Nearly 40 years ago the Victorian wheatbelt town of Minyip served as a filming location for the popular TV series The Flying Doctors.
It's a fact the isolated town — aka "Coopers Crossing" — still celebrates.
These feelings of nostalgia were recently turbocharged by the arrival of the actual Royal Flying Doctor Service in town — along with the surrounding areas of Warracknabeal and Beulah.
But the reason they're here is a serious one.
Filling a hole
Compared to major cities, people in remote areas of Australia are more than twice as likely to be hospitalised for potentially preventable conditions.
Although the RFDS roots began as an aeromedical organisation, these days its services are not just offered by air.
For the past four months, the area four hours' drive north-west of Melbourne has been serviced by the RFDS's community road transport program, taking people who can't drive themselves to appointments with their nearest specialists.
Five volunteers make several trips each a week in two vans.
One of them, Alison Whelan, says there is an obvious need for the service among elderly residents, and the role requirements matched her skill set.
"I really enjoying interacting with other people," Ms Whelan says.
"Sometimes family members are either not available or out, or perhaps the client doesn't like to put them out or bother them.
"So they are very relieved to have a service such as ours."
Driving Ms Steinmeyer
One of Ms Whelan's clients is 79-year-old Gwen Steinmeyer, of Warracknabeal. She uses the van to see her podiatrist for routine check-ups at the local health campus, Rural Northwest Health (RNH).
She had been walking to appointments ever since her husband passed away several years ago.
"Things are much, much better now," she says.
"Previously I walked in all weather, but now I will be in a car regardless of the weather.
"A lot of people aren't aware of it, and they aren't interested until they need it, but then they think [it's great]."
Aside from trips like Ms Steinmeyer's to RNH, Ms Whelan also takes patients as far away as Horsham's Wimmera Cancer Centre and Nhill's hospital, each an hour's drive away.
Prior to this, cancer patients in Warracknabeal were cancelling or postponing appointments around once a fortnight.
From Horsham, patients can hop onto community transport from a different organisation to continue on to Ballarat if needed.
"We were only established late last year, and the word is still spreading, but before too long were are going to be very busy, which is excellent; that's what we're here for," Ms Whelan says.
Already more than 160 locals from the three towns have registered their interest in using the community transport, and 175 transports have taken place since November.
A further 16 people from the area — population 3,500 — will soon join the five existing volunteers as drivers.
Shoring up regional health
Until now, people who couldn't get to appointments in the area had to miss them.
Jenny Masters, chief executive of Rural Northwest Health, says that outcome benefited no-one.
"There's a waitlist impact: It means people have to wait longer for appointments if we can't fill them," she says.
"If people can't see these health professionals, particularly when they have chronic conditions that need ongoing monitoring, then they become more unwell, and that's a cost to the health system because the cost of the treatment to care for them becomes more expensive.
"And it's a cost to the community if people are unable to work or be functioning members of our community."
Ms Masters says RNH's catchment had higher-than-average rates of chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and respiratory conditions.
Growth imminent
RFDS vehicles have already been running in the central Victorian towns of Heathcote and Rochester for years.
A spokesperson says it was the success of those sites that led the service to partner with three Primary Health Networks to expand the program.
The RFDS began patient transport in the Goulburn Valley town of Numurkah last year around the same time as the Minyip/Warracknabeal one began, while Foster in south-west Gippsland is next in line.
By next year, vans will be operating in 10 remote Victorian towns.
The spokesperson said the RFDS did not expect its transport to compete with local taxis or ambulances, the latter because the clients did not receive medical assistance on the journey.
