Area covered by the Flying Padre (Rural & Remote Chaplains)

Based in Katherine and covering approximately 1.2 million square kilometres of the Northern Territory and Western Australia, the Flying Padre (Rural & Remote Chaplains) service encompasses over 120 remote cattle stations, communities and small towns. As shown in the map below the area stretches west to Broome, south to Tennant Creek and east to the Queensland border.

The Flying Padre flies between 250 to 300 hours per year. Remote cattle stations and communities are visited two to four times a year for pastoral care, weddings, dedications, funerals, friendship, counselling and other practical help.

Flying over isolated and often wild terrain, then coming into land on a tiny homestead strip to bring a word of comfort at a time of family crisis, to hold a service of worship for all the station hands, to conduct a wedding or a funeral, or just to give practical assistance at a time of emergency, the Flying Padre Service is a fascinating style of ministry in the top end of Australia.

The people the Flying Padre meet on their travels varies from station owners, managers, those on holidays travelling the Top End and station personnel including cooks, governesses, home tutors, ringers, jackaroos and jillaroos.