Although they bear the same livery, these three siblings represent different phases of Australian aviation.

In the foreground we have a 737-800 (737-838(WL) variant), VH-VYK, named Moree after a town of about 2,500 in the north of New South Wales. It was delivered in January 2006, so it was relatively new at the time this shot was taken. The 737-800 was becoming the backbone of the Qantas domestic fleet, and still is as I write this in August 2022 when 75 of them (72 operational) were in service... including this one.

Heading away from us is the larger 767-300 (767-338ER variant) VH-OGQ. At one time Qantas had 38 of these in service, and though they were 10 years older than the 737-800s (VH-QGQ was delivered in August of 1996), they had less of a "sardine can" vibe. Not that they were necessarily all that comfortable (what Qantas plane is?), but they were certainly larger and as I recall them, they did feel a bit more spacious. (That may or may not have been an illusion given Qantas' propensity to "rack 'em and stack 'em".) Although as a rule of thumb a 767-300ER could carry over 50 more passengers than a 737-800 (call it 218 vs 162, depending on configuration; this varies greatly between models, though) by the early 2010s the 767 had fallen out of favour and were all retired in the early to mid 2010s. (It's not just an age thing; the VH-VYK is now (2022) older than VH-OGQ was when this shot was taken.) In any case, VH-OGQ was withdrawn from service on 7 February 2014, a bit over 3 1/2 years after this photo was taken. After a brief spell with Wells Fargo Bank she was shipped off to China's SF Air and converted to a cargo plane where, to the best of my knowledge, she remains to this day.

The most distant plane, travelling from left to right, was from even further back in aviation history, and closer to its sunset. Before 1992, Qantas (which was then government owned) was an international carrier only. Another government-owned company (Trans Australia Airlines, more commonly known as TAA) operated domestic routes between its foundation in 1946 and 1986, when it was renamed Australian Airlines. In the years 1992 to 1994 Qantas and Australian merged to form the Qantas we know and loathe today, covering both international and domestic routes and offering the (personal opinion only) con job that is the Frequent Flyer program.

That plane is Boeing 737-400 (767-476 variant) VH-TJK, which had been delivered to Australian Airlines in February of 1991. (TAA aircraft often used registrations which started with "T", but that tradition died with TAA.) The 737-400 model was reaching its expiry date (it was almost 20 years old by that point), and it was withdrawn from use on 9 April 2013. After a bit of rework it was converted to a cargo plane and sold to the Icelandic firm Bluebird Cargo, and later (December 2017) Bluebird Nordic. As of August 2022 it's 31.6 years old and still flying.

Not for Qantas, though... only one of the three is doing that, and I've no idea how long the 737-800 fleet will remain in place there, either. With the pandemic hammering revenue for 3 years straight, I suspect that every last kilometre will be squeezed out of the existing fleet.

On the opposite side of the taxiways would be the international parking bays, with aircraft which are probably too small to see in the gallery sized image. The plane on the far left looks like a Garuda Indonesia aircraft, possibly an A-330. Next over is another relic from a long gone time, a Virgin Atlantic aircraft of unknown type. Virgin Atlantic used to fly Heathrow -> Hong Kong -> Sydney, but that ended in May 2014.

Next is a Singapore Airlines aircraft, poooosssibly maybe an A380. After that is British Airways looks-like-a-777 or would do if the cockpit windows didn't seem to have the squarish "cut" of an Airbus... but the resolution just isn't there to be sure. To its right is definitely a British Airways 747, another long gone memory. BA had 101 747s in passenger service (possibly not all at the one time). The sight of a BA747 was once, arguably, one of the most recognisable sights in aviation. By July 2020 that was down to 31, but of course that was when the pandemic's effect on air travel went to town and in July of that year BA announced their immediate retirement. The last one flew out of Heathrow on 8 October 2020, a little over 10 years after this shot was taken. After that there is another Qantas which I'd need a higher res to speculate on the identity of.

Most of them are a long time gone, in one way or another.