Nancy Bird Walton AO OBE (1915–2009), aviatrix, went to Sydney at age seventeen to have flying lessons with Charles Kingsford Smith, paying for her helmet, leathers and goggles with money she'd saved from working in her father's general store in Kew, New South Wales. She obtained her commercial pilot's licence in 1935 and was hired as the pilot for the Far West Children's Health Scheme, flying nurses and doctors to patients in remote areas. Bird Walton won the Ladies' Trophy in the Brisbane to Adelaide Centenary Air Race in 1936, flying the fastest of all competitors on the Melbourne to Adelaide leg. During the war, she was a commandant in the Women’s Air Training Corps; in 1950 she founded the Australian Women Pilots' Association, which subsequently encouraged many to defy the notion that women were unsuited to careers in aviation. Her 1990 autobiography, My God, It's a Woman!, took its title from one cattle station owner's reaction to her feminine frame emerging from the cockpit on a remote airstrip.
Judy Cassab was commissioned to paint a portrait of Bird Walton's husband, Charles Walton, in 1973. It was such a success, the couple commissioned this portrait, which shows Bird Walton in a relaxed pose, wearing an elegant outfit she selected for the sitting. The painting style is mildly impressionistic, prefiguring the more abstract style of Cassab's later work.
Gift of Nancy Bird Walton AO OBE 2008. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Judy Cassab/Copyright Agency, 2024
Nancy Bird Walton AO OBE (1 portrait)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Aimee Board traces Judy Cassab’s path to the Australian outback, arriving at the junction of inspiration and abstraction.
Joanna Gilmour explores the extraordinary life of Australian female aviator Nancy Bird Walton AO OBE
