The first 50 years......
Grace Frame and Ian Blackie married on 29 September 1970 in Carluke, Lanarkshire, Scotland, and soon after emigrated to Australia as ‘ten pound poms’, departing London on 12 February 1971 on QANTAS flight QF 758, operated by Boeing 707-338C VH-EAG “City of Hobart”, arriving on 14 February 1971 (Valentine’s Day) at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International Airport.
They settled in Sydney’s Northern Beaches and had a son, Jamie Douglas, and a daughter, Ailsa Jane.
As expatriates they moved to Asia with a young family, living in both Singapore and Hong Kong. Ian worked in the aviation industry and the family travelled extensively throughout the region before returning to Sydney. Back in Sydney they became Australian citizens in 1988 and the children grew to adults. Jamie married Victoria Cannon and they have 2 daughters Alice Harriet and Abigail Rose. Ailsa Jane married Stephen Pardy and they have 2 sons Luke James and Daniel William.
In retirement Grace and Ian travelled the world but never forgetting their native homeland of Scotland, visiting family regularly. On 29 September 2020 Grace and Ian celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary, receiving many congratulatory messages including from the Australian Governor General Hon. David Hurley and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
As new Australians, arriving in 1971, on Valentine’s Day 2021 Grace and Ian celebrate 50 years as the 1st generation of the Blackie family in Australia.
The following inscription appears below the lower aircraft.
It simply provides a little history of the aircraft you travelled on.
Boeing 707-338C VH-EAG “City of Hobart”, delivered to QANTAS on 16 May 1968 was the first 707 to land at Melbourne’s new Tullamarine Airport on 11 June 1968, and was renamed “Alice Springs” on 22 February 1974. On 27 & 29 December 1974 VH-EAG operated two Cyclone Tracey relief flights evacuating a total of 498 people from Darwin, and operated the final ever QANTAS scheduled 707 service on 25 March 1979, however, the following day it carried 104 passengers stranded in Sydney by an air traffic controllers strike to Melbourne. The aircraft was sold to the Royal Australian Air Force on 30 March 1979 and re-registered A20-627. On May 2010 the RAAF donated the forward fuselage to HARS (Historic Aircraft Restoration Society Inc.) at Albion Park, NSW, Australia, where it is currently on display whilst it is slowly being renovated.