When the opportunity came to travel on a Christian Fellowship Tour which visited Coober Pedy, former BCA nurse Valerie Want jumped at it. Over fifty years ago Valerie served in Coober Pedy and what she found today was very different to her experience in 1973 and 1974...

I grew up in Newcastle and back in the 1970’s a representative from BCA visited our church and spoke about the need in Coober Pedy. I really felt God calling me to go there.

After I applied and was accepted to be one of four sisters in Coober Pedy, The Revd Theo Hayman commissioned me to serve. My Mum and Dad prayed – I was in God’s hands – and off I went into the unknown.

I drove from Newcastle in my little Morris 1300 all the way across New South Wales and South Australia, up to Port Augusta and then onto Coober Pedy. I was 28 years old, and I’d only had my licence for two years. It was gravel roads all the way and it took me a week to get there. It was quite the adventure.

It was hard work in the Hospital some days we worked all 24 hours. We did everything there as there were four sisters there but no doctor, although the flying doctor would come up from Port Augusta every fortnight. We treated cats and dogs as well as people! We had to do all the cooking for the patients and ourselves as well as for the flying doctor, nurse and pilot when they were in town. I’d never cooked before in my life! And we had to boil all our water as we relied on rainwater.

We took it in turns while nursing. One sister was an outpatient nurse, and one was an inpatient nurse. There were eight beds: two male, two female, two children’s and two in the maternity section.

We would also take it in turn to deliver babies. I delivered 12 babies during my nearly two years there. If it was a mother’s first baby, she had to go down south. But I remember a particular time a French lady refused to go. Sister Pat and I were on duty, and we had to do a forceps delivery. I’d never done that before – but we were on the phone with the Flying Doctor the whole time, and we delivered a healthy baby.

When you were working in outpatients you had to collect the flying doctor, nurse and pilot from the airstrip. ‘I said that’s ok I can drive my car’, which was an automatic, but they wouldn’t all fit. So, I had to learn to drive a manual Kingswood station wagon. On my first pick up there were kangaroos all around me and on the return trip the pilot was telling me what to do!

If there was an emergency the flying doctor had to come up. The airstrip was gravel and there was no lighting so if they flew in at night cars from all around had to line up so the plane could see where to land. Today it’s all hi-tech now because Coober Pedy is such a popular place.

I only left Coober Pedy in 1974 because the government was going to build a public hospital. I have fond memories of my time there and I still keep in touch with two of the nurses Audrey and Pat. 

The CFT Salt and Light Tour brought back so many memories. I had been on an AAT tour before, but this was so beautiful because it was a Christian tour with Christian people. It was also wonderful to meet our tour guides Kerry & Julie Medway as they served in Coober Pedy too. While the BCA Hospital is no longer there, Kerry took me to the new hospital which was such a great thrill.