The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) has named one of its new aircraft in honour of a generous Queensland grazier who left the organisation a substantial gift in will.
Grazier, Geoffrey Carrick bequeathed his estate to the RFDS and another charity after his death aged 73.
Mr Carrick’s property, Maitland Station which is located in the outback town of Einasleigh, was sold at auction for nearly $10 million with a large amount of the proceeds donated to the RFDS.
The Flying Doctor has since purchased four new planes and named one of them, a Beechcraft King Air B200, the ‘Geoffrey Carrick’.
Heather Stott from the RFDS said Mr Carrick’s gift in will was the largest ever to the organisation’s Queensland Section.
“We thought it was a fitting tribute to one of the Service’s quiet, generous heroes,” she said.
“We really wanted to show some respect to Geoffrey’s memory for this because it’s such a substantial gift that will save so many lives and improve the health of so many.”
Geoffrey Carrick was remembered by his friends as a brilliant cattleman living a frugal life on his remote 138-square kilometre property.
Ms Stott said Mr Carrick would always put others and even his animals wellbeing before his own.
“He never treated himself to anything,” she said.
“His one treat in the summer was a can of cold beer every evening and his one treat in the winter was a can of lukewarm Coke.”
During his life, Mr Carrick did give generously to various causes though, sometimes mounting bullock horns on timber plaques to be auctioned for the Flying Doctor.
Friend and executor Bill McCullough said Mr Carrick was incredibly humble, never seeking recognition.
“That’s the sort of bloke he was,” he said.
“He wouldn’t tell anybody that’s what he was doing. It was his business and that was it.”
The four new planes which will transport doctors, nurses and mental health clinicians to and from rural health clinics and will be able to travel further and faster than the Cessna Caravans which were recently decommissioned.
Ms Stott said that Mr Carrick was a generous and humble man and the RFDS are indebted to him.
“It was our great privilege to show our respect and gratitude to Geoffrey by naming of one of our new aircraft in his honour. I hope that he would have been as proud of the ‘Geoffrey Carrick’ as we are of him and his desire to improve the health of those living in remote, regional and rural areas of our state.”
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