Beyond the Sky

Ninety years after her drowning, the true story of Australia's first woman pilot reveals a pioneer in life as well as the sky.

In Australia in the mid-1920s, flight was still new, dangerous, and glamorous – and aviators were all men. That was until a petite and quietly-spoken 49-year-old mother of three, Millicent Bryant, took her first flight, igniting a passion that led her to become the first woman in the Commonwealth outside Britain to gain a pilot's licence. While newspapers all over Australia began following her progress in the 'race', few outside her family knew the determination and depth of personality that took her into other areas considered unusual for a woman at that time, such as business and politics. And were it not for an ironic stroke of fate, her name might have become as familiar as other pioneers of the air such as Smithy, Hinkler, or Nancy Bird Walton.

Working from Millicent's own rediscovered letters and writings as well as newspapers and other historical sources, this innovative biographical work reveals a pioneer of the sky and beyond. On one hand, it tells, for the first time, of a flyer who was also a businesswoman, small-scale property developer, golfer, student of Japanese at Sydney University, and early motorist who had driven over 35,000 miles around New South Wales up to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko – and who could fix her own car to boot. On the other, it seeks to illuminate the inner story of a highly individual, modern woman whose life encompassed not only hidden romance, heartbreak, and tragedy but also a spirit of change in the social, political, and marital conventions of 20th century Australia.