Early Australian female aviators were generally active since 1927 when it became possible for an Australian woman to hold a pilot's licence and fly within Australia.[1] Women had participated in gliding, or taken a licence overseas, but they had not been permitted to fly a plane under licence within Australia. The first Aero Club in Australia was established in 1915.[2]
Florence Taylor was the first Australian woman to fly a plane, a glider built by her husband, George Augustine Taylor, in 1909.[3] Emma Schultz also went up in Florence Taylor's glider.[4]
Hilda Hope McMaugh, was a nurse who served with the Australian Army Nursing Service during World War I. She took a pilot's licence in England in 1919, and her achievement was recorded on film,[5] but McMaugh was not allowed to use her licence within Australia.[3][6]
After World War I, and with the historic flights of Charles Kingsford Smith and Bert Hinkler, however, the Australian's public appetite for flying and air races was whetted. Pilots such as Amelia Earhart and Amy Johnson, inspired Australian women to want to take to the air.