Issue 322: Operation Okra

But as a guest of the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame’s third induction dinner in early November it occurred to me that Wagga Wagga is in fact an ideal location for an aviation hall of fame – for it is the regional cities and towns of Australia like Wagga Wagga that have most benefited from aviation’s pioneers and aviation’s march of progress. Much of aviation’s early development in Australia concerned linking remote towns with the capital cities – such as this year’s most prominent hall of fame inductee, Sir Reg Ansett, whose airline started flying by linking Hamilton in western Victoria with Melbourne.

In essence that is what aviation is about – shrinking distance and overcoming barriers.

So it is entirely appropriate that a regional city host the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame (AAHOF). And of Australia’s major regional centres, few could boast an aviation heritage as rich, and an aviation industry as buoyant as Wagga Wagga, whose airport is home to all RAAF technical training, the operational base for Regional Express (Rex), and the home to Rex’s own Australian Airline Pilot Academy flying college.

But it is also no accident that Wagga Wagga is home to the Hall of Fame – one of the hall’s key drivers is former Rex CEO, and resident local, Geoff Breust. And the Wagga Wagga Council, under Mayor Rod Kendall, a private pilot who owns his own Mooney light aircraft, is an enthusiastic backer of the project with a track record of nurturing its local aviation industry – what other regional centre boasts an airport served by two major airlines (Rex and QantasLink) connecting it to both Sydney and Melbourne, that is home to a major pilot training college, and that boasts its own instrument landing system? The AAHOF project is still in its early days, and at this stage it resides in cyberspace, via its website, rather than in a physical building. But the Hall of Fame is gaining momentum, backed by some of the key figures in Australian aviation, and sponsored by a number of major aviation companies. And its third induction dinner, at Wagga Wagga’s Charles Sturt University, was a sell-out event.

So plans to give the AAHOF a permanent home and a physical presence at Wagga Wagga are to be welcomed and supported.

Australia’s aviation industry today stands on the shoulders of giants. Because acknowledging our history matters.

Australia’s aviation industry today stands on the shoulders of giants, like Reg Ansett, like earlier inductees Hudson Fysh and Norman Brearly.

But it is also built on the shoulders of lesser known giants like the other inductees this year, including flying instructor Senja Robey, founding member and past president of the Australian Women Pilots Association who would have taught hundreds of pilots to fly.

Or Col Pay, a pioneer in Australia’s aerial agriculture industry and our local warbird sector. His efforts in aerial ag would have had an untold impact on this nation’s agricultural productivity, while his pioneering work restoring and flying historic warbird aircraft (particularly his Spitfire Mk VIII VH‑HET) would have inspired thousands of kids with a nascent interest in flying and aviation.

Or Horace Brinsmead, the first controller of civil aviation in Australia, who in the immediate post-WW1 period helped lay the regulatory foundations that allowed Australian aviation to flourish.

Or Harry Hawker, a test pilot with the wartime Sopwith company and whose name would grace some of aviation’s most famous aircraft such as the Hawker Hurricane and Hawker Hunter.

Or Ingo Renner, a four-time world and 19-time Australian gliding champion, who again would have instructed countless glider pilots both here and in Europe.

And recognition of Australia’s aviation history also matters to the inductees, and their families.

I was very taken by how powerful the act of recognition via induction into the Hall of Fame was. Bob Ansett was in tears when accepting the certificate marking his father’s induction. Senja Robey’s daughter and grand-daughter beamed with joy listening to her commendation, and Ross Pay spoke with pride in acknowledging his father’s contributions to aviation.

It was inspiring to see.