The Golden West: 50 Voices
Over the coming months, we are profiling 50 of the most fascinating people in Western NSW - the architects who built our towns, the frontline workers protecting them and the agitators leading us into the future.
This story is part of Chapter 1: The Architects.
The first time Beryl Hartley went flying the thing that struck her was how cold it was.
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It was the middle of winter and her boyfriend at the time, the son of an Australian gliding champion, invited her to go up in his glider as he attempted to set a winter gliding time record.
"I had a pair of slip-ons and cotton pants, and he had socks and moccasins on and off we went," the 79-year-old Narromine local said.
"The first thing I realised was how cold it is when you get in the air. And we couldn't land because this is a competition. We had to stay up there.
"It was the first time that I had seen the ground from the air. So that was magical."
Growing up in southwestern Queensland in a horse racing family, that was the first time Hartley had ever seen a glider.
But it sparked what would become a lifelong passion which would take Hartley to great heights all around the world.
"I'm not a great pilot and I don't set any records, fly any competitions or do anything like that. But I have been so fortunate in the places I've flown and the people I've flown with," Hartley said.
While some are content to merely ride the thermals, the Golden West relies on its architects - and Hartley was about to build an empire in the clouds.
Building a mecca in the western sky
Hartley and her then-husband moved to Narromine in 1974 and started the Narromine Soaring Center at the airfield which the federal government had just passed over to council.
She said the Soaring Centre was "a big deal" when it first opened, with students travelling from around Australia and the world to train in Narromine.
Local hotels were often booked out just from the gliders.
"It was an exciting time, we were young, it was a great thing. It was before we had the proliferation of aviation activity that we have now," she said.
"There was power flying and there was gliding. Now there are so many ways of getting into the air - the paragliders, the hang gliders - all that stuff now wasn't around then.
"You either had a bit of money and went power flying or had time and you went gliding."
The Soaring Centre attracted some big names too, from in the aviation scene and out of it. One guest Hartley remembers fondly is three-time Formula One World Championship driver Jack Brabham.
"When it was lunchtime, everyone went and did what they're doing and the only car that was down [at the airfield] was my old car," she said.
"He said, 'oh, we'd like to go and get some lunch... Could we borrow a car?'
"And he went into Hargraves and got his fish and chips... no one would have recognized him as Jack Brabham in this really, really ancient old English vehicle."
Hartley moved away from Narromine for a while and remarried. Her new husband was also an aviation enthusiast, working in avionics with Qantas.
Eventually, the couple moved back to Narromine and started their own business.
"We came back here in 1990 and we came to do a lot of gliding and a little bit of avionics," she said.
"We set up a business called Airborne Avionics. And for 20 years we did a lot of that nowhere near enough gliding. I said, 'look, this is silly, we need to retire again'."
A $2.1m engine for a regional town
Since flying onto the gliding scene, Hartley has taken on many leadership roles. She's been President of the Narromine Gliding Club, treasurer of NSW Gliding Club and a board member for the Gliding Federation of Australia.
Throughout her career, she has supported Australian international teams 22 times as crew and team manager and the Japanese team four times as team manager.
"I love the competition part of it but I also love the period building up to it and getting organised," she said.
When Hartley isn't globetrotting she's making a mark closer to home. She was pivotal in organising the World Gliding Championships at Narromine in 2015 and 2023.
"When you look at the benefit to the town... we put $2.1 million into this community with that one event. That's considerable," she said, recalling the 2023 championships.
"We put over $3000 every night into the local cafes and that's important in a community like this."
Hartley is also Treasurer of the Narromine Aviation Museum and spends a few days a week at the museum, sharing the history of one of the last remaining airfields in regional NSW.
Prized exhibits include the first plane to ever land in Narromine in 1919, lovingly restored with the help of the Dubbo Men's Shed, and a working replica of the Wright brother's aircraft, which featured in a Japanese commercial and attracted a visit from Buzz Aldrin in 2005.
Preserving the ghosts of Narromine's runways
When curious guests walk into the museum, Hartley enthusiastically shares stories about Narromine's aviation history - from a World War II airforce training facility to the 1950s, when the airfield was a fully-equipped international airport as a bad weather alternative to Mascot.
Hartley's own story is now also shared in the museum. Displayed proudly in the gliding exhibit is the Nancy-Bird Walton Memorial Trophy, the Australian Women Pilots' Association's most prestigious award, given to Hartley in 2024.
Renowned aviator Walton - who the award was named for - has her own connection to the museum, Hartley says.
She turned the first sod and was there on opening day.
"I looked around the room and I thought, I don't know why I've won this because there's such amazing women here... I think it's because I've been here for a long time," Hartley said, recalling the award ceremony.
"There are some fantastic women pilots out there and they're getting better and better and better. They're very clever girls."
'The sport will die with the old men'
For the past couple of decades, Hartley said she has been especially interested in encouraging participation in gliding for women and young people.
"When I started flying, the instructors were all the men who had been boys in World War II so they were in their late 30s, early 40s. Now most of them are gone," she said.
"If we don't grow our juniors and women, the sport will die with the old men.
"Women's role in society has changed and I see the success of things like the Matildas and the football and the cricket and our girls are winning those things."
As Hartley nears her 80th birthday, she's looking to pass on some of her roles to the next generation of gliders.
But for Beryl, the time, the effort and the money have been worth it.
"I look back and think of what I've put into it and I've got more out of it. I think if you can say that, you feel very fortunate in what you've been able to achieve out of what you've done," she said.
"I don't regret any of it."
