Nancy Bird Air Terminal

The North Bourke Airport is an airport located four nautical miles north of Bourke, New South Wales, Australia. The airport was opened for access in 1943 as a base for World War II. The Royal Australian Air Force used the airport to bring in supplies during the floods in 1976 and 1990. The terminal is named after Australian aviator Nancy Bird Walton. Nancy Bird Walton was born near Port Macquarie, NSW, in 1915. She was keen on flying from a very early age, and after saving hard, she took her first lesson with Charles Kingsford Smith, eventually earning her Commercial License at the age of nineteen. Nancy was the youngest woman in the Commonwealth at the time to hold such a license. Her first commercial job in aviation was flying for the Far West Children's Health Scheme, based in Bourke! In 1935, with help from her dad and Aunt Annie, Nancy was able to buy her first place - a beautiful Gipsy Moth for just 400 pounds.