk.to/p2NSuH (HERE)

  1. Aug 18

    Annabelle Brayley on the significance of The Vietnam Nurses Memorial at Morven

    And now to another episode of my Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project - bringing the great characters and sounds of Australia’s bush to you. This episode coincides with and helps commemorate Vietnam Veterans’ Day in Australia, this year marking the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan - one of the major military engagements in Australia’s wartime history. In the tiny town of Morven in Queensland’s remote south-west, is a small but incredibly moving memorial to the nurses who served in the Vietnam War, Australia’s longest military engagement of the 20th century. The walls are covered with documentary photos from the time, of nurses deployed to Vietnam treating Australian casualties in incredibly challenging conditions, after they were retrieved from the battle zone by choppers and taken to hospitals for treatment. A visitors book bears signatures from all around Australia, with messages of appreciation for what this memorial has recognised. After writing the book “Our Vietnam Nurses”, author Annabelle Brayley was determined that the service of these brave women would be properly acknowledged, and never forgotten. The Vietnam Nurses Memorial in Morven is a tribute to their service. Annabelle is now raising funds for a bronze statue of the nurses to honour their devotion to duty, and is indefatigable in her advocacy for us to remember their courage, sacrifice and dedication under the most trying circumstances. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

  2. Aug 18

    The Charleville Royal Flying Doctor Service crew that helps keep planes in the air saving lives

    And now to another episode of my special Streets of Your Town series - The Outback Project - bringing the great characters and sounds of Australia’s bush to you. The Charleville base for the Royal Flying Doctors Service serves a vast and isolated population in one of the most remote areas of Australia, covering an area more than 622,000 square kilometres, which is almost the size of the United Kingdom. It is steeped in history, with an RFDS Visitors Centre for people to wander through one of the original bases for the medical service established by Dr John Flynn more than 80 years ago. And while emergency specialists such as Dr Aidan Fenoglio from our last Street of Your Town episode are crucial to RFDS operations and saving people’s lives, there are many more people in the support crew that keep the planes in the air and the service going 24 hours a day, every day of the year, becoming an embedded part of the community. On this episode of Streets of Your Town, we speak to some of the crew from Charleville - Courtney Bylett, Liane Spencer and Nick Tully, who give us a glimpse of their daily emergency filled life. Courtney Bylett is one of the on call flight nurses for RFDS Charleville. As well as her emergency work, the budding entrepreneur has now started a boutique coffee shop and high end restaurant in Charleville to take up her downtime when she’s not on shift. Liane Spencer is the base coordinator, continuing a tradition of service handed down by her father who was an RFDS engineer when she was a child. She knows the layout of the Charleville base intimately, having grown up with the RFDS. And of course, where would the RFDS be without the people flying the planes themselves. Nick Tully grew up in Quilpie, a town two hours drive down the road from Charleville but which locals talk about as if it was a next door neighbour. Nick became a pilot and takes great pride in coming back to the outback where he grew up. For more shownotes and links go to my Streets of Your Town digital magazine for this episode at soyt.substack.com

About

Join dual Walkley award winning Wandering Journo Nance Haxton in conversation with authentic, sometimes eclectic, and often pre-eminent Australians about the streets of their town. Stories about where they grew up, the environment they live, and what inspires them. Go on an audio journey with Nance highlighting a different slice of Australian life each episode. Find all of Nance Haxton's links and work https://lnk.to/p2NSuH (HERE)

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