Olga at Essendon Airport 1958
One day Olga Tarling, a young teleprinter operator working at Townsville airport looked out of the window and saw a Tiger Moth on the runway. Olga was fascinated with this fragile little bi-plane, and she knew immediately that she would fly it one day. This was the spark that ignited Olga Tarling’s life-long passion and commitment to flying. It was a commitment that led to an Order of Australia medal for services to the world of aviation.
Young women in the 1950s encountered many barriers to the all-male aviation industry. However, she eventually got someone to teach her to fly and after only ten hours of instruction Olga was flying solo in the Tiger Moth.
“Isn’t it the greatest thrill ever going solo?” she muses. “It is one of those extraordinary experiences that never dims for any of us”.
Flight Officer Olga Tarling and Captain Joe Salfas in the 1950s
Olga was soon up and away and down to Brisbane to gain her commercial licence. Not surprisingly she faced a hostile male examiner and a gruelling test in the air. Olga made her last runway approach after a simulated engine failure. The examiner looked anxious, but getting out of the plane after a successful landing he casually asked, “Well how does it feel to be a commercial pilot?”
Olga was delighted but she still faced opposition. She was told by the chief flying instructor of the Queensland Aero Club that being a woman she would never get a job flying commercially. Undeterred, Olga soon won a job with Southern Airlines at Melbourne’s Essendon Airport. She flew De Havilland propeller aircraft, carrying country folk around Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.
Sadly for Olga, Southern Airlines folded in 1959. Never downhearted, Olga discovered an advertisement from the Department of Civil Aviation calling for people ‘with substantial aeronautical experience’ to train as air traffic controllers. Again, Olga was breaking new ground and her application raised all-male eyebrows. But she was finally accepted and joined 15 males in the first intake for training.
Olga Tarling OAM in Maleny
After completing her training, Olga was stationed at Brisbane Airport and there was only one other female controller at that time, stationed in Sydney. One particular American Airlines pilot had occasion to fly between Sydney and Brisbane on two consecutive days and asked with surprise if all air traffic controllers in Australia were female!
Olga’s professionalism and reliability led her to instructing other controllers in Brisbane, and at Melbourne’s Central Training College. She finally retired from aviation in mid 1985.
When asked what were her aviation career highlights she replies with a gleam in her eye, “My first solo, and visiting Cape Canaveral Space Station in 1967″.
In 1971 Olga received the Nancy Bird Walton Trophy for outstanding achievement in aviation and in 1972 she was the only woman at the International Air Traffic Control annual conference in Dublin.
Olga also took key roles in the Australian Women Pilots Association and was its president in 1981.
Although she doesn’t consider her achievements extraordinary, Olga was truly a trail blazer for women in the aviation industry.
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