This Sunday, the 8th of March is International Women’s Day. It’s a day celebrated all over the world when all women are recognised for their achievements – both great and small.
While there are countless women both here, and overseas, that are at the forefront of improving gender equality and fighting against sexual discrimination and injustice, there are just as many trailblazers who have sadly passed away.
These women paved the way and smashed glass ceilings for generations to come and deserve just as much recognition this International Women’s Day. Today’s badass Aussie woman we need to remember is ‘The Angel of the Outback,’ pioneering female pilot Nancy Bird Walton.
Much like Amelia Earhart, Nancy Bird Walton was destined for the skies from a young age. In 1928, at just 13 years old, Walton took her first flight at a local fair and according to the Australian Museum, was “hooked.”
Walton’s obituary states that following that life-changing flight, she “saved £200, bought a jacket and flying helmet, and enrolled as one of the first pupils at Charles Kingsford Smith’s new flying school at Mascot.”
When Walton became the first qualified female pilot in Australia to gain her commercial licence and began giving joy rides at country fairs, passengers were shocked to see a tiny four-foot woman wearing a dress emerge from the cockpit.
Despite her size, Nancy Bird Walton sounded like a force to be reckoned with. In 1935, Reverend Stanley Drummond asked Walton to help set up a remote air ambulance service in outback NSW. Her obituary says she navigated her routes with a watch and a compass, often using a road map because there were no aviation maps available. “The smell of a dead horse was once powerful enough to reach 450 metres above ground, telling her she was on course for Cunnamulla.”
During World War II, Walton set up the Australian Women’s Air Training Corps and in 1950, she founded the Australian Women Pilots’ Association, remaining its president until 1990. In 1966, she was awards the Order of British Empire and made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1990.
Throughout the course of her career, Nancy Bird Walton never had an accident and held her licence until three years before she passed away at age 93 in 2009.
Walton’s autobiography is suitably titled My God, It’s A Woman! which perfectly encapsulates her achievements in a time when women were not encouraged to pursue careers in aviation. International Women’s Day 2020 is the perfect opportunity to give thanks to Nancy Bird Walton for everything she’s done for female pilots and women in general.