This headstone has a small fence around it which would suggest that James Darcy was a person of some significance and his grave is worth preserving - and it is. While James Darcy is fundamental to a very important Australian institution, I would imagine that like me, no-one had ever heard of him.
In 1917, Darcy was a stockman at Ruby Plains Station 75 km south of Halls Creek. He was mustering cattle when he fell from his horse and was seriously injured. He was taken by buggy to Halls Creek (the journey took 12 hours) but there was neither a doctor nor a hospital in the town. The local postmaster, Fred Tuckett had enough medical knowledge to realise that Darcy needed immediate medical attention. He telegraphed both Wyndham and Derby but the doctors from both towns were on holidays. He then telegraphed Perth and, using only morse code, a Dr John Holland diagnosed Darcy as having a ruptured bladder and that he had to be operated on immediately.
After some frantic messages were exchanged in morse code between the doctor and Tuckett, the postmaster reluctantly agreed to operate on Darcy using a penknife and razor.
Darcy was strapped to a table and Tuckett began operating according to instructions he received by telegraph from Dr Holland. The operation took seven hours - with no anaesthetic. A day later complications set in and it became obvious that a doctor would have to come to Halls Creek.
Dr Holland took a cattle boat from Perth to Derby and then travelled the last 555 km by T-model Ford, horse and sulky and foot. After a trip of some 3,700kms that took over two weeks, Dr Holland finally arrived in Halls Creek only to find that Darcy had died the previous day.
However, his death had not been in vain for it was the plight of Darcy that inspired the Rev John Flynn to establish the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
There is a very good account of the incident written by Dr Hollands Grandson at
http://www.kimberleysociety.org/images/kimbsoc-23--ohpei.pdf
For O/S 365ers, Wikipedia has a good entry of the RFDS at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Flying_Doctor_Service_of_Australia
Don't bother to comment, just telling a story
There is a map at
http://365project.org/terryliv/from-the-archiv/2015-01-06 showing our tour up to the start of Day 15.
See the background to this series of postings on the Kimberley at
http://365project.org/terryliv/from-the-archiv/2015-01-08
