The story of Frances Jackson, a thrill seeking pilot who joined the wave of emancipated women across the country during the 1930s, was brought to light after the retrieval of a milk jug and sugar bowl.
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The seemingly mundane objects, a vast contrast to the adventurous tale of Mrs Jackson herself, needed a home.
Foster daughter Linda, now based in Melbourne, did not know where to take these historic ceramic items but wanted a space for them to be displayed.
A few months ago Rocky Hill Museum officer Claire Baddeley received an unexpected inquiry, with an offer of the prized objects as a donation to the facility.
They were accepted, providing an insight into the stunt flyer’s life.
In 1927 the Goulburn Aero Club had the distinction of being the first country aero club established in New South Wales. Mrs Jackson, originally from Tasmania, travelled to Goulburn to obtain her pilot's licence in late 1930.
After only eight instructional flights she was flying solo and graduated at the top of her group.
She was one of 12 women that year in training, the same year the Goulburn Aero Club organised a women’s only flying competition, the ‘round Australia’ air race.
It was noted that Mrs Jackson had entered the Goulburn Aero Club’s £1,000 competition for the first woman to fly solo around Australia.
While she did not win, she was soon to be the first woman trained at the Goulburn Aero Club to fly from Goulburn to Mascot in Sydney.
Flying a Gypsy Moth VH-ULM plane, it was reported that at one stage she flew under a bridge and had her licence suspended.
Between 1931 and 1938 Mrs Jackson participated in air pageants, aerobatics and races in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.
Ms Baddeley met a very excited Linda in Melbourne recently to collect the objects and said the story of Mrs Jackson has highlighted the life of a Goulburn aviatrix.
“The donated items provide an important and tangible link between the early history of the Goulburn Aero Club, the Rocky Hill Memorial and Frances Jackson, the famous but little known Tasmanian aviatrix, who flew in air races in Goulburn during the 1930s,” she said.
Ms Baddeley said the items might have been awarded to pilots who participated in the Goulburn air race in 1931, but was unsure.
“From the 1920s, after the First World War, and during the 1930s, women had a new found freedom,” she said.
“Flying came along at the time and women were taking to the skies essentially because they could.”
The items are now on display at the Rocky Hill War Memorial Museum, which is open to the public.
