Royal Flying Doctor got royally bogged

Dr Brett Thomson is a doctor for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), and is currently in Gilgandra providing locum support at the Gilgandra Medical Centre. 

“I do a bit of work for RFDS out of Dubbo and Broken Hill, and I live in Canberra and down at the south coast part time.”

Dr Thomson flew himself into Gilgandra in his own aircraft on Sunday afternoon. However, he was met with a downpour as he taxied in. 

“With all this unseasonal weather, just as we were taxiing to the shed where the aeroclub has kindly provided me with some space to hanger the aircraft, we got the big downpour that happened Sunday afternoon. 

“Down the old plane went in the mud and she wasn’t going any further. 

So, we gave up our attempts on Sunday to rescue the aircraft, and we are back this morning (Monday, November 7) trying to make some sense of it and get the aircraft into the shed.” 

Luckily, the team of helping hands were able to move the plane to more solid ground on Monday afternoon. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, Dr Thomson is grateful for Gilgandra’s hospitality, and assures this hasn’t deterred him from the town. 

“When I was coming up here, I was lucky to be able to call a local Tim McClelland, who kindly provided me with a lot of local information, and also kindly offered to put me in the hanger. 

"Not only that, he also loaned me a car so I didn’t have to walk to work each day. So that’s pretty good country hospitality.”