Lawrie encouraged by her husband Peter Wardley, an Air Traffic Controller, first applied to Ansett Airlines in 1976 and kept sending applications for two years.
During that time, 10 fellow male flying instructors were accepted into the Ansett pilot training program.
[8] Reg Ansett denied the allegation of discrimination but admitted that it was his strong personal view that women were not suited to be airline pilots.
[9] This led to public demonstration marches in August 1979,[10] and a successful 'girl-cot': businesses were encouraged by women to transfer their travel accounts from Ansett to Trans Australia Airlines and, in the first six months, Ansett lost more than 50 per cent of its business travel and a lot never returned.
Two days later Rupert Murdoch issued a memo directing that she was to be treated the same as the male pilot candidates.
However, simply removing the most formal of exclusionary practices did not dissolve barriers,[18] and so continuing prejudices and obstacles mean that female commercial airline pilots are still rare in Australia.
[15] After reaching the mandatory retirement age for airline pilots in Europe, Lawrie returned to Australia in 2008.
[3] She joined Jetstar Airways as Safety Investigations Manager and occasional pilot to maintain her Airbus A320 type rating.
Lawrie was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours in recognition of her "significant service to aviation as a commercial pilot, and to women in the profession".
[27] Lawrie, who was present at the flyover's name unveiling, said she was "honoured to be recognised as a trailblazer for women in aviation".