...."Be damned to the doubters", bellowed 84 year old Alexander Kennedy as he soared above central Queensland's' vast outback for the first time in his long life. The year was 1922, the place Western Queensland.
He roared his now famous utterance over the bellowing engines' exhausts and the howl of wind over the struts of the archaic flying contraption as it finally lurched into the sweltering atmosphere.
...With the wind flapping in his whiskers the venerable Scottish grazier had just become the fledgling Qantas' first ticket holding passenger on a regular mail and passenger service between Charleville, Longreach, Winton and Cloncurry. The ticket still exists.
