Tucked away in the mulga trees of outback Queensland, a plane hanger that has existed since World War II roars to life as its doors roll open and a twin turbo-prop plan is dragged towards the runway.
The hangar is home to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), which is often labelled the key to the outback's survival.
But it is the pilots who keep the doctors and nurses in the air.
Charleville senior base pilot Elliott Johnston, 26, said there was nothing he would rather be doing.
"I started flying training for my 14th birthday and I didn't look back from there," he said.
He flies across the outback delivering doctors and nurses to remote clinics and responding to emergencies.
The RFDS travels to small towns and airports as well as to remote stations.
Pilots dodge kangaroos as they land on dirt runways and sometimes using flaming toilet rolls as markers along the strip at night.
Being a pilot for the service is not for the faint hearted — or the routine orientated.
"[On a recent shift] we're landing at a dirt strip that none of us have seen before, scoop this fellow out of the dirt, throw him on the plane and take him to Brisbane, then fly home that evening.
"That's probably as exciting as it gets."
Positions vacant
Many pilots found themselves out of work, furloughed or contemplating a career change after COVID-19 decimated the travel industry.
The RFDS was offering jobs, however, if hair-raising landings in the outback at night and long hours were not a deterrent.
But now the travel industry is starting to recover and recruit, organisations like the flying doctors are receiving less applications.
"So we are struggling to find people that can come out."
The Charleville base has four pilots filling a preferred roster of seven, but Mr Johnston said there was no impact to services.
"At the moment we're just picking up the slack where we can," he said.
"We have a very strict set of fatigue rules, so we're not having to work any harder, but our structure to our rosters is suffering a little bit."
Keeping communities alive
Outback Queensland man Scott Shorten said the flying doctors were a vital and beloved institution.
Mr Shorten lives in the opal fields at Yowah, nearly 1,000 kilometres from Brisbane.
His mother first advocated for the flying doctor to visit the community in the 1970s.
He said every member of his family has needed the service at some point in their life — including a visiting grandchild who was bitten by a snake.
Mr Shorten said the flying doctors had taken him to hospital three times in the past 12 months for treatment of a recurring lung condition.
He said the importance of the service was increasing as communities aged.
"They'd have to leave where they grew up, their homes, to go somewhere strange," Mr Shorten said.
He said the flying doctors had a clinic in his town once a week and they were only a phone call away.
Mr Shorten has shown his appreciation for the service by fundraising, keeping the airstrip in working condition and helping organise and coordinate clinics.
He was even handed the 2018 RFDS Queensland hero award for his support fundraising and volunteering for the organisation.
Mr Shorten, along with the town of Yowah, rallied in 2018 to arrange a community ambulance to help get patients to the airstrip more comfortably.
'Best job in the world'
Mr Johnston, who grew up in Brisbane and attended Aviation State High School, said his move to the outback was a lifelong goal achieved.
"In my opinion, it's the best job in the world," he said.
His workday could take him anywhere within a 600,000 square kilometre radius, from the western and southern border of Queensland, right up to Longreach and central Queensland.
He said while emergencies could sound like a busy gig, pilots had it the easiest on remote clinic days.
"We get to lie around on the couch all day, read a book, watch Netflix while the doctors and nurse do all the hard work, then we fly them home in the afternoon," he said.
