Airmail
Correction to Fisrt Airmail on Australia
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Sandgroper
It is a pity those who present information as fact don't first do their research. It is myth that Qantas held the first airmail contract in Australia as posted in the Airmail section – I have pasted the wrong quote in the next paragraph in quotation marks followed by the correction:

“In Australia, the first air mail contract was won by the fledgling Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services (QANTAS) commencing in November 1922”.

The facts are that Norman (later Sir Norman) Brearley's Western Australian Airlines won the first airmail contract in Australia with the first airmail being between Geraldton and Derby (Western Australia) arriving Derby 5th December 1921. A plaque to that effect is displayed at Derby Airport.

Western (later renamed West) Australian Airlines (WAA) was also first to run a scheduled airline service in Australia easily beating Qantas by eleven (11) months. WAA became a successful national airline in its own right.

Norman Brearley also held Australia’s first Air Pilot's license oddly numbered Number 2.

Incidentally, (Sir) Charles Kingsford Smith worked for Norman Brearley and later founded an outback road trucking service in Western Australia well before his later famous aviation exploits.

It is time the Qantas myth was quashed and due recognition given to the true first airmail and scheduled airline service in Australia - Sir Norman Brearley's West Australian Airlines
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