First Females Above Australia: The First One Hundred Years of Australian Women Pilot Firsts : 1909-2009Rosemary Arnold, Australia's first woman helicopter pilot felt a salute was appropriate to Australia's female flying firsts, dating from 1909 and including 2009, One Hundred Years. While a University Lecturer at UWS in Aviation History, Rosemary found a need for more facts to be available about the female pioneer pilots of Australia. So many of them had been shadowed by the greater emphasis on the macho male pilots. The early firsts were especially hard-earned, before equal opportunity was tokenly given to women in Australia. The aviation industry long remained a club for the boys. One famous first, Nancy-Bird, a great role-model and mentor of women pilots, in 1950 founded the Australian Women Pilots' Association, to foster and encourage women pilots by giving a safe haven of camaraderie. AWPA celebrated its Diamond Jubilee in 2010, still with enthusiastic members sharing achievements in aviation. Those people old enough to remember the early years are diminishing, so this offer of history is important to claim Australia's heritage in the International world of aviation. |
