Edmonds started work as a base grade Clerk in Head Office of the Department of Civil Aviation in 1965.
He worked on teams writing Provisional Master Plans for aerodromes that were to be handed over to local ownership and was promoted to take charge of the Airports Division’s ministerial responsibilities in 1979.
While undertaking his work there, he enrolled as a part time student at the Australian National University, studying political science, sociology and history.
[4] In 1987 Edmonds resigned from the Department to follow an academic career, beginning with enrolment at Murdoch University as a PhD candidate.
[1] As of 2016 Edmonds is working on a three volume concise history of Australian civil aviation in the twentieth century.