Nancy Bird Walton to Open and Speak at the Exhibition "Tribute to Flight"
2pm, Saturday June 28th 2003
Heritage Museum, 10 Blackwood Street Gerringong.
Afternoon tea served. Adults $5.00 Children $1.00
Enquiries to Eric: 4234 1796

In 1933 when women were expected to man the nations kitchens, Nancy Bird obtained her commercial pilots licence. It was an exciting period in aviation. Long distance flights in single-engine aircraft captured the imagination of people all over the world, aero clubs flourished, and the exploits of legendary figures such as Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Bert Hinkler filled the newspapers.

Australian aviation was a fledgling industry fraught with many difficulties. Mechanical problems, frail aeroplanes made of fabric and wood, dust storms, turbulence, poor aviation maps and sketchy weather reports made long journeys arduous and a test of endurance.

She flew for the first time at an air pageant, at the age of 13, paying the pilot extra to perform aerobatics. According to her sister, Nancy came down "a little green" but even more enthusiastic.

At eighteen she was learning to fly, under the tuition of no less than Charles Kingsford-Smith.

Nancy was among the first of his pupils at his Sydney flying school, even though she needed cushions to reach the rudder pedals.

She also flew with anyone else "game enough to give me instruction", she records in her sparkling autobiography, My God, it's a Woman! (Collins/Angus & Robertson, Australia, 1990).

Nancy had no intention of flying just for a bit of sport, which was a common motivation among women pilots at the time.

It was to earn a living.

She became the first woman pilot in the Commonwealth to achieve commercial certification to carry passengers. Her family bought her first aircraft, a De Havilland Gipsy Moth. Nancy and a friend, Peggy, set off on a tour, barnstorming and giving joy rides at country shows where many people had never seen an aircraft, let alone a woman pilot.

On tour, she met Rev. Stanley Drummond, who persuaded her to join a flying medical service in outback Australia. With a better equipped aircraft she worked territory not previously covered by the Flying Doctor Service in remote parts of New South Wales. She enjoyed it, but was always mindful that if she became lost in such parts, it might be a long time before she was found.

In 1936 Nancy won the Ladies' Trophy in the Adelaide-Brisbane Air Race. After four years in the outback, she took a break, accepting an offer from a Dutch airline to do promotional work. She returned to Australia just before World War 2 began, and undertook training women to back up the men flying in the RAAF.

In 1950 Nancy founded the AWPA (Australian Women Pilots Association) which celebrated its 50th anniversary in October 2000 with a dinner at a restaurant near Adelaide, SA, attended by Nancy herself, and sixty or so pilots in powered flight, gliding, ballooning - with hardly a man present.

In 1958 Nancy returned to the pilot's seat. She entered the 'Powder-Puff Derby' in the United States, making headlines as the first woman from overseas to compete.

Nancy Bird Walton will be sharing her memories of these days and her flying contemporaries, such as Jean Batten and Amy Johnson, as well as many other adventures, at the GERRINGONG HISTORICAL MUSEUM in BLACKWOOD St., where Nancy will be officially opening the exhibition of models for the "Tribute to Flight" Display. Further Information phone Eric on 4234 1796.

Addendum

Born in Kew NSW (a small town on the Mid North Coast) on 16 October 1915, Nancy Bird Walton died of natural causes at home in Mosman, on 13 January, 2009. She was 93 years old. On 21st January, hundreds of people packed Sydney's St Andrew's Cathedral to farewell the famed aviator at a state funeral. The service was preceded by a flyover of the Qantas A380 aircraft, which Nancy Bird lived long enough to see named in her honour. Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce described Ms Walton as, "a trailblazer for Australian women pilots and an inspirational figure in Australian aviation".

* * * * *

Gerringong Historical Society is currently working on a special display known as "Tribute to Flight". Industrious model maker and society member, Eric Wagstaff, has once again been busy crafting new models for the exhibition which is due to be officially opened by Australian aviation pioneer Nancy Bird Walton, AO, OBE, at 2pm on June 28 2003, at the society's museum in Blackwood Street, Gerringong.

President of Gerringong Historical Society, Margaret Sharpe, said that 2003 was significant for several reasons.

"This year marks 100 years since Wilbur and Orville Wright's first flight, 75 years since Bert Hinkler s historic flight from England to Australia and 70 years since Sir Charles Kingsford Smith took off from Seven Mile Beach in the Southern Cross bound for New-Zealand," she said.

The Wright brothers from Ohio, USA. were the first to fly a 'heavier-than-air' machine at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (1903). They took to the air in the 'Flyer', achieving their goal after many experiments with kites and gliders. Encouraged by this, they abandoned their cycle business and formed an aircraft production company.

As a youth, Bert Hinkler, born in Bundaberg Qld, made gliders which he modelled on the ibis. By his mid 20s he began a series of long-distance and record breaking nights as a test pilot for an aviation company. He piloted a record-breaking flight from England to Australia taking 15.5 days (1928) for which he received awards and rewards.

Born in Brisbane, Sir Charles Kingsford Smith had a varied career in aviation including fighter pilot in WW1 and stunt pilot in Hollywood. In 1935, along with P.G. Taylor co-pilot and navigator and J. Stannage as radio operator 'Smithy' took off from the firm sands of Seven Mile Beach (Gerroa) landing in New Plymouth (NZ) 14 hours later. Beacons lit the 'beach' runway and 1000 spectators saw the plane lift into the early morning sky. Later, Kingsford Smith gave passenger flights from the beach and once used the area for an emergency landing.