There's a bad drought in the neighbourhood, making everybody in a bad mood. Vic has to go to Broken Hill to get more beer, but Lucy, who will look after the pub, falls ill. Marty offers to help, but leaves the pub unattended. When he comes back, Paula has taken over, making him a bit upset. They decide to help, but everything gets out of hand, and the pub is totally wrecked. Emma is angry with Marty, for helping out at the pub instead of the garage and he fires him. When Vic gets back, he doesn't get too upset about the brawl, and he convinces Emma to give Marty his job back. In the end, the drought is broken and it starts to rain!

Breaking The Drought

Robert Grubb

Peter O'Brien

Lenore Smith

Liz Burch

Brendan Maher

John Reeves

Family Secrets (Part 1)

Bed And Board

Kate and Geoff are on their way to a clinic when two tyres puncture and they have to walk to the farm. When they get there, they see two hot air ballons coming. They belong to a family, consisting of Brian, Lorraine and their son Matt, and a work collegue...a young blonde called Kylie. Finally it's decided there is to be a balloon race, to raise fonds for the RFDS. Kate will be going with Matt, and Geoff with Brian. Geoff is hopeless on navigating, which makes Brian upset, he really wants to win. Suddenly he has a terrible stomach pain, and Geoff has to put down urgently. In hospital they see Brian had a hernia and operate! Lorraine has realized Brian and Kylie were having an affair, and she leaves town. Kylie knows that Lorraine and Brian really should be together, so she finds Lorraine. She and Brian decides to try again. Paula is starting to care more and more for Geoff, and he is a bit embarrassed about it!

Look, Up In The Sky

A preacher called Teddy Faithful is coming to town, and it is said he can perform miracles. At a meeting in the townhall, when everybody is there, he makes a blind man see again! Everybody is stunned, but later on it turnes out that it was all a fake. Brett, the man organizing all Teddy's activities, had hired the man to make everything look good. Teddy fires Brett and will leave on his own, along with Jenny Rose, a singer who now follows Teddy around and didn't know anything about Brett's lies either. Paula thinks she is turning to religion and wants to follow Teddy, but Sam makes her see sense.

Preacher Man

Kimberly White is coming back to Coopers Crossing, to check on George Baxter. She brought her son Todd. Chris meets them at the airport, but Todd isn't very nice. The take a country drive, and stops in the middle of the outback to go for a walk. Todd stays by the car, but suddenly he gets frightened and starts running after Kimberly and Chris, screaming. He falls and hurts his leg. When they asked him what scared him, he says it was a snake. In hospital, Todd gets a bed next to a young boy named Danny, and they become good friends. Chris is still worried about Todd, she doesn't believe a snake scared him, and on a hunch she takes him outside. He gets completely terrified, and Chris realizes he's got agrophobia, he's afraid to be outdoors. Paula realises that Danny has a crush on her and tells him that she is going to be a big sister to him.

The Fear (Part 1)

Todd is still in hospital, and getting therapy equipment organised from all around the district, but he still can't seem to go out. Kimberly buys him a brand new motorbike, thinking that will help him overcome his fear, but it doesn't. Sam and Emma suggests, that Todd could ride the motorbike at dawn, when nobody is around to see wether he makes it or not. Todd tries, and it works out fine. He decides to go on a clinic run with Chris, and when Sam has let Chris off, he flies Todd to Danny's property. When they're about to land, Todd gets scared and tells Sam to abord the landing. Danny is down below, riding his own motorbike, but he taeks a serious fall and is knocked unconcious. Todd overcomes his fear in order to save Danny. Kimberly is upset about not being able to help Todd, so she puts her energy into building a sports centre in Coopers Crossing. She's annoyed about it taking so long, and when she and Todd has to leave, she let's Jack handle the builing of the sports centre.

The Fear (Part 2)

The mailman, old Frank, is retiring, and he introduces the new mailman, Nick to everyone in the district. When Nick is taking over, he charges double Frank's prices, which makes everyone upset. A lady called Gail Morris wanted to get a lift with the mailplane to a clinic when she wasn't feeling good, but changed her mind when she found out what it would cost. Later on she was found unconcious, it turned out she was a diabetic. Nick realized his mistakes, and lowered the prices. George is told of Kimberley's donation to Jack for the sports centre and tries to manipulate Jack and Chris into spending it on the Baxter Memorial Park. Jack and Chris investigate and discover that George is under a legal obligation to refurbish the park and it will cost him a fortune to do so. He is hoping they will fund it instead of the sports centre. Jack and Chris make plans but discover that George has lodged a complaint with the council about the site.

Fair Go

Kate thinks everybody takes her for granted and expects her to do things for them. She takes a holiday to go to Thargoomindah and watch the rodeo, and she brings her horse Toby. After a while her car gets overheated, so she stops and takes Toby for a ride. Something scares him, and Kate is thrown off and hits her head. When she wakes up she can't remember anything. She finds a deserted shed, and manages to get in contact with DJ at the base, but she doesn't know where she are. DJ gets her to transmit and every property avaliable to listen in, to try to determine where the signal is strongest. Finally they figure out where she is and can rescue her!

