Can you spare $20 to help build a brighter future for the people of remote Australia?

Frontier Services today launches its Cover the Country campaign to raise the money it needs to continue to care for the people of remote Australia for the next 100 years.

Every $20 that is donated will help Frontier Services provide a wide range of services, including children’s services, health care, aged and community care, pastoral support and volunteer assistance. This network of care stretches across 85 per cent of the continent from the tip of Cape York to the West Coast of Tasmania to the isolated Kimberley region and in between.

Cover the Country is a special way for people to support Frontier Services this year as it celebrates 100 years at the heart of remote Australia.

Frontier Services grew out of the work of Australian visionary Rev John Flynn – the man on the $20 note.

“Flynn believed that all Australians should have access to services and care, regardless of where they lived,” said Frontier Services National Director Rosemary Young.

“Today, we are still there serving rural and remote Australia, striving to break down the disadvantage created by distance and isolation.”

A century ago, John Flynn came up with the idea of getting people to donate enough threepenny pieces that, when lined up, would stretch for a quarter mile. The £350 raised was to pay for a survey of the needs of the people in the outback. The report of the survey, eventually undertaken by Flynn himself, was presented to the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church on 26 September 1912 and resulted in the establishment of the Australian Inland Mission (AIM).

“Today, Frontier Services, which is the successor in the Uniting Church to the AIM, asks people to give a $20 note so we can continue to support the people of remote Australia into the future,” said Ms Young.

Click here to go to the Cover the Country website and donate now.

Every $20 donated will make a difference, helping to support our work including:

• Remote health clinics
• Residential, respite and in-home aged and community care
• Community services such as migrant settlement assistance and financial counselling
• Support for families, including childcare, early childhood education, support and advice for parents and accommodation for students
• Short-term volunteers to assist families in need
• Patrol Ministry and pastoral support

You can follow the success of the campaign on the website or our Facebook Page as we virtually ‘Cover the Country’. You can also discover more about the places where Frontier Services and its predecessors have worked, and continue to work, alongside the people of remote Australia.