Australian Dictionary of Biography

  • Tip: searches only the name field
  • Tip: Use double quotes to search for a phrase

Cultural Advice

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website contains names, images, and voices of deceased persons.

In addition, some articles contain terms or views that were acceptable within mainstream Australian culture in the period in which they were written, but may no longer be considered appropriate.

These articles do not necessarily reflect the views of The Australian National University.

Older articles are being reviewed with a view to bringing them into line with contemporary values but the original text will remain available for historical context.

Margaret Mary (Peggy) Kelman (1909–1998)

by Catherine Hobson

This article was published online in 2024

Peggy McKillop (left) and Nancy Bird beside Nancy's DH60 Gypsy Moth, April 1935

Peggy McKillop (left) and Nancy Bird beside Nancy's DH60 Gypsy Moth, April 1935

State Library of NSW

Margaret Mary Kelman (1909–1998), aviatrix, was born on 6 April 1909 at Glasgow, Scotland, only child of Irish-born William Richard McKillop, grocer, restaurant owner, and politician, and his second wife Rose, née Dalton, of a wealthy Irish-Australian pastoralist family. When Peggy (or Peg as she was also known) was four months old, her father died after a short illness, and her mother returned to the Dalton family estate, Duntryleague, at Orange, New South Wales. She was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Rose Bay, Sydney (1916–24), and later in England and France while overseas with her mother (1925–28). As a girl she was fascinated by aeroplanes, and in 1927 she attended the Schneider Trophy air race at Venice, Italy, where she had her first flight, in a flying boat. She later remembered the experience as the moment when she set her heart on aviation.

After McKillop turned twenty-one, she had flying lessons with the Royal Aero Club of New South Wales at Mascot, Sydney. Notwithstanding some family opposition, by early 1935 she had obtained her private and commercial pilot’s licences, and was being described as ‘one of the State’s foremost girl fliers’ (Newcastle Sun 1934, 2). She had also met the aviatrix Nancy Bird, six years her junior, who had recently purchased a Gypsy Moth, famously used by Lady Chaytor to fly from England to Australia in 1932. Bird had the aircraft reconditioned and offered McKillop a job as navigator and co-pilot on a barnstorming tour of western New South Wales. Over three months in early 1935, and again in August–October, the women—dubbed Big Bird (McKillop) and Little Bird, the former on account of her height and oversized flying gear—toured the State, attending country shows and race meetings, and giving joy flights to local residents.

In April 1936 McKillop and her mother sailed for London, where Peggy flew with the London Aeroplane Club and trained to convert her Australian commercial licence to the English equivalent. She was followed by Colin Dalrymple Kelman, a New South Wales grazier and aviator from Bellata, near Moree, whom she had met while barnstorming. They married at St James’s Roman Catholic Church, Marylebone, London, on 5 November 1936, and after a honeymoon in Scotland, purchased a twin-engined Monospar to return to Bellata. They flew without a radio or weather forecasts and relied on a school atlas and Shell airstrip maps to navigate. En route, the newlyweds discovered Kelman was expecting her first child, and she later claimed to be the first pilot to fly from England to Australia while pregnant.

At home in Australia the Kelmans ran sheep stations and raised five children; first at Bellata, and after World War II at Glenbervie station, a large property near Julia Creek, Queensland. Drought and the difficulties of farming during the war years, especially with Colin serving in the Citizen Military Forces (1942–44), led to their move north. Glenbervie had its own aerodrome and in the 1950s they owned a series of aeroplanes to fly for fun, shopping, and social visits. When Colin died in 1964, Kelman moved to Brisbane, where she was co-owner and co-director of Central Highlands Air Taxi (1967–72) with her son John.

During the 1960s and 1970s Kelman continued to embark on flying tours and compete in air races such as the Papua New Guinea Independence Air Race (1975) and the Warana Air Race, Brisbane, which she helped to establish in 1968 (1968, 1972). She was State (1965–70) and Federal president (1974–77) of the Australian Women Pilots’ Association (AWPA), and a member of the Queensland working group of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (1983–98). After joining the Ninety-Nines, the international women pilots’ association, in 1958, she was an inaugural member (1959) and governor of the Australian section. Later in life, she completed several overseas flights, including to Antarctica and Europe, before giving up flying in 1994. Some of her other hobbies included reading, swimming, gardening, and sailing. She died on 23 December 1998 at Buderim, Queensland, and was buried with her husband in the Buderim Crematorium and Memorial Gardens. Predeceased by her daughter Jane in 1979, she was survived by her four other children: John, Bill, Mary, and Susan.

Vivacious and charming, with short blonde hair, Kelman was a devout Catholic and gracious hostess, who had a lifelong appetite for adventure. She was widely admired for her sense of humour and her skills as a pilot, especially her ability to navigate without a flight plan and her level-headedness in the air. ‘One flew entirely by feel,’ she explained (Kelman 1962, 9). For her service to aviation in Queensland and the promotion of women in aviation, she was awarded the AWPA’s Nancy Bird Trophy (1969) and appointed OBE (1978). The Royal Queensland Aero Club also named her pilot of the year for 1971, and in 1985 the AWPA made her a life member. The Maroochy Aero Club, where she was a life member and patron (1976–98), named the ladies’ toilet Peg’s Palace in recognition of her advocacy for women’s amenities. In 2023 one of four Sydney Metro-Western Sydney Airport tunnel boring machines was similarly named Peggy.

Research edited by Emily Gallagher

Select Bibliography

  • Dennis, Val. Obituary. Airnews, no. 192 (March 1999): 2–3
  • Kelman, Peggy. ‘Fly-past.’ Australian Women Pilots’ Association Newsletter, no. 44 (March 1962): 9–11
  • Newcastle Sun. ‘A Girl Pilot’s Visit.’ 3 November 1934, 2
  • Sydney Morning Herald. ‘Nomads of the Air.’ 14 March 1935, 12
  • Tulk, Rhonda. Obituary. Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 1999, 16
  • Walton, John. Eulogy given at P. Kelman’s funeral. Unpublished manuscript, 1998. Copy held on ADB file
  • Walton, John. Personal communication

Additional Resources and Scholarship

Citation details

Catherine Hobson, 'Kelman, Margaret Mary (Peggy) (1909–1998)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kelman-margaret-mary-peggy-33171/text41383, published online 2024, accessed online 7 November 2024.

© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2024

Peggy McKillop (left) and Nancy Bird beside Nancy's DH60 Gypsy Moth, April 1935

Peggy McKillop (left) and Nancy Bird beside Nancy's DH60 Gypsy Moth, April 1935

State Library of NSW

More images

pic pic pic

Life Summary [details]

Birth

6 April, 1909
Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland

Death

23 December, 1998 (aged 89)
Buderim, Queensland, Australia

Cause of Death

cancer (not specified)

Cultural Heritage

Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.

Religious Influence

Includes the religion in which subjects were raised, have chosen themselves, attendance at religious schools and/or religious funeral rites; Atheism and Agnosticism have been included.

Education
Occupation
Awards
Clubs
Key Organisations