The Catholic Weekly 19 April 2020

catholicweekly.com.au 4 19, April, 2020 Secure a crypt in our popular mausoleum. Contact our Customer Service team on (02) 6204 0200 WODEN CEMETERY MAUSOLEUM Crypts available now Christ the Redeemer www.canberracemeteries.com.au Deborah’s all set to fly again TO SAY Deborah Lawrie’s ca- reer has been turbulent would be an understatement. Flying well before she could drive, the Sydney-born aviator has spent the past 50 years in the air and, as the world’s old- est female commercial pilot, is not ready to hang up her wings just yet. However, as the airline in- dustry has been one of the hardest hit due to the COV- ID-19 pandemic she has found herself grounded … for now. Her employer, Tigerair Australia, ceased operations earlier this month leaving her unemployed. And while find- ing a job at 66 years of age is never easy for anyone, Deb- orah feels she still has a lot to offer the airline industry when it’s ready to again take to the skies. “I’m not done yet, I know I can still add a lot of value to the industry when things pick up,” she said. “People often ask me how much longer I hope to fly and I usually say three more years and nothing has changed. “I am officially the oldest woman pilot still flying for a major commercial airline in the world. Apart from Austral- ia and New Zealand there’s nowhere else you can fly past the age of 65 and I passed that last birthday. “I’d very much like to play a role in the industry’s recovery. I have so much experience and I know I can add value and help it get back on its feet. “A lot of things have changed since I started out but my passion for flying cer- tainly hasn’t.” The pioneer of the aviation business discovered her love ¾ ¾ Debbie Cramsie of flying when her dad let her sit in the back of the plane when he started taking private lessons. In what she called “a bit of a mid-life crisis”, he decided to learn to fly and being the eldest of four children, “she had an interest in just about everything he did”. He promised her two flying lessons for her 16th birthday. After spending all of her spare time studying she took her first solo flight soon after. She completed her educa- tionatOur Lady of SionCatho- lic College inMelbourne’s Box Hill, before graduating with a science degree from the Uni- versity of Melbourne in 1974 and in education in 1975. She went on to teach high school mathematics and sci- ence from 1975 to 1977 but her love of flying was never far away. “I just loved everything about it,” she said. “I worked a few different jobs at the flying school, I even mowed lawns just to make enough to pay for the lessons. “I couldn’t drive to the air- field, so mum would take me and sit in the car and wait for me. “Flying became my life and every weekend I was in the cockpit.” At just 18 she obtained a private pilot licence and a commercial one two years later. She logged over 2600 flying hours and became a general aviation flying instructor and charter pilot in 1976. But no major Australian airline had ever employed a female pilot and it required years of rejections and a land- mark legal battle in the Sex Discrimination Commission before Ansett employed her as one of the first women to become a pilot with a major Australian airline. She first applied to An- sett Airlines in 1976 and kept sending applications for two years. During that time, 10 fellow male flying instructors were accepted into the train- ing program. “I just kept applying and kept getting fobbed off until I think they just got sick of me and gave me an interview to get rid of me,”’ she laughed. “I passed the interview and psychology test and then got a letter saying I hadn’t got the job. “I really couldn’t believe it and knew I had to fight it.” She took the case to the then new Victorian Equal Opportunity Board and chal- lenged Ansett’s rejection un- der recently enacted equal opportunity legislation. Having married days be- fore the case began, she chose to use her married name and Wardley v Ansett Transport Industries (Operations) Pty Ltd was the first sex discrim- ination in employment case contested before the Equal Opportunity Board. Airbus A320 Captain Deborah Lawrie in the cockpit of the Tigerair Australia aircraft I am officially the oldest woman pilot still flying for a major com- mercial airline in the world ... there’s no- where else you can fly past the age of 65.” Deborah Lawrie Deborah Lawrie’s first day at the controls for Ansett following the landmark case in the High Court of Australia