Leading the fight against the fires was the DC10 airtanker Nancy Bird.

Malcolm’s father, the late Ken Andrews, was a renowned Australian engineer, involved with Nancy Bird’s pioneering endeavours.

When studying civil and aeronautical engineering at the University of Sydney in the mid- 1920s, he used to work during vacations on Department of Main Roads survey teams planning a road between Wauchope and Walcha.

He also was involved in the creation of primitive aircraft, including only the second glider to be designed, built and piloted in Australia. His design won awards and the aircraft itself set world long-distance records.

It was at this time he met the pioneer aviatrix Nancy Bird (later Nancy Bird Walton). It should be noted she refused to be called an aviator, “because that is a male term”.

Ken Andrews and his mentors George Boehm and Tommy Leech were building a plane at the General Aircraft Factory at Mascot in Sydney, to enter in the 1929 Great Transcontinental Air Race from Sydney to Perth.

And Nancy was a regular visitor to the factory, begging to be allowed to pilot the aircraft.

“But our plane wasn’t finished in time for the start. What a pity! Not just for us but for Nancy!” Ken Andrews told Malcolm some six and a half decades later after he had heard Andrews Junior had interviewed the trailblazing aviatrix.

“The whole nation was enthralled with the tussle. It would have been wonderful for a woman to have won that race.”

Ken Andrews went on to become Assistant City Engineer in the Sydney Council, Engineer-in-Charge Major Contracts of the Snowy Mountains Scheme and finally Assistant Director of the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation.

Meanwhile, Malcolm treasures an autographed copy of Nancy Bird Walton’s autobiography My God! It’s a Woman inscribed with the words: “With happy memories of early flying days in which Ken had an interest.”