Nancy Bird Walton: The Angel of the Outback — Reading Comprehension — Answers
Answer sheet with model answers and success criteria for the Year 5 reading comprehension comprehension exercise.
Year 5 · English · Reading Comprehension
Nancy Bird Walton: The Angel of the Outback — Reading Comprehension — Answers
Nancy Bird Walton: The Angel of the Outback
Read the biography carefully. Notice how it moves through Nancy's life in time order.
Nancy Bird was born in Kew, on the north coast of New South Wales, in 1915. At that time aeroplanes were new and exciting, and most people had never been near one. Nancy was different. As a young girl she folded paper planes, read everything she could find about flying and told anyone who would listen that one day she would be a pilot.
In 1933, at just seventeen, she travelled to Sydney to take flying lessons at a school run by Charles Kingsford Smith, the most famous aviator in Australia. She was so short that she needed cushions behind her back to reach the controls. It did not matter. In 1935, aged nineteen, Nancy earned her commercial pilot's licence, becoming the youngest Australian woman to do so.
With help from her father, she bought a small plane of her own and set off to earn a living in the air. She gave joy flights at country shows, charging passengers a few shillings for a few minutes above the paddocks. Then she took on a very different job. In the far west of New South Wales, families lived hundreds of kilometres from the nearest hospital. Nancy was hired to fly a nurse to remote stations and towns for the Far West Children's Health Scheme. She carried sick children, new mothers and medical supplies across country with no proper airstrips, often landing in paddocks. Locals called her the 'Angel of the Outback'.
Nancy stopped flying for a living when she married in 1939, but she never left aviation behind. During the Second World War she trained women to support the air force. In 1950 she founded the Australian Women Pilots' Association so that women flyers could meet and support one another.
Nancy Bird Walton died in 2009 at the age of 93. The year before, Qantas had named its first giant A380 aircraft after her, and the new international airport in western Sydney also carries her name. The girl who folded paper planes had become one of the most honoured pilots in Australia's history.
Part A — Right there in the text
Find each answer in the biography.
Answer: In Kew, on the north coast of New South Wales, in 1915.
- Aher father
- BCharles Kingsford Smith
- Ca nurse
- DQantas
Answer: Charles Kingsford Smith
The text says the school was 'run by Charles Kingsford Smith'.
Answer: Nineteen (in 1935).
Answer: She gave joy flights, charging passengers a few shillings for a few minutes in the air.
- Aa doctor
- Ba teacher
- Ca nurse
- Da priest
Answer: a nurse
The text says she 'was hired to fly a nurse to remote stations and towns'.
Answer: The Australian Women Pilots' Association.
Part B — Reading between the lines
Use evidence from the text to explain your answers.
Answer: She was determined. Being too short to reach the controls could have stopped her, but she found a way around the problem.
Answer: She brought medical help to people who lived far from hospitals, like an angel coming from the sky to help them.
Answer: There were no proper airstrips, so she often had to land in paddocks, and towns were hundreds of kilometres apart with little help nearby.
Answer: To show how far Nancy came, from a girl dreaming about flying to a pilot with an aircraft and an airport named after her. It links the end of the biography back to the beginning.
Part C — Word meanings
- Aa mechanic
- Ba person who flies aircraft
- Ca nurse
- Da passenger
Answer: a person who flies aircraft
Kingsford Smith is described as 'the most famous aviator in Australia' and he ran a flying school, so an aviator is a pilot.
- Avery large
- Bvery old
- Cfar away from other places
- Dnear the city
Answer: far away from other places
The text says families lived 'hundreds of kilometres from the nearest hospital', so remote means far away.
Answer: Even though she stopped flying as a job, she stayed involved with flying by training women and starting a pilots' association.
Part D — Summary
Model answer: Nancy Bird was born in New South Wales in 1915 and dreamed of flying from a young age. At seventeen she learnt to fly with Charles Kingsford Smith, and in 1935, aged nineteen, she became the youngest Australian woman to earn a commercial pilot's licence. She bought her own plane and flew a nurse to remote families in western New South Wales, earning the name 'Angel of the Outback'. After marrying in 1939 she kept supporting aviation, founding the Australian Women Pilots' Association in 1950. She died in 2009, aged 93, honoured with a Qantas aircraft and an airport named after her.
Success criteria:
- Five to seven complete sentences
- At least four dates or ages, in the correct order
- Covers her early life, her flying career and her later honours
- Written in the student's own words
- Correct punctuation, including capital letters for names
Marking tips
- Give credit for correct method even when the final answer slips — the working shows where the thinking went right.
- For open-ended tasks, use the success criteria as a checklist rather than looking for one "right" answer.
- Celebrate what went well first, then pick one thing to work on next.
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