History of Australia the new technologies of transport and communication. Coastal sailing ships were finally abandoned in favour of steam, and improvements in rail and motor transport heralded dramatic changes in work and leisure. In 1918 there were 50,000 cars and lorries in the whole of Australia. By 1929 there were 500,000. The stage coach company Cobb and Co, established in 1853, finally closed in 1924. In 1920, the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service (to become the Australian airline Qantas) was established. The Reverend John Flynn, founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the world's first air ambulance in 1928. Daredevil pilot, Sir
Cloncurry, Queensland sites, including: Cloncurry was widely regarded as holding the record for the highest temperature recorded in Australia at on 16 January 1889. Recent investigations have revealed that this temperature was measured in an improvised screen made from a beer crate and that it equated to 47–49 °C under standard conditions. The highest temperature ever recorded at Cloncurry's current weather station is , well short of the now widely disputed 1889 temperature of 53.1 °C. The average annual rainfall is , almost all of which falls In the months of December to March Because of the area's extreme solar conditions, Cloncurry