History of the Trust

History of the Trust

Connellan Airways Trust was established by founder E.J Connellan and the shareholders of Connellan Airlines in 1981 to acknowledge the challenges of isolation and distance.



E.J’s vision was to encourage people to pursue further learning and development whilst living and working in Outback Australia.



This Territorian pioneer, aviator and pastoralist convinced the shareholders of Connellan Airways that a substantial amount of proceeds from the sale of the airline should be applied to the establishment of a Trust. Following the sale of Connair (formally Connellan Airways) and due to the efforts of E.J and the generosity of many, the Deed of the Trust was established on June 12, 1981. E.J’s meetings with the Prime Minister of the time Malcolm Fraser and his Deputy, Doug Anthony influenced the amendments to the then taxation laws to ensure that all contributions to the Trust would be tax deductible.



The Connellan Airways Trust was officially launched by the Deputy Prime Minister, Doug Anthony on February, 11 of 1983 at the Aviation Museum in Alice Springs.

The Trust was founded to commemorate all those who have lived and worked in the Outback and endured the privations and the remoteness of the Outback.

Today the ‘Connellan Airways Trust’ remains a charitable non-profit, administered by a company with a Board of Directors whose services are honorary. This is the continuation of the community spirit that E.J excited. The duties of the Directors are to nurture the assets of the Trust to ensure support of the outback in perpetuity and to assess funding applications to the Trust against the objectives of the Deed.

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