Mark Wilson began studying at the Taranaki Art School in New Zealand in 1994 then, in 2008, started work on 12 paintings of significant Qantas aircraft flying over iconic Australian landscape. The collection was first exhibited at Qantas Founders Museum in 2013 before the Museum acquired the collection. Postcards based on the artwork continue to […]
On 16 November 2020, Australia’s national airline, Qantas Airways, will turn 100 and to celebrate this incredible milestone Qantas Founders Museum has a number of activities planned for the day: Free entry to the Museum – All visitors will enjoy FREE Museum entry on 16 November 2020 Birthday cake – You cannot celebrate a birthday […]
Qantas Founders Museum is thrilled to announce that Qudos Bank will be a major sponsor of the Museum’s Celebration of the Qantas Centenary in 2021. Qudos Bank is one of Australia’s largest customer-owned banks with over 100,000 customers across Australia. Founded in 1959 by a group of Qantas employees who wanted to establish better financial […]
FRANK McNALLY – AN ACCIDENTAL BONUS by Museum Curator Tom Harwood You don’t have to be around the early QANTAS story for long before you become aware of two photos. One shows three mechanics, one in a flat cap and another wearing a tie, working on a Beardmore engine at the front of the Longreach […]
WHO WAS ARTHUR BAIRD? by Museum Curator Tom Harwood That’s a question he may have asked himself because he was born in Benalla, Victoria in 1889 as Wilfred Arthur Beard (WAB, as he’s often known in Qantas circles). Based on contemporary newspaper reports, he seems to have decided the move to Longreach with QANTAS in […]
The first Qantas Round-the-World flight doesn’t rank as highly in the airline’s history as it possibly should. On December 20th, 1957, Lockheed Super Constellation VH-EAO “Southern Auora with Captain R A Bruce in command, left Sydney with 32 press, radio and television reporters for a 20-day 27 000 mile (43 452 km) flight during which […]
On Monday 19 August 2019, Qantas Founders Museum will celebrate the 100th anniversary of a 51-day drive by three World War One veterans through Northern Australia which would lead to the creation of Australia’s National Airline, Qantas and impact the lives of communities in Outback Queensland and around Australia. On 19th of August 1919, Longreach […]
QANTAS FOUNDERS MUSEUM MEDIA RELEASE 7 August 2019 CELEBRATING A COUNTRY DRIVE THAT CREATED AN AIRLINE On Monday 19 August 2019, Qantas Founders Museum will celebrate the 100th anniversary of a 51-day drive by three World War One veterans through Northern Australia which would lead to the creation of Australia’s National […]
‘THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST’ IS SUCH A SIMPLE IDEA… by Qantas Founders Museum Curator Tom Harwood It’d be difficult to find a more complicated story than the introduction of the Boeing 707 to Qantas, sixty years ago. A large part of the problem is that humans get fixated on the concept of ‘first’ not […]
WORKING ON THE SUPER CONSTELLATION COCKPIT PROJECT By Project Manager Raymond Boak When the Super Constellation arrived on the back of a truck in May 2017, I was passing through Longreach and made a point of watching the unloading but there was no chance to see inside. On a following trip I did get to […]
