Australia recognized the importance of aviation, as before the war over half of the airline passenger and freight miles were subsidized by the government. Government, irrespective of political leanings, were well aware of the immensity of the uninhabitable deserts that separated the small productive regions, and regarded air transport as a matter of national importance. The Director General of Civil Aviation, AB Corbett stated, "A nation which refuses to use flying in its national life must necessarily today be a backward and defenseless nation" ) a lesson learnt with the un preparedness before WW2 although air transport was encouraged with both direct subsidies and mail contracts.Australian National Airways Bill - In August, 1945, the federal parliament passed the Australian National Airways Bill, establishing the Australian National Airways Commission (ANAC), charged with the constructing of a National Air Transport Industry.
The bill declared that the licenses of private operators would lapse for those routes that were adequately serviced by the national carrier, and from this point, air transport in Australia would appear to be a government monopoly, but the Liberal Party backed a legal challenge supported by the business community and in December 1945. The High Court ruled that the Commonwealth did not have the power to prevent the issue of airline licenses to private companies, but the government was informed it could set up an airline if it wished, but it could not legislate a monopoly.
The press was an extremely vocal opponent of left-leaning governments in Australia, opposing the establishment of a public airline network, and parliamentary debate was fiery.
Beginning
With the bill suitably amended to remove the monopoly provisions, the Australian National Airways Commission came into existence in on the 8th of February 1946, with Arthur Coles appointed as Chairman. The appointed board commissioners were prominent public identities, including the director-general of civil aviation, the deputy director, a Labor party luminary, a former member of the Commonwealth Bank board, the director-general of Posts and Telegraphs, and the assistant secretary of the Treasury.
Coles was one of the richest men in Australia and not a Labor Party believer ( he had stood as an independent ) or a public servant. He was a co-founder of the Coles retail empire that was the largest in Australia, but he had decided to retire from active management of his business to use his talents for the public good. He was a believer in competition for business, and would not have accepted the position of Chairman of the ANAC had his conditions regarding the method of operation of the business not been agreed to.
Trading Name - Trans-Australia Airlines
The Commission informed the government on the 8th of April that they preferred trading name, "Trans Australia Airlines", and the Treasury granted a preliminary advance of £10,000, whereby permitting plans for recruiting staff, and purchasing equipment.
An interesting piece of history was that in March 1946, Reginald Ansett, the proprietor of the small Victorian company Ansett Airways, wrote to Coles with a proposal to get the new airline flying by selling his entire operation to the ANAC as a going concern. He also offered his services as managing agent. The asking price of £102,476, the Commission decided, was optimistic, and Ansett declined a counter offer by the commission.
Ivan Holyman, the Chairman of ANA, received correspondence with a view to recruiting him as General Manager of TAA at the salary of £10,000 pa, but he declined, as he was not inclined to sell, nor to work for a government-owned body as his ambition was to set up a "composite company" of individual small airlines united under one banner.
Attracting private enterprise applicants proved to be difficult and the ANAC revised the operating management and proceeded with the original plan, to build an airline from scratch, seeking experienced people from many industries.
One of the first people hired was Lester Brain , then Operations Manager at QANTAS. Lester Brain had grown with QANTAS, and had 22 years of pioneering aviation and a reputation for technical excellence within QANTAS. Initially he applied for the advertised position of TAA Operations Manager, as to progress within QANTAS he would have to wait until a senior member retired, but was offered the position of General Manager at a salary of £3,000 pa..
L Brain