The business that felt like a family. ‘Bushies’ crew celebrates legacy of pioneering Queensland airline
Richard Dinnen - Queensland Editor |
Bush Pilots Airways has been out of business almost as long as it flew the Queensland skies.
But 34 years after its last flight, former staff still have an annual reunion, celebrating the airline that opened up tourism in northern Australia and sustained isolated Queensland communities and properties.
Speaking at the event in Cairns on the weekend, former Bushies engineer Lionel Dyer said its knack for innovation and good recruiting built enduring connections.
“It had fantastic leadership, and they found the right people with the right skills, and they got things done.
“We often refer to ourselves as the ‘Bushies family’. It was like being part of a family.”
Bush Pilots began in 1951, when Cairns businessman Robert Norman secured backing from a group of graziers to establish freight, mail, and medical retrieval flights to remote areas.
Mr Norman did his RAAF training in Canada during World War Two, where he saw local bush pilots were a lifeline in remote areas.
He brought the idea home to Queensland. The local passion for abbreviation turned Bush Pilots Airways into ‘Bushies’.
It created vital air links for remote stations and communities, keeping them supplied when the wet season cut roads.
Bushies branched out into tourism, running scheduled services, day trip sightseeing flights and package tours across northern Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The fleet included Fokker Friendships, Twin Otters, and the venerable Douglas DC-3, which “leaked a bit” during the wet season.
The airline built its own holiday destinations, such as the Cape York Wilderness Lodge and the Lizard Island Lodge.
Aviation is competitive and expensive. Bush Pilots Airways was not alone in its modest financial performance.
But Mr Dyer said it’s fondly remembered for its role connecting and supporting remote communities.
“Someone would call, they’ve got visitors coming and they’d run out of fruit and vegies. We’d pick some up in Cairns and put it on the aircraft for them.
“A guy called me from Groote Eylandt once, he’d forgotten his silver wedding anniversary, he hadn’t bought a gift. He phoned a florist, we picked up the flowers, and put them on the next day’s flight.”
Bushies was inducted into the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame in 2016. John Williamson chartered one of its aircraft for a Cape York tour in the 1980s, inspiring his song Papa Whiskey November. There’s also an ABC Radio documentary about the airline.
Bushies closed in 1988. Former cabin attendant Louise Vickers said north Queenslanders had deep affection for the airline.
“We were part of their lives, and part of the development of far north Queensland.
“In the wet season, there were no roads. We were the lifeline. In the old days when Cooktown was just 250 people, we’d go up with one side of the DC-3 loaded with bread and food, and passengers on the other side.
“It was their only way in and out, to hospital to have their babies.”
