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Nancy Bird Walton planting tree at Bourke's new Nancy Bird Airport Terminal |
Nancy Bird Walton
Last modified: January 14, 2005 - 11:01 AM
Nancy was a pioneering aviatrix, born in Kew on the North Coast of NSW.
Nancy was keen on flying from a very early age and after saving hard she took her first lesson with Charles Kingsford Smith, eventually earning her Commercial Licence at the age of nineteen. Nancy was the youngest woman in the Commonwealth at that time, to hold such a licence. Her first commercial job in aviation was flying for the Far West Children's Health Scheme, based in Bourke. In 1935, with help from her dad and Aunt Annie, Nancy was able to buy her first plane - a beautiful Gipsy Moth for just 400 pounds. Deciding she needed a job in aviation, she asked Peg McKillop, who had just finished her pilot's training at the same time, to join her as a co pilot in "The First Ladies Flying Tour", more popularly known then as "barnstorming". The young ladies flew to country shows and racecourses, offering joy rides to paying customers. For many people in the Outback, Nancy's Gipsy Moth was to be the first real plane they had ever seen. The Shell Company was extremely helpful to Nancy in arranging publicity and trying to find suitable paddocks to land in. There were few aerodromes in those days and certainly none out west. Similarly there were very few early maps for aviators, and these were only strip maps that left a pilot lost if they strayed from the printed area. So when Nancy flew west of the Darling River, she used a 40 mile to the inch road map and followed the rivers, roads, telegraph lines and even the dingo fence to find her way. Then Nancy met Stanley Drummond, who asked her to use her plane for the scheme in Bourke, by flying Sister Webb, a former Australian Army Nurse, on her visits to families in the remote outback. For the next nine months Nancy lived in Bourke and flew the Nurse and supplies out to the remote and arid areas of Bourke and the Central Darling Shires. In almost three years of service, Nancy chalked up almost 500 flying hours with an enviable unblemished safety record, but many an interesting "close call". Her contribution to the health care of people in this region is incalculable. Nancy has written and published two books about her exploits: "Born to Fly" in 1961, and "My God, It's a Woman" in 1990, and she continues to play an active part in the air services of Australia. Nancy has continued through her life, to have an important role in Aviation, including being Commandant of the Women's Air Training Corp of Australia during WWII. She also helped establish the Air Ambulance Service and started the Australian Women's Pilots Association. In 1966 Nancy was awarded an OBE, followed by an AO in 1990, for her outstanding contribution to aviation.
Contact details
Bourke Shire Council
02 6872 2055 (ph)
02 6872 3030 (fax)
bourkeshire@bourke.nsw.gov.au
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