Broken Airwaves

A new man in town, Ron, offers to work for bed and board at Sam and Emma's place. They need all the help they can get, and are greatful. It turns out Ron is the man who ran out on Maggie, when she was young and pregnant. Ron wants to make up for it, but Maggie turns him down.

Geoff's brother Barry arrives in town, much to everyones surprise. Geoff never talks about his family, but Barry seems really nice. Geoff isn't too happy about seeing his brother though, and makes him stay in the pub. Barry helps out with a lot of things, and he also organizes the building of the sports centre. He has been taking an intrest in Kate, especially after seeing Geoff is a bit intrested in her, and after the official opening of the sports centre Kate is upset with Geoff and Barry comforts her. Marty has found the perfect car for Barry, ""the Beast"", and Barry offers to take Marty with him to Surfer's. Geoff is upset with Barry, and offers to pay him, if he just leaves Coopers Crossing. Barry just laughs at him!

Barry tells Kate Geoff has warned him off her. She gets upset and asks him out for dinner, which he of course accepts. Vic leaves Barry his bill, but he doesn't seem to be able to pay. Vic asks Geoff about it, and Geoff pays up right away. Barry later on takes Kate on a ride in ""the Beast"", he wants to talk about Geoff. When they stop Barry tries to talk Kate into coming with him to Surfer's. When she doesn't want to he tries to kiss her. Kate fights him off, resulting in him driving as a maniac back to town, scaring Kate half to death. Barry talks to Marty, saying he doesn't want to buy ""the Beast"" after all, meaning the garage will be stuck with the car. Geoff finds out, and buys the car, so Emma won't loose any money on the deal. Later in the pub, nobody wants to sit with Barry. When Geoff comes in, Barry starts provocing him. Finally they both go out the back and have a proper fist fight.

Family Secrets (Part 2)

A new nurse, Penny, arrives as a stand-in for Kate. This upsets Maggie, since she and Penny both are from Windoona, and Penny might have a few stories to tell about Maggie. Sam and Emma lets Maggie stay with them, and Maggie tells Emma she had a son when she was very young. The father had shot through, and therefor her son David was raised as her brother. When David turned 21 Maggie told him the truth, which made him run away. There's a big cattle sale going on in the district, and DJ meets a friend called Jean, whom he only knows from radio conversations. She has a funny relationship to her stationhand Russ. She wants to have a baby with him, but he wants to marry her. They've worked out an agreement, if she gets pregnant, they will marry. In hospital Russ finds out he can't have children. He asumes Jean won't marry him because he can't give her a baby and he leaves. DJ and Jean manages to track him down and convince him to stay with Jean.

All You Need Is Luck

A man called Lloyd Somerset is out driving when he picks up a young man called Jamie. In the evening there's a terrible storm coming and suddenly Jamie sees some strange lights in front of the car. Lloyd doesn't say anything, he hasn't even told Jamie his name. All of a sudden, the lights appear again and the car is turned over! Geoff and Sam are on their way home from a clinic when the storm hits the plane, causing the electricity to malfunction. The compass is magnetic, and shouldn't be affected, but it's acting very crazy. Sam manages to get the plane down and Geoff takes a look at Lloyd in hospital. He's lost a lof of blood and is uncoscious. Geoff finds out he's got leukaemia. Jamie is released from hospital and at the pub he tells everyone it was a UFO. He calls all the newspapers, who are intrested at first, but later decides not to follow up the story. Finally Geoff learns the truth about Lloyd. He'd been to a nuclear testing site where he used to work.

The Silly Season

Baxter has been on a political trip in Canberra, and got stuck with helping to young boys that had nowhere to stay. They make life miserable for him, and fooled around a lot on the radio. When Baxter threatened to have them sent back to Canberra, they caused him to crash with his plane. They didn't think he'd get hurt, but he did. He recovered in hospital though. Chris is feeling a bit run down, but won't admit it to anybody. Finally she agrees to let Geoff take some tests. Sam's new flying pupil turnes out to be Maggie's brother. He knows where Maggie's son is, and even though Maggie pretends not to care, the news upset her.

Every Situation

A storyteller called Tommy Barringa comes to the district and Jack and Chris goes to listen to him. Tommy and a girl named Lindey love eachother but Lindey's father doesn't like his daughter seeing a black man. The father is abused, he gets a dislocated shoulder and Dougie says he did it. Jack doesn't believe him but Dougie insists. Finally there's a fight between Tommy and the father and it also turnes out Tommy was responsible for the dislocation. Tommy ends up in prison where he kills himself.

The Storyteller

Kate has come back, but she wants to swap jobs with Penny permanently. Geoff tries to talk to her, begging her to stay until Chris comes back from Sydney. He won't tell Kate why Chris is going, making Kate even more upset. A plane crashes on Robert Morton's property, with two young women in. Chris is called back from her trip to Sydney and she and Geoff go out there. There is nothing they can do for one of the women, Kerry, but they can save Sandra. It turned out Kerry and Sandra were sisters. They both lived with Robert, since he could choose from them, he loved them both and therefore didn't want to marry one of them. It's sheering time for Sam and Emma, but Sam is occupied with emergencies, leaving Emma to care for the property. Maggie helps her out at first, but than leaves her to figure out the best way of getting the work done. Emma later on tries to convice Sam to teach her to fly.

