Northward Bound
It's more than sixty years since my family moved North.
Given that time frame, one might expect my memory to have faded. In a way, it has, but when I began writing this narrative, having done a little digging, I felt I could confirm a few things.
We flew from Rockhampton to Townsville in August 1963. I'm reasonably sure it was on the weekend. That's a clear memory, based on a less-than-enjoyable experience.
I thought it was safe to assume we flew on the government-owned Trans Australia Airlines rather than their rival, Ansett ANA. At that time, Ansett didn't fly into or out of Rockhampton.
My brother remembers it differently. His recollections are quite clear and include the sort of detail that suggests accuracy. In his version, we flew from Brisbane to Rockhampton and from Rockhampton to Townsville on an Ansett subsidiary — Queensland Airlines. Regardless of who paid the fares — I suspect that the ANZ Bank would have covered the costs associated with the relocation — Ansett/QAL rather than the government-owned TAA would always have been Dad's preference.
However, when I searched for corroborating information, this website (https://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/qal.htm) doesn’t provide a 1963 timetable. Furthermore, the full timetables from 29 April 1957 (https://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/qal/qe5704/qe5704-2.jpg) and 20 January 1964 (https://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/complete/qe64/qe64-4.jpg) suggest they didn’t operate services north of Rockhampton.
Those issues — particularly the discrepancy between what I remember and what I can confirm — underpin the two strands of autobiographical content on these pages.
Recollection and Reconstruction takes the What We Left Behind > What We Found narrative and footnotes the details.
Reflection and Reminiscence takes the memories and what they meant — or, at least, what they might have meant — into spaces that don't come with confirmatory detail.
