Living History

Beatles arrival in Australia

The Beatles first touch down in Australia was at Darwin airport. They were due to arrive during the early hours of the morning and a group of friends and I wanted to go out to the airport to try to get a glimpse of these famous people whose music we all constantly absorbed.

As you can imagine our parents were not as enamoured as we were and refused to get up and transport this group of 14 & 15 year olds out to the airport. So keen were we to get to the airport we ensured our push-bikes were up to scratch the day before and rode out to the airport in the dark and along the edge of non-guttered roads. We had torches strapped to the handlebars but of course they were not aligned properly to show up the road surface properly.

Our enthusiasm was rewarded as were at the front of the crowd against the single rope barrier to stop access to the tarmac. How exciting it was as the plane landed, the doors opened and the stairs pushed into place. Before The Beatles emerged two very athletic girls jumped the rope and dodged past the few police and made it across the tarmac and up a couple of the stairs before being tackled and taken away.

Eventually The Beatles emerged and walked down the stairs, across the tarmac, into the terminal then came out onto an open verandah above the area where we were standing to wave and talk (yell) with the crowd. The girls who made it to the stairs never go to see The Beatles and I believe were quarantined for a while after the event but were given a personally autographed picture of The Beatles.

The push bike ride home was so easy as I am sure we were all running on excitement!

Kate, Ngunnawal, Australian Capital Territory

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