Qantas's Greek roots.
Qantas, Australians largest airline, and one of the world's oldest (It's celebrating its 85th year anniversary this year), had Greek names on its first planes.
The names included "Perseus", "Pegasus", "Atalanta", "Hermes" and “Hippomenes" and among the first shareholders of the company was Greek Australian Harry Corones.
At the beginning of the 1920's, two young pilots, Hudson Fysh and Paul Magines, World War I veterans, had a vision to found an airways company to link the huge distance between east and south Australia.
In 1919, Harry Corones, a Greek fisherman from the island of Kithira, who had gone to Australia for a better future and already owned a chain of luxurious hotels in Queensland, was highly impressed by the arrival of the first airplane from Europe. That plane landed in Charleville, a town in Queensland, where Corones had a hotel.
He met the pilots who offered to take him on a flight. That was the beginning, Corones was so impressed that he tried by all means to develop air transport in the distant state he lived. When Hudson Fysh and his associates decided to found Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services), Corones contributed to the whole venture with all its forces, offering his hotel for the long conferences and becoming one of the first share holders of the company and proposed to the founders to name the aircrafts after Hellene mythical heroes, which indeed happened after they requested permission by him to name one of the planes after his surname which he declined.
The five first Qantas aircrafts were then named, "Perseus", "Pegasos", "Atalantis", "Hermes" and "Hippomenis".
Harry Corones. Notable Kytherian. Extensive Biography.
Jim Corones and Quilpie. The Book
Harry Corones. Arrival in Australia, 1907
Photo: Harry Corones and Paddy Cryan. ca.1912
Photo: Harry Corones, Jim Corones and their sister, Charleville, ca. 1914
Picture: Hotel Charleville ca. 1915
1916 Greek Census of QLD
Picture: Motor vehicle in Charleville loaded with Shell fuel tins, 1919
Picture: Conference at the Corones Hotel, Charleville, 1927
Harry Corones and Commissioner W. H. Ryan, ca. 1932
Picture: Aerial views of the town centre Charleville, 1934
Harry Corones and aviatrix 'Lores' Bonney standing near her small single engine plane at the Charleville airport, 1933
Harry Corones and aviatrix Nancy Bird-Walton in Charleville, 1935
Aviatrix Nancy Bird-Walton
Picture: Jim Corones, Nancy Bird and Mr O'Neil in Charleville, ca. 1936
1935-38 Greek Businesses in Australia
Corones Hotel - Charleville's Leading Hotel, in its heyday
Photo: Club Hotel at Quilpie, Queensland
Hotel Corones, 2005 article, The Australian
