Early birds: Those magnificent ladies and their flying machines

Speaker: Sharyn Merkley

Time: 1.30 pm for 2 pm start

Cost: $10 Members/ $15 non-Members. Afternoon tea is included.

While we remember national heroes such as Lores Bonney and Nancy Bird Walton, Queensland had its own group of daring and ambitious women pilots. Newspapers and magazines celebrated their youth, enthusiasm, talent and glamorous fashions. At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, this hopeful age of women in aviation crashed. For many of these women, it was a turning point in their lives. Flying careers were no longer possible. Their husbands and fiancés left for combat, some never to return. Who were these women and what are their untold stories?

Sharyn Merkley, a Brisbane resident from birth, is a family historian with a life-long passion for history. As well as being involved in the archives at Miegunyah, Sharyn has done extensive research for the Genealogical Society of Queensland,…