By Staff Writers
First published in The Age on December 24, 1981
Sir Reginald, pioneer of the skyways
Sir Reginald Ansett, who died in Melbourne yesterday, held only two paper qualifications - one to operate flying machines, the other to repair knitting machines.
But the organisation he founded at its height before the Murdoch takeover in 1980, had nearly 30 companies under its wing, ranging from Biro Bic to Gateway Inns.
Sir Reginald Ansett in his officeCredit: Fairfax Archives
And Ansett Transport Industries assets were worth more than half a billion dollars.
The white Ansett jets with the Southern Cross painted on their tails (they used to be painted red, black and white) now flying across Australian skies are a far cry from Reg Ansett’s first £1000 Fokker in 1936. It took four bumpy hours to carry six passengers between Melbourne and Hamilton, its floors covered with newspapers to soak up the vomit.
“It was like flying a cantilevered shop verandah,” one pilot recalled. You had to sail the thing.”
When he bought his first plane, a two seater Gypsy Moth - Ansett shocked the flying club by looping it on his first solo flight.
He used to believe the old planes should fly in any weather.
“That sort of thing killed a few people, a lot of people, in the old days. When I think of the things we did, I get the cold shivers,” he recalled in 1975.
Ansett Airlines’ safety record, for all that, is first class.
Reg Ansett in 1936Credit: J. Leonard
As a small operator, he used to carry passengers in DC3s during the day, and strip the planes for carrying freight. Their utilisation rates set world records.
He was from the old guard of self-made Australian executives, reflected in his frequent use of Australian and international adjectives, not much heard among the more suave top executives in the Golden Mile of Melbourne.
His first £250,000 public company was floated in 1937, only to lose £30,000 in its first year. The chairman wanted to sell Ansett Airlines to Australian National Airways (ANA) but Mr Ansett rallied his friends, won his airline back and dumped the chairman.
Of all his takeover battles, he used to view the 1957 $7 million takeover of Australian National Airlines (ANA) as his greatest coup. ANA people described it as a mouse consuming an elephant. He later had ambitions of taking over Qantas, but Canberra didn’t sympathise.
Reginald Myles Ansett’s father ran a bike repair shop at Inglewood near Bendigo. When Mr Ansett senior enlisted, Mrs Ansett took her two sons and three daughters to Melbourne. Reginald went through Essendon and Camberwell State schools, then Swinburne Tech. and left at 14 to join the family knitting factory.
Working day and night assembling the machines, he was soon earning seven pounds ten shillings a week.
At 21 he cashed in a life assurance policy his parents had taken out for him as a baby, and spent it on a leather flying helmet and lessons. He took out pilot licence No. 419. He joined a Government survey party in the Northern Territory as an axeman, returning to Melbourne with £80 and a determination to beat the Great Depression.
In Maryborough in central Victoria he bought an old Studebaker for £70 to run one-car goods and passenger line the 60 kilometres between Ballarat and Maryborough. This car would be followed by clouds of kerosene smoke - he couldn’t afford petrol. But after 10 months, he was still making no money.
The Ansett section of the passenger terminal at Essendon Airport in 1969.Credit: The Age Archives
He spent £50 as deposit on a new car on 7 December, 1931, leaving him with ten shillings as working capital for a new, longer run from the Western Districts to Ballarat. He drove 240 miles a day.
The basis of his runs was Melbourne Herald deliveries. The papers were piled on the car roof rack and covered with a tarpaulin when it rained. People at the little towns were always irate if the papers came late and he made a reputation for punctuality.
It was Robert G. Menzies, then Victorian Minister for Railways, who legislated to prevent Ansett’s old cars from taking business from Victorian country rail lines.
Mr Ansett evaded the legislation by taking out a fruit vendor’s licence, selling passengers an orange for two pounds ten shillings, and giving them a free ride on his car from Hamilton to Melbourne.
He floated the airline company in 1937.
Ansett Airlines grew fat on wartime courier contracts for the US army and by 1945 he had 2500 workers. He bought up the Pioneer coach tour business in 1944 for only £15,000, and at the war’s end hot-footed it to Manila to buy a useful parcel of US army C47s - converting them to civilian DC3s. He also acquired surplus flying boats, the mainstay of his island tourist runs.
The bus services were the backbone of ATI, while he waited to pounce on the ailing ANA.
His family affairs were always clouded - his time belonged predominantly to his businesses. He divorced his first wife Grace in 1943 and their sons Bob and John went to the US with Grace and her new husband.
In 1944 he married his secretary Joan Adams.
The year 1978-79 was disastrous for Sir Reginald. Nearly $18 million was lost in the ASL collapse (he was deputy chairman), he lost his airport car rental monopoly, and saw his airline slipping against TAA competition. ATI shares began to be nibbled by the corporate carnivores.
He lost a lot of good will through his vendetta against Debbie Wardley trying to prevent her becoming an ATI pilot.
He had described ASL soon after his 49 per cent purchase in 1976 as having “a magnificent future”.
The vultures gathered around ATI after the ASL crash. After a flurry among Robert Holmes a Court, Rupert Murdoch and Sir Peter Abeles of TNT, Mr Holmes a Court emerged as victor and successor to Sir Reginald, to be replaced after another flurry a month later by Mr Rupert Murdoch.
The Murdoch takeover left Sir Reginald with the title of non-executive director and $3 million in cash benefits. He lost his helicopter soon afterwards.
The key parts of Sir Reginald’s business empire - airlines, television, and the original airport monopoly of Avis Rent-A-Car - were all examples of Government licensing.
The legend is that without Reg Ansett, Australia would have had the equivalent of the Victorian Railways running a national air monopoly. An equally plausible scenario, however, is that Australia would have a competitive airline industry.
Whatever his public and private troubles, Sir Reginald was worshipped by most of his staff.
He was courteous; he knew their names.
Sir Peter Abeles said yesterday: “He enjoyed a hundred per cent loyalty from his staff.” Even from the “old boilers.”
The thoughts of Sir Reg
“I have nothing against women. We employ very large numbers of them.” After losing the Equal Opportunity Board battle to prevent pilot Deborah Wardley becoming an Ansett trainee. November 1973.
“They are a batch of old boilers sitting on their executive. Frankly I have had them. We can run our airline without people to serve drinks. They can all have the sack as far as I am concerned.” His comments on striking air hostesses in March 1975
“My buddies are no longer there and it’s hard to get into another generation. It’s hard to get into tune with their views. I try to.” On himself. July 1979.
“A man who comes to me without an opinion is not worth a damn. I like a chappie who’s got a view.” His philosophies, July 1979.
“Those big operators from Sydney don’t frighten me. I’m not being taken over and I haven’t been biting my fingernails.” After Thomas Nationwide Transport bought 23½ per cent of Ansett’s company. March 1972.
“How could I put pressure on Governments - I have only one vote, just like you.” His comment hours after the Victorian Parliament, headed by Sir Henry Bolte, passed emergency legislation to freeze the TNT takeover of Ansett. April 1972.