My early memories of Max Hazelton

— BY DICK PAGE —

During the 1950s I, and many others, spent many hours fulfilling our duties as national servicemen.

On one occasion, at Singleton army base, we had completed a fortnight of an annual refresher course and were due to return home to Orange by train. The train journey was a military special dropping o “nashos” at Lithgow, Bathurst, Orange and stations west. The journey to Orange took about 15 to 18 hours.

Three of us (nashos) decided it would be great if we could get home sooner.

We contacted Max to see if he could fly over to Singleton and pick us up, which he was happy to do. He had just recently bought his first new plane, an Auster (like the one shown above).

We got permission from the base Commander for Max to land on the parade ground, which thinking back wasn’t really suitable for a landing area. However, it didn’t seem to concern Max too much as he landed at the arranged time and taxied across to the three of us and our kit bags waiting at the perimeter.

He looked at us, three average-sized nineteen-year-olds and our kit bags, and said that the Auster would need a longer take-o area than the parade ground if the three of us and the bags were on board. A bit disappointing to hear, thinking that this would be the end of our anticipated flight home.

Max then came up with a plan that would achieve the flight home for the three of us.

He loaded one of us and the bags onto the plane, then took o and landed on an old disused military airstrip, which was considerably longer than the parade

DisabilityAssistanceAnimalsvsEmotionalSupportAnimals

We’ve all heard of disability assistance animals, but what about ‘therapy animals’? Recent statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicate that over two in five Australians aged between 16 and 85 years have experienced a mental disorder, with depression and anxiety ranking as some of the more prevalent afflictions. One method for alleviating the effects of mental illness is to seek the companionship of a pet, or as they are formally known, an Emotional Support Animal (ESA).

Though ESA’s have been said to increase the mental wellbeing of people suffering from these disorders, they are yet to be recognised by Australian law. Under legislation, ESAs are treated as distinct from assistance animals, meaning each is the subject of differing rules and prohibitions. But how are they distinguished? It is a common misconception that the difference between assistance animals and ESAs is the type of disability they are alleviating – i.e., physical disability vs. mental disability. However, in reality, the main distinguishing factor under law is the level of training required of the animal to fulfil their desired purpose.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA), an assistance animal is defined as any animal that is trained and/or accredited to assist a person with a disability to alleviate the effects of that disability. For clarity, the Act broadly describes ‘disability’ as the loss of a person’s physical OR mental functions, meaning that any animal accredited to assist a person suffering either a physical or psychological disability, will be recognised as an assistance animal.

ground, and not that far away. He left the bags and the one passenger there, returned to the parade ground and picked up the remaining two of us, and flew back to the waiting bloke at the airstrip.

I remember thinking while we gathering speed along the strip for take-o , the poor little plane was struggling to get airbourne.

The trip home from the airstrip to Orange was only about an hour and fifteen minutes, marvellous!

What good memories, thanks again Max!

Dick Page

Despite early controversy in relation to the appropriateness of an animal’s presence in indoor public domains, such as the cabins of airplanes, hospitals, and supermarkets, assistance animals in general, and especially “guide dogs”, have gradually become accepted in Australian society as commonplace. Preventing a person with a disability from being accompanied by their assistance animal has even been ruled as unlawfully discriminatory under the DDA (see case of Mulligan v Virgin Australia Pty Ltd [2015]).

Contrastingly, Emotional Support Animals are not held to any legislated standards in terms of behaviour or hygiene; theyprovide relief and comfort to people experiencing mental health disorders merely through their presence, rather than by way of any specifically required training. ESAs are also the subject of stricter exclusions in the public domain – i.e., it is not discriminatory to prevent a therapy animal from entering certain environments, given their lack of training/applicable hygiene standards.

This area of the law remains controversial and is likely to be the subject of further developments into the future. Is it fair to apply different rules to ESAs merely because their benefit is derived from their presence rather than specific training? Is it even possible to train a dog to develop emotional intelligence? On the flip side, how do we prevent every person who believes their beloved pet is entitled to certain benefits from claiming emotional affliction?

Legislation concerning animals is of increasingly growing concern to the general public, and is sure to undergo further evolution in coming years.

Thisarticledoesnotconstitutelegaladviceandprovidesgeneralinformationonly.