by Jim Eames
Captain John Simler (left) whose DC-3 crashed at Wau during Qantas’s New Guinea years. This photograph was taken in the 1960s after Simler had transferred to flying TAA Catalinas in Papua New Guinea and captained the last Catalina flight to Samaria, an island community on the remote south-east of the country. Photo: Author’s own
An unidentified casualty from the Korean War is being loaded onto Qantas Empire Airways aircraft for evacuation back to Australia. Photo: Phillip Hobson, Australian War Memorial
The burnt out remains of the Qantas Constellation after the aircraft crashed on take off from Mauritius in 1960. Prompt action by the Qantas crew saved the lives of the twenty-eight passengers on board. Photo: Qantas
The Qantas bag, one of the iconic symbols of the Qantas Boeing 707 era, being offered as a promotional prize at a function in the USA in the 1960s. Photo: Qantas
Qantas DC-4 Pacific Trader after suffering a nose wheel collapse during an emergency landing at Port Moresby in February 1969. The sixty passengers on board, mostly school children, escaped injury. Photo: Barry Flood
Qantas Manager (Darwin) Ian Burns-Woods and wife Gabrielle alongside a car which ended up outside the Qantas office during the cyclone, killing its occupant. Gabrielle is wearing a bandage after suffering cuts to her leg during the cyclone. Photo: Qantas
The famous ‘I hate Qantas’ advertising campaign in America in the 1960s featured the ‘disgruntled’ koala complaining that the Australian airline was interfering with his peace and tranquillity. It was a runaway success in the United States and it gave Qantas a high profile against the major US airlines. Photo: Qantas
Young evacuees get some Qantas service during the Darwin uplift after Cyclone Tracy. One Qantas Boeing 747 carried 673 people, a world record at the time. Photo: Qantas
An impressive Chinese welcome awaits as the Qantas Boeing 707 touches down at Beijing for the historic visit of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in October 1973. Photo: Rolf Gschwind
One of Qantas’s most respected captains Alan Terrell rose through the ranks to become the airline’s head of operations and a senior executive of the company. Along with flying the Concorde, Terrell featured in many of the airline’s major achievements during his years with the company. Photo: Qantas
Qantas engineers, above left, Kevin Walters, Ken O’Neil and Peter Thomas, inspecting a grounded Continental DC-10 at Mascot. Although only required to check part of the aircraft, Thomas’ team decided to extend their checks and found serious corrosion in the aircraft. Photo: Peter Thomas
Obviously the days before clean aeroplane engines! A Qantas Boeing 707 leaves an exhaust trail as it takes off for a training session at Avalon. Photo: Noel Dures
Qantas engineers work on a fuel control unit on a 707 in the hanger at Avalon. Qantas 707s were often based at Avalon for some days during training programs. Photo: Noel Dures
Captain David Howells, seen here at the controls of a Boeing 747, was instrumental in the recovery of the Boeing 707 which would become known within the company as the ‘Bahrain Bomber’ after it dived out of control over the Middle East in 1969. Photo: David Howells
During serious fuel crises Qantas was forced to review every item carried on an aircraft so it could reduce weight and therefore reduce burning expensive fuel. This photo, taken in a Mascot hangar, shows every item normally carried on a Boeing 747 even before any passengers are boarded – from heavy galleys and food trolleys to baby nappies and in-flight magazines. Photo: Qantas
The Special Performance version of the Boeing 747. The aircraft’s entry into Qantas service in the early 1980s was the catalyst for a serious strike because of the number of cabin crew staffing the aircraft. Photo: Boeing
Former Qantas executive Brian Wild with the autographed photo and cake box sent to him by the royal couple following their wedding. Wild had been instrumental in ‘smuggling’ the future Princess Diana onto a Qantas flight to London under the noses of the Australian media in January 1981. Photo: Brian Wild
Qantas Manager (Greece) Jim Bradfield battles violent wind gusts to join Greeks planting gum trees on the hillside outside Athens. The trees were a gift to Greek authorities after they agreed to remove other gum trees near Athens Airport which restricted the take off weight of Qantas Boeings flying non stop from Athens to Asia. Photo: Qantas
One-time chairman of Qantas, Sir Lenox Hewitt (centre), and Qantas Board member, Sir Jack Edgerton (right), enjoy a laugh with West Australia’s Sir Charles Court. Photo: Qantas
The Qantas crew who flew the ANZAC veterans back to Gallipoli for the 75th Anniversary in 1990 gather on the steps after their arrival in Istanbul. Photo: Qantas
The final resting place of the Qantas Boeing 747-400 which overran the runway while landing in a rainstorm at Bangkok International airport on 23 September 1999. The aircraft was extensively damaged but none of the 410 passengers and crew was injured. Photo: Australian Transport Safety Bureau
Members of Qantas’s Skippy Squadron, who took part in the airlift of Australian troops to and from Vietnam, march together for the first time on Anzac Day in Sydney in March 2003. Known as the ‘Red Tail Rats’ they operated more than 600 charters in and out of the war zone. Photo: John Stanley
Qantas Boeing 747-400 ‘City of Canberra’, which established the non-stop record between England and Australia in August 1989, landing for the last time at Albion Park, NSW, on 8 May 2015. The aircraft is now on permanent display at the Illawarra Regional airport’s Historical Aircraft Restoration Society Museum. Photo: Lee Gatland
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
So many of my former colleagues from Qantas have contributed to this work that it is near impossible to acknowledge them all. Without exception, they showed an instant willingness to mine their memories during long sessions with my tape recorder or spent countless hours putting their thoughts down on paper to bring to life eras that have passed. In most cases their retention of detail was little short of remarkable, particularly when it came to describing events that occurred decades before. What came through above all was a sense of pride in the years they spent in Qantas service, years they have never really ‘left behind’.
Many of my old colleagues either contributed directly or steered me towards others in the Qantas family who could help.
To those I have inadvertently overlooked I tender my sincere apologies but there have been so many involved that oversights are inevitable. I hope they will recognise their contribution as my personal thanks.
I am especially indebted to Alan Terrell, Norm Field, Roger Carmichael and Gordon Power, whose commendable patience helped to show me what their world looked like through the narrow cockpit windows of Qantas aircraft, even when it wasn’t all smooth flying. Sadly, Alan Terrell left us before publication but I hope his breadth of knowledge, integrity and sense of humour come through in his contributions. I was also fortunate to have the encouragement and advice of Captain Richard de Crespigny, who himself takes great pride in Qantas’s history and who, after reading the manuscript, kindly offered to write a foreword.
While several approaches to the Qantas of today to gain access to archived board papers of many years ago received no reply, I am however deeply indebted to David Crotty, curator of the Qantas Heritage Collection, who once again performed miracles to provide me with photographs and files from his archives, many of which have been painstakingly gathered over recent years by a volunteer band of Qantas retirees.
Once again I have benefited from the encouragement and enthusiasm of Allen & Unwin’s editorial director, Rebecca Kaiser, who fortunately believed the human side of an exciting industry worth telling, and editors, Belinda Lee and Susan Keogh, who managed somehow to improve the structure of an old journo’s English along with tackling the split infinitives. I owe them much gratitude.
And last but not least my family, wife Jose who once again tolerated the frustrations of living with someone whose mind was frequently elsewhere, yet continued to contribute constructive suggestions, son Steven and daugh
ters Suzanne and Frances, all three never short of encouragement and support.
And finally, our grandson Benjamin who on reading this one day, may appreciate what exceptional times they were.