Last weekend the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame (AAHOF) held the first induction dinner in their own space at Shellharbour Airport.
The 2022 dinner was the first held since the coronavirus outbreak, and AAHOF president Steve Padgett said it was a good feeling to finally hold an induction event.
"After two years of canceling the event, we finally got around to getting the inductions done," he said. "It was a difficult one because we were also completing our new home with the stories and images, and the weather was terrible.
"But about 160 people turned up and it was a great night upstairs in our own dedicated area."
AAHOF is now co-located with the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) at Shellharbour Airport after many years of holding the dinner at Wagga Wagga, Temora and previously in the HARS hangar.
"Wagga Wagga was fine to get it all going," Padgett said, "but it was clear we really needed to be somewhere that was easily accessible to everyone and had a relationship between aircraft and people.
"HARS was a natural choice. While they celebrate old aeroplanes, we celebrate people, so it is a perfect match.
"It was really good to have a dinner in our own space because people can drive down from Sydney rather than have to fly to Wagga and afterward they can go out and examine the aeroplanes in the HARS collection."
Inducted into AAHOF last Saturday night were:
Sir Richard Williams – Sir Richard Williams rose from humble rural beginnings in South Australia, to be rightfully considered the "Father of the RAAF". After a highly distinguished military aviation career across WW1, WW11, and the years in between, Sir Richard became Director-General of Civil Aviation from 1946-1955.
Captain Deborah Jane Lawrie AM – Captain Lawrie has been involved with aviation for over 50 years, commencing her flying training at age of 16 and becoming the first female airline pilot for a major airline in Australia. She is regarded as a trailblazer and Standard Bearer by all those women who have followed her lead.
Basil South Brown – Basil Brown was a co-founder of East West Airlines and was the inaugural President of AAAA in 1958. He established Airfarm Associates in NSW in 1953 and was in the forefront of the Australian Ag Flying industry for decades to come.
John Weymouth – John Weymouth is a national pioneer in using helicopters for commercial and emergency purposes. These include firefighting, search and rescue, mustering, training, infrastructure inspection to name just a few. Due in part to John’s extensive vision for the helicopter, Australia now operates the world’s second largest fleet of civil helicopters.
Southern Cross Award – The Southern Cross Award this year is in recognition of the significant contribution to the firefighting effort during the recent devastating bush fires made by the Australian Helicopter Industry Association and the Aerial Application Association of Australia
AAHOF will be open to the public during Wings over Illawarra in November. The space is not yet complete, with work still to be done or storyboards for all the inductees.
More information is on the AAHOF website.