More than 42,000 stories of everyday Queenslanders have been captured in a remarkable book that celebrates 80 years of the Royal Queensland Bush Children’s Health Scheme.
Titled BUSHIES, the book was officially launched on Tuesday by the Scheme’s Patron, Queensland Governor the honourable Paul de Jersey AC, at a reception at Government House.
BUSHkids is a not for profit organisation providing primary health care to children and their families in rural Queensland communities. The organisation aims to provide early intervention allied health for children and families who otherwise may have been unable to access services in their local area.
“Only two small booklets about the history of the Royal Queensland Bush Children’s Health Scheme had been produced before,” said Chief Executive Officer Carlton Meyn.
“One of our key projects in the lead-up to our 80th anniversary in 2015 was to investigate our archives and talk to as many former ‘Bush kids’ and staff and volunteers as we could to capture their stories.
“This turned out to be a massive exercise, taking almost three years to complete.
“The resulting book is a magnificent testament to the vision of our Scheme’s founders and the spirit of many generations of Queenslanders who have stayed true to the goal of providing necessary care to rural, remote and regional families despite all the changes and challenges over eight decades.”
BUSHkids Council Chairman Dr Neil Bartels said the book highlighted amazing threads of continuity, longevity and determination.
“The BUSHkids of the early 21st Century is very different to that of its formation in the first half of the 20th Century – it had to be, to survive, to remain relevant and continue to serve Queensland families.
“For everyone involved in its administration today, reviewing the book has been an eye-opening experience to fully appreciate, perhaps for the first time, just how far we’ve come, what we’ve achieved and the many thousands of lives we’ve touched.”
Mr Meyn agreed.
“Two of our current staff members have more than 50 years’ service between them, Neil’s late father was himself Chairman for many years, and Pat Carlin, the lovely lady whose 2010 booklet was one of the foundations for this more expansive work, was with us for almost two decades,” he said.
“It’s also not uncommon for many of our client families to be second- and third-generation ‘Bush kids’ themselves so, even though the services we provide today are very different, it’s clear that the need is still very much there.”
The book’s project manager and editor/designer, Matt Tesch, said he and his co-writer, Adrian Harrison, owed much to the pioneering work of Pat Carlin and former Chairman Jim Arkell MBE.
“Without the ‘road map’ provided by their booklets, in 2010 and 1974 respectively, our task would have been even harder in 2014-16,” Mr Tesch said.
“More than 8,000 archival images and documents had to be sifted and sorted and more than 2,000 digitised. More than 800 found their way into the richly-illustrated 448 pages of this ‘once-in-many-lifetimes’ publication, the product of around 50 interviews and thousands of hours of research.”
The book may be ordered via the BUSHkids website, from the Scheme’s Brisbane office or from a limited number of retailers.
