Well, they did it, all 2518 kilometres from inland Victoria to the coast of far north Queensland within the hours of dawn and dusk.
Pilots Theresa MacDonald, Amanda Deed, and Delia Jones, accompanied by comedian Sammy J, jetted off from Lilydale Airport on Monday 8 December headed for Karumba, in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Following the famed Burke and Wills trail by air through the central parts of New South Wales and outback Queensland, it was a test of navigational and flight skills.
The team, named Ships of the Desert, factored in several contingency plans given the differences in climate, especially the unpredictability of the northern Queensland monsoon season.
“We’re now heading into the wet season. So ideally, in the wet season, you want to fly in the morning, but because we’re starting off down here, we won’t get there until the afternoon,” Theresa said.
“We’ve got contingency plans in case. If we don’t make it up there in a day, then we’ll probably get there the second day, and we’ll do it in reverse. That’s plan B.”
But those plans were not required, reaching their final destination within the day.
“It all went to plan and we made it to Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria last Monday (8 Dec). Tired, exhausted, but jubilant,” Theresa said.
“We split the trip on the return journey as it was 44 degrees in Birdsville! We hung out in the air conditioning and left at 6am for the final flight via Broken Hill back to Lilydale.”
The flight was part of the International Dawn to Dusk Competition, but a hugely important aspect for these women when doing these flight challenges is fundraising for a cause.
Because of the large outback expanse the team flew over, they chose Outback Futures as their charity.
Outback Futures supports the mental health and wellbeing of children, young people, adults, families, and entire communities living and working in rural and remote locations, where support services are few and far between.
Amanda said the impact of the floods in Queensland and the everyday challenges of living rurally, like the isolation from larger townships, helped set the original target of $10,000 for Outback Futures.
The target was then increased to $15,000, which by the end of their campaign, the team reached a total of $15,294.
