A photographic exhibition which captures Australian legend John Flynn’s vision and how it became a reality opens at the National Library of Australia today.

“Beyond the Furthest Fences: the Australian Inland Mission” pays tribute to the legendary “Flynn of the Inland” and the early work of the Australian Inland Mission, which began a century ago.

Flynn’s dream was to create safety for people living in the outback in a country confronted with distance and isolation and with that in mind, he presented a report to the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church which resulted in the establishment of the mission in September, 1912.

The photographic display tells the story of how the AIM began setting up nursing posts and hospitals across the Outback, requiring nursing sisters to travel by camel, horse, rail and motor tricycle. Peripatetic padres were sent out to provide pastoral care and to extend a hand of friendship to the people in the outback.

Flynn’s drive to improve conditions for people in the outback also led to the development of the Aerial Medical Service, which later became the famous Royal Flying Doctor Service, and soon after, the pedal-powered radio.

Not everyone knows that Flynn was an avid photographer and his photos, many of them on show, document the early work of the Inland Mission.

Visitors to the library  will get an insight into the lives of people in the outback a century ago through images of  mission nurses performing a dental check-up, a family operating a pedal wireless on an outback verandah, school children riding camels in Innamincka and two padres pulling a car bogged on the Cape York track.

Frontier Services is the modern-day successor to the mission, a charity and national agency of the Uniting Church that continues to provide the support and care needed to build strong and resilient communities across remote Australia. 1,000 staff provide 120 services, including aged and community care, children’s services, health care, community support, volunteer assistance and patrol ministry.

A commemorative book by Storry Walton, “At the very heart,” will be launched at the National Library on August 29, with a lecture by Walton and historian Rob Linn.

“Beyond the Furthest Fences: the Australian Inland Mission collection,” Fourth Floor, National Library of Australia, 10am-5pm, August 10, 2012-August 11, 2013. Free.