He also established a number of other business enterprises including Ansett Pioneer coachlines, Ansett Freight Express, Ansair coachbuilders, Gateway Hotels, Diners Club Australia, Biro Bic Australia[1] and the ATV-0 television station in Melbourne and TVQ-0 in Brisbane which later became part of Network Ten.
[4] In late 1979, mainly due to the collapse of ASL,[5] Ansett lost control of the company to Peter Abeles of TNT and Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation who became joint managing directors.
[1] After the war, his father established a knitting factory in Camberwell and Ansett gained qualifications as a knitting-machine mechanic at Swinburne Technical College.
On returning to Victoria in December 1931, with his savings he purchased a second-hand Studebaker and began a service car operation between Ballarat and Maryborough carrying passengers and small items of freight.
[1] By 1935, Ansett Motors and other operators were proving a thorn in the side of Victorian Railways, taking both passenger and freight revenue.
[7] On 17 February 1936 Ansett Airways Pty Ltd inaugurated its first service, from Hamilton to Melbourne using a diminutive six-seater Fokker F.XI Universal.
To help boost his funds, he entered, but failed to win, the Brisbane to Adelaide air race in 1936, losing to C. D. Pratt overall, and to Mr & Mrs J. W. F Collins in the speed section (also being beaten by Ivy May Pearce, one of a number of female competitors).
[1] To fund its expansion, he listed the company on the Melbourne Stock Exchange on 14 April 1937, offering 250 000 shares at £1 ($2) each.
[6] His bankers refused to advance the money to pay Lockheed £50 000 ($100 000) for the Electras which were being held in bond awaiting payment of £14 000 ($28 000) in duty.
[7] To pay Lockheed, he went back to the banks who agreed to finance the purchase providing his wealthy grazier investors guaranteed the loan.
[1] While Holyman did not take Ansett Airways seriously, he was attempting to create a major airline monopoly in Australia.
Around this time, Ansett Airways continued to receive a subsidy payment of around £16 000 ($32 000) per annum from the Commonwealth government.
In 1942, he abandoned all his airline routes except Melbourne-Hamilton and concentrated on performing engineering work and charter flights for the United States Army Air Corps.
[1] The Essendon hangar was expanded and by war's end the tiny Ansett organisation was employing around 2,000 people.
[7] The Ansett organisation finished the war flush with cash but facing trouble trying to regain its airline routes which had been taken over by ANA.
On 22 December 1944, acting prime minister Frank Forde announced the government would legislate to nationalize all interstate airlines.
As he gradually obtained new routes out of Melbourne, he made the decision to position Ansett Airways as a low cost competitor offering no-frills flights between the major capitals.
In 1956, he established an airfreight business using Aviation Traders Carvairs which were Douglas DC-4s converted to enable cargo to be loaded through the nose.
In 1947, Ansett started offering services to resorts on the Great Barrier Reef using Catalina flying boats.
The ANA board tried to get the Commonwealth to buy the airline and merge it with TAA, however, their asking price was considered ludicrous[citation needed].
[12] The ailing ANA operation was taken over by Ansett Transport Industries to create a new national airline: Ansett-ANA.
Ansett was now in the big time, but he still had to make Ansett-ANA competitive with the government airline, TAA, which was much better managed and had a superior aircraft fleet.
Reg Ansett had advocated the act to stop TAA from buying French Sud Aviation Caravelle aircraft which would have been the first jets imported into Australia.
Ansett expanded his television interests to become a major shareholder in Universal Telecasters, licencees of TVQ-0 Brisbane, in 1965 and buying out the station entirely in 1970.
[16] On 29 June 1979, the Equal Opportunity Board ruled in favor of Wardley[16] and directed that Ansett Airlines should recruit her at the next intake.
[16] In late 1979, Abeles and Rupert Murdoch launched a successful takeover of Ansett Transport Industries.
In 1980, Ansett sold TVQ-0 to a joint venture between petrol company Ampol and Sydney radio station 2SM.
In later years they were to become bitter business rivals as Ansett Transport Industries owned a competing company, Avis, which at the time held a monopoly on hire car services at Australian airports.
[20] Ansett fell ill several months before his death, and returned home from the Peninsula Private Hospital at Frankston to spend Christmas with his family.
First indications of the seriousness of his illness came at the annual meeting of Ansett Transport Industries Ltd in November when, for the first time in 44 years, he failed to attend and give his chairman's address.