The Choice

Gary Arnold and his daughter Su are forced to land in Coopers Crossing, Gary has collapsed over the controls. In hosptial nobody seems to know what's the matter with him. Finally Geoff has a hunch, he reckons it could be typhoid, and it is. Everybody is very upset, and they make sure to keep a distance to Su. Marty, who has taken Su under his wings, defend her. Finally it turned out Su came from a camp in Thailand, where she'd been ever since her mother died. Gary had tried to get her out of there, without success, so they had fled Thailand and entered Australia illegally. Jack worked it out though, and they could stay.

A Shade Of Doubt

Mick and Julia comes to the Crossing trying to get away from Julia's daugther Prue. Everybody likes them, and Mick, who enjoys running, helps organizing a ""Fun Run"" - a 20 kilometres marathon, where all the money go to the RFDS. After the race Mick is resting in his room. But when Julia finds him, he is dead. She tries to kill herself but is saved, and eventually her will to live returns.

Mick & Julia

A woman gets a really bad asthma attack and thanks to her son she gets to hospital. The boy does a deal with God; if God makes his mum better God can take the boy instead. Everybody tries to convince him God doesn't do deals like that, but the boy doesn't believe them. Finally Father Jacko succeeds, maybe with some help from above...

The Deal

Emma's schoolmate Jenny comes to Coopers Crossing to visit Emma and Sam. She's acting really strange and Emma convices her to see Geoff. It turns out she's got anorexia, but she refuses to admit it. But finally she realizes it's for the best and goes for treatment. A mining company suspects there might be some minerals at Sam and Emma's property and they think about what they will do with all the money. In the end there wasn't any minerals worth extracting.

A Thing Of Beauty

A childorchestra arrives in Coopers Crossing. The soloist, Andrew instantly falls in love with Emma. The bus broke down on the way to Coopers Crossing, that's how they met. When the orchestra is leaving the bus broke again! Emma had to order parts from Broken Hill. Andrew hurts his hand really bad and has immediate surgery, but there is no telling if he ever will be able to play the violin again. In hospital he tells Emma he fixed the bus to be able to spend more time with her.

Cadenza

A ferrier named Luke arrives in town. Vic need money to help Nancy's sister, who is seriously ill. Baxter offers to buy the pub, but Vic turns him down. Vic finally decides he has to sell the pub, to get the money, even though he won't sell to Baxter! Luke is about to leave town, when his car explodes. He is very seriously hurt, but manages to recover. All his equipment is destroyed though. He offers to buy the pub from Vic, who accepts, not knowing that Luke is a front for George Baxter. Finally it's Vic's birthday party, he'll be 60, but he leaves pretty soon...however telling Geoff he'll back back...

Mates

A girl gives birth to a little baby boy in the Nomad on the way to hospital. She doesn't want to involve the father who is a jackaroo who shot through as soon as he heard he was gonna be a dad. But the baby's grandfather, the girl's dad, is convinced the baby is the new Messiah. He interferes a lot and the mother gets really upset about it. One day he just wanters off into the bush, and isn't found...

The Child

Chris is going to hospital to have her operation. Jack comes with her, and her father meets her at the hospital. Before the operation, she meets a young boy named Jamie, who is convinced he'll die soon. Chris does everything she can to convice him otherwise, but it's hopeless. Chris has her operation, but her father tells Jack that even though she'll pull through the operation, there's a 10 days waiting period before the danger is over. When Chris comes out from her operation, she learned that Jamie died during his operation. In Coopers Crossing there is a Bunyip race going on, to raise funds for the RFDS. Geoff and Kate find out Chris pulled through the operation, and tells the others Chris will be fully recovered

Next To Go

Geoff gets a new patient, the donkey Druscilla who has psychological problems. He manages to cure her after a while. Geoff proposes to Kate!!

Gotta Have Friends

The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia.

It was initially a 1985 mini-series based in the fictional outback town of Cooper's Crossing starring Andrew McFarlane as the newly arrived Dr. Tom Callaghan. The success of the mini series led to its return the following year as an on-going series with McFarlane being joined by a new doctor, Chris Randall, played by Liz Burch. McFarlane left during the first season and actor Robert Grubb came in as new doctor Geoff Standish.

The series' episodes were mostly self-contained but also featured ongoing storylines, such as Dr. Standish's romance with Sister Kate Wellings. Other major characters included pilot Sam Patterson, mechanic Emma Plimpton, local policeman Sgt. Jack Carruthers and Vic and Nancy Buckley, who ran the local pub/hotel, The Majestic. Andrew McFarlane also later returned to the series, resuming his role as Dr. Callaghan. The popular series ran for nine seasons and was successfully screened internationally.

Breaking The Drought

Seasons9

Season 4 Episodes24

Cast4

Crew2

Discussion

Episode Summary