A pastoralist and a road user are calling for more remote airstrips after three medical air evacuations in seven days along a remote Northern Territory road.
Key points:
- A station manager spent three days in one week coordinating emergency responses to medical air evacuations along the Plenty Highway
- Stations often play a key role, at their own cost, in emergency situations
- There are calls for more remote airstrips to improve patient outcomes and minimise the drain on station resources
Roley Kane was riding with a group of motorcyclists along the dirt section of the Plenty Highway, 350 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs, when his mate Jim Cullen crashed.
“He was in absolute agony,” Mr Kane said.
“We actually feared for his life.”
That crash came two days after a similar incident involving a motorcycle on the same stretch of road.
Later in the same week another patient was airlifted from Tobermorey Station along the highway due to a medical condition.
Six-hour wait
Mr Kane said his friend waited for six hours on the side of the road with four broken vertebrae, a broken nose, a broken eye socket and a broken cheekbone.
He said it was recommended Mr Cullen be airlifted directly from the site, but an emergency helicopter was unable to retrieve him due to fuel restrictions.
Eventually Mr Cullen was picked up by the RFDS and driven about 60km over rough dirt road to Marqua Station airstrip and was flown from there.
Mr Kane said it was a long and frustrating wait.
“He wouldn’t have had a fun trip,” he said.
“For a guy to lay there, really seriously injured for that amount of time, you’ve just got to ask yourself the question — how?
“I know we’re in a remote area and everything’s stretched – there could have been emergencies somewhere else – but if a doctor said to you, ‘You need to be airlifted and not road transported’, that’s got to happen, hasn’t it?”
‘Fairly hectic’
Tobermorey Station manager Tannas Godfrey said she regularly dealt with emergencies along the highway.
“We’ve had three evacuations within a week, so it’s been fairly hectic,” she said.
“Both of the motorcycle accidents occurred on the bulldust section of the Plenty, which most people know is located between Tobermorey Station and Jervois Station.
“It’s where some of the tougher dirt and corrugations are.”
Station workers along remote roads often work together to coordinate and communicate with emergency services after accidents.
Ms Godfrey said she was happy to help, but it took a toll.
“There’s resources and person time,” she said.
“I’ve had three full days in the last seven – three full workdays – where I’ve been doing first-aiding and RFDS coordinating.
“We don’t mind, because one day that that might be us and we want to make sure that we’re looked after by someone then.
“But when it’s this frequent, and in trying to work out the logistics and making it work for that aeromedical evacuation, it does take a lot of time and coordination, that’s for sure.”
Calls for change
Mr Kane and Ms Godfrey have called for change to improve patient outcomes and to minimise the strain on station resources.
They would like to see more places where helicopters can refuel so that patients can be airlifted directly from where they are.
They also want the highway upgraded to allow for emergency plane landings.
“Emergency airstrips on the bitumen, ideally, like they have on the Donohue Highway,” Ms Godfrey said.
“Or at least maintained, good gravel strips up to RFDS standards more frequently along the Plenty Highway, which means it’s easier for us to evacuate them or, if there’s travel time involved, it’s quicker.”
Ms Godfrey suggested the NT government maintain the old airstrip on Manners Creek, south east of the Marqua Station driveway and Plenty Highway intersection, near Mr Cullen’s crash and along the particularly problematic section of the highway.
An NT Department of Infrastructure spokesperson said there were no formal arrangements to assist with the maintenance of private airstrips along the Plenty Highway, but the department would liaise directly with the private airstrip owner regarding the maintenance requirements and available assistance.
Assistant Minister for Regional Development Anthony Chisholm said the management of airstrips was up to their owners, but the 2023‑24 budget included $12 million in new grant funding for round 10 of the Remote Airstrip Upgrade Program.
Applications are expected to open later this year.
Ms Godfrey says there should be better medical resources on stations.
“Things like stretchers and heart-rate monitors, all those sort of next-level first-aid equipment that we’re expected to buy, to make it easier for us to help diagnose and provide that first-aid, would be great,” she said.
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