Original words and tune Jake Nelson, talking about Deb Lawrie.
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Fly high Debbie
Show ’em you’re true blue
They’ll drag you right through hell and back
But they’ll never bury you
Fly high Debbie
Get your wheels up off the ground
You’ll smash their bloody boys’ club
And take Reg Ansett down
Oh the year was nineteen seventy six
Deb Lawrie was her name
To be an airline pilot
Was her purpose and her aim
A genius in the cockpit
Her home was in the sky
And if they gave her half a chance
She knew they’d let her fly
Fly high Debbie
Show ’em you’re true blue
They’ll drag you right through hell and back
But they’ll never bury you
Fly high Debbie
Get your wheels up off the ground
You’ll smash their bloody boys’ club
And take Reg Ansett down
So Deb applied for Ansett
Two years her claim she pressed
She crushed in every interview
Excelled in every test
But in each and every letter,
Reg Ansett did reply
“My airplanes’ yokes are just for blokes
It ain’t safe for girls to fly”
Fly high Debbie
Show ’em you’re true blue
They’ll drag you right through hell and back
But they’ll never bury you
Fly high Debbie
Get your wheels up off the ground
You’ll smash their bloody boys’ club
And take Reg Ansett down
Well, Deb took Ansett to the Board
And swiftly won her case
“She’s as good as any man,” they said,
“And she deserves a place”
But Reg, he vowed to fight her
Through courts both low and high
“As long as I’m in charge ’round here
That girl will never fly”
Fly high Debbie
Show ’em you’re true blue
They’ll drag you right through hell and back
But they’ll never bury you
Fly high Debbie
Get your wheels up off the ground
You’ll smash their bloody boys’ club
And take Reg Ansett down
Then the women of Australia
As one rose up to say
“If Ansett keeps this bullshit up
We’ll switch to TAA”
Their voices rang across the land
In chorus they did cry
“We’ll send your bloody airline bust
If you don’t let Debbie fly”
Fly high Debbie
Show ’em you’re true blue
They’ll drag you right through hell and back
But they’ll never bury you
Fly high Debbie
Get your wheels up off the ground
You’ll smash their bloody boys’ club
And take Reg Ansett down
In the year of nineteen eighty
The winds of change did blow
When Ansett got new management
Who said “give Deb a go”
So on a Fokker Friendship
From the Alice hot and dry
After four hard years of fighting
Debbie finally got to fly
Fly high Debbie
Show ’em you’re true blue
They’ll drag you right through hell and back
But they’ll never bury you
Fly high Debbie
Get your wheels up off the ground
You’ll smash their bloody boys’ club
And take Reg Ansett down
Now Ansett may be dead and gone
But folks I’m proud to say
At Virgin, Deb’s a Captain
And she still flies jets today
And down at Sydney Airport
If you look you might just spy
That over Reginald Ansett Drive
Deb’s name will ever fly
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More songs by Jake Nelson
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