Air FraserIsland

Harry Geltch began flying joy flights off Fraser Island's 75 Mile Beach in the mid-1970s, having arrived on a chartered fishing trip from the New South Wales Central Coast and relocated his business, Harry's Air Charter, to the Fraser Coast. His son Gerry became Chief Pilot in 1992, working the beach alongside his father before taking over, and Gerry's son Troy joined the family's roster of pilots in 2008. Air Fraser Island now flies a GippsAero GA8 Airvan (VH-BNX and VH-BFS, seven passengers and a pilot) and a Cessna 172 Skyhawk (VH-UFH, three passengers and a pilot) out of Sunshine Coast and Hervey Bay airports, landing and taking off on the beach itself — one of very few commercial operations anywhere to use a beach as a runway. Scenic flights track over Lake McKenzie, Lake Wabby, Butterfly Lake, the Maheno shipwreck, Eli Creek, Central Station and the Pinnacles. The company has now carried more than 23,500 passengers and remains a three-generation Geltch family operation, run from the same stretch of sand Harry first landed on.