Western Sydney Airport named after Nancy-Bird Walton, the ‘Angel of the Outback’
The Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek is being named after a female pilot who was taught to fly by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith at his flying school in Mascot. And within two years, she was the first qualified female commercial pilot in Australia and the Commonwealth.
The Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek is being named after the Nancy-Bird Walton, Australia’s first female pilot who was known as the “Angel of the Outback”.
The $5.3 billion airport will officially become Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport to honour Mrs Walton, who was born in Kew on the mid north coast of NSW in 1915.
At age 17 she was taught to fly by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith at his flying school at Mascot and within two years she was the first qualified female commercial pilot in both Australia and the Commonwealth.
Her successful career in aviation included working for the Royal Far West Children’s Health Scheme, a flying doctors service providing medical transfers to hospital from isolated parts of Australia. It was here that she earned her nickname “Angel of the Outback”.
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Mrs Walton’s granddaughter Anna Holman, 48, said the family was honoured to have the new airport named after her.
“The family is extremely excited and thrilled, and it’s just a huge honour to be honest with you, we’re all really avid travellers, and at airports very often,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
“So to be able to fly into one that’s named after your grandmother is just a little unusual and something out of the ordinary, and it’s just so lovely that our government is recognising a woman as well.”
Mrs Holman said her most vivid flying memory of her “Nan” was when she was taken for some aerial acrobatics at just five years old.
“I do remember when I was five she took us flying and she turned the plane upside down — and I was like what are you doing? That’s not natural,” she said.
“It was a great experience but it was a little bit terrifying as well.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Nancy-Bird Walton was an “inspiring and natural choice” for the country’s newest airport, which is scheduled to open in 2026.
“It is fitting that having recognised Charles Kingsford Smith at Sydney Airport that we now recognise Australia’s greatest female aviation pioneer, Nancy-Bird Walton in the naming of Western Sydney Airport,” he said.
“Nancy-Bird Walton is an Australian legend, a pioneer whose determination to take to the sky is an inspiration for generations who have followed.”
“Nancy-Bird was the first female pilot in Australia, and the Commonwealth, to be licenced to carry passengers and began her career flying nurses to the outback to provide medical services for children and their mothers,” Mr Morrison said.
Nancy-Bird Walton’s first aircraft was a de Havilland Gipsy Moth which she bought in 1933 and flew to country fairs, barnstorming and charging passengers 10 shillings a pop for joy rides.
In 1935 she was hired to operate the Royal Far West Children’s Health Scheme, where she worked until 1938 when she decided to take a break from flying.
During World War II she was Commandant of the Women’s Air Training Corps, and once the war had finished she married Englishman Charles Walton, and they had two children.
She founded the Australian Women Pilots’ Association in 1950, was made and Officer of the order of the British Empire in 1966, and an Officer of the order of Australia in 1990.
Mrs Walton was declared an Australian Living Treasurer in 1997 by the National Trust of Australia, and had Qantas’ first Airbus A380 plane named in her honour in 2008. She passed away aged 93 in 2009.
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