Status Updates From The Tyranny of Distance: Ho...

If one can select any year which marks Australia’s transition from its traditional role as echo and image of Britain and an outpost of Europe, the year which stands out is 1941. […] the end of a time when heredity ceased to be so powerful, when Australians ceased to have nearly all their emotional, commercial, military, financial and human ties with Britain.

Years usually elapsed between the flights of the pathfinders and the opening of regular air service. Early aeroplanes were like early steamers.

Despite the invasion of American clippers, iron clippers, fully-rigged steamships, compound-engine steamships, oil burning ships and motor ships, Australia still paid heavily for its isolation from the world beyond.