In my collecting travels I have sometimes found interesting real-photo postcards depicting aerial views of parts of the Hunter Region and Central Coast – mostly in the 1960s – with the business name “Avion Views, Cooranbong NSW” rubber-stamped on the back. My search for information about this postcard publisher led me to Judy and Perry Jackson, of Cooranbong, who filled me in on the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Avion views was just one business run by Judy’s father, the apparently indefatigable Franklyn (Frank) Wainman, a mechanic, garage proprietor and flying enthusiast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Born on December 18, 1910, Frank was a lifelong member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which is a dominant presence at Cooranbong, a pleasant community on the western shores of Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, NSW. He had a strong interest in aircraft and flying from his early years, and as a young man he used to travel almost weekly to the home base of a gliding club at Box Hill, in Sydney. There, he and his friend George Kennedy of Boolaroo (who was building a glider) would spend many Sundays learning to fly gliders. He rode the nearly 400km round trip on an old Douglas motorbike, starting at about 3am and getting home late at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n