Royal Flying Doctors Service

The Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS) is the first, largest and most comprehensive aeromedical organisation in the world and is a not-for-profit charitable service providing aeromedical emergency and primary health care services together with communication and education assistance to people who live, work and travel in regional and remote Australia.

The Western Australian RFDS headquarters underwent a significant facilities upgrade and the architects have created an impressive area in the entry for an environmental graphic installation.

The graphic wall commences outside the main reception area and through to the back wall of the reception. It is approximately 7 metres long by 3 metres high and has the added complexity of including several glass fronted cupboard doors as well as a pedestrian door.

Working closely with both the architects and the RFDS for over six months and exhaustively researching the RFDS history, we wanted to pay homage to the various aircraft used throughout the history of the RFDS creating a “blueprint” concept of the various craft as well as creating a veritable cacophony of aeronautically themed elements that ‘meshed’ together in the design execution.

Because the facility is used by actual pilots we concluded that accuracy of the drawings would be paramount. As actual aircraft blueprints are not readily available, we turned to the internet to try and source an aeronautical enthusiast that could help us create accurate drawings of the aircraft. We found such a person in South Australia, who by chance also happened to be an RFDS pilot! We commissioned him to help us identify the most suitable aircraft and then provide us with accurate drawings for us to use as a foundation for the final design.

We also worked closely with the signage contractor to develop the optimum matrix of glass panels that could be installed to accommodate the openings in the wall and also so the joins would not visually interfere with the graphics.