Qantas’s inaugural Dreamliner flight will travel from Melbourne to Los Angeles – but not until December 2017.
But the carrier already has names for all eight 787-9 Dreamliners to be added to its fleet.
Customers sent in more than 60,000 suggestions and the public was asked to vote for the ‘keepers,’ which are:
Great Barrier Reef, Boomerang, Skippy, Waltzing Matilda, Uluru, Great Southern Land, Quokka and Dreamtime.
Some of those names are easy to connect with Australia; others need a little context, which Qantas has been kind enough to provide:
- Great Barrier Reef: an ecosystem comprising of reefs and hundreds of islands off coast of Queensland.
- Boomerang: a traditional hunting tool of First Australians, with a bent or curved shape; also used in music and sport.
- Skippy: an Australian television series featuring a young boy and his intelligent pet kangaroo ‘Skippy’.
- Waltzing Matilda: Bush-ballad narrating the story of a swagman.
- Uluru: A sacred monolith in the heart in Australia’s Northern Territory’s
- Great Southern Land: A term used to describe Australia.
- Quokka: A type of marsupial from the island of Rottnest near Perth, Australia.
- Dreamtime: The English word used to describe First Australians’ understanding of the creation period.