Royal Far West Lends a Hand to Little Wings

Image: eight Royal Far West clinicians with (on left, in black suit) Tom Kennedy, Mayor of Broken Hill City Council, and (on right), Councillor Michael Boland of Broken Hill City Council, beside Clare Pearson, CEO of Little Wings

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Royal Far West supports Little Wings in its call for urgent, targeted funding support during the current fuel crisis, to ensure that they can continue supplying aeromedical transport services, especially to families in rural and remote communities.

Royal Far West partners with Little Wings through its Medical Wings program to deliver specialist outreach clinics directly into regional communities several times each year. Little Wings also supports approximately 40 per cent of all families travelling to Royal Far West’s Centre for Country Kids in Manly, with three to five families relying on the service every week to access developmental assessments and therapy.

The current aviation fuel crisis has created extraordinary and unsustainable pressure on Little Wings’ operating costs. Without urgent intervention, there is a real risk that flights may need to be reduced or suspended.

“The past few months have been really heartbreaking. We are doing the best we can with the resources we have, but we’ve cut our capacity and will have to reduce our services even further if the avgas continues to go up,” Clare Pearson, CEO of Little Wings, said.

“Little Wings eases the pressure on these families, and we become a part of their long-term journey. The fuel crisis is tearing that lifeline to shreds, leaving them without a backup, and we need swift support to keep our operations running,” she added.

“The consequences for rural and remote families would have an immediate impact,” Dr Briony Scott, CEO of Royal Far West, said. “Delayed diagnoses, missed treatments, and reduced access to specialist services would widen existing inequities for children who already face significant challenges accessing care.”

The partnership between Royal Far West and Little Wings is critical in ensuring country children can access specialist care, regardless of where they live.  

“Families in rural and remote communities already face enormous barriers to accessing specialist developmental health services,” said Dr Briony Scott, CEO of Royal Far West.

“Little Wings plays an essential role in helping children and families reach the care they need, whether that’s transporting families to our Centre for Country Kids in Manly or flying our clinicians directly into regional communities like Broken Hill.”

In the 2024–25 financial year, Royal Far West supported 512 children, 302 parents and carers, 496 educators, 29 schools and five early learning centres across the Western and Far West NSW region, with clinicians spending 10 weeks delivering services directly in-community.

Australian Early Development Census data shows that 21.7 per cent of children in Far Western NSW are developmentally vulnerable on two or more domains, double the NSW average, reinforcing the urgent need for sustained and accessible services for country children and families.

“Little Wings is a critical enabler of equitable healthcare access for country children. Their service directly supports earlier diagnosis, continuity of care, and reduces the financial burden on families who are already doing everything they can to support their children,” continued Dr Briony Scott.