Griffith, New South Wales

In January 2006 a very dear mate of mine, Angelo Piccolo, invited myself and my partner Michelle to his wedding. It was a huge thrill for us. Angelo, affectionately known as Bull to his friends, was someone I met at University and we resided at the same college, St John’s, for some years together. He is a larger than life character, the quintessential big hearted, loyal, Italian boy who has done extremely well in his chosen field of engineering. So I was determined to get to his big day and celebrate his union with the gorgeous Carmel.

It so happens that Bull and Carmel reside in Leeton, in the Riverina area of New South Wales. The fact that he was getting married in the last days of January did not make the prospect of an eight hour drive from Sydney to Leeton seem all that attractive. So I started to investigate the best way to fly there and I discovered that Rex Airlines were my only option. Nevertheless, they proved to be exactly what I was after.

As I always emphasize to travelers with disabilities one has to be prepared to do a little research and work at communicating with those with whom you will be dealing to ensure you have a good journey. So rather than just book a flight over the phone I of course went into a deep conversation with the booking personnel and told them of my particular needs, namely that I would need to travel with a heavy electric wheelchair.

I was given the contact details of a fellow by the name of David Bannell who is the Manager responsible for Rex Airlines and their National Airport Operations and Security. He was extremely helpful and after a few email exchanges ensured that I would be right to travel.

Rex is an airline that predominantly serves regional travel so they have small aircrafts thus the difficulties the staff face with a wheelchair like mine is the loading of it into the cargo hold. Nevertheless they did with aplomb both in Sydney and Griffith.

Being a little bloke has its advantages of course as it is always pretty easy to transfer me from my wheelchair into the airline wheelchair for boarding, and then into the seat on the aircraft. Larger travelers would find the small aircraft tight, I would imagine, bur from the experience I had I am sure the Rex staff would do what they could to make it as comfortable a journey as they could.

In Griffith the Disabled Taxi service was among the best I have ever experienced. They were prompt, courteous and were keen to do what they could to ensure our stage was comfortable.

As for the wedding, it was a huge affair with over nine hundred guests and a celebration that I shall never forget.

REX AIRLINES
www.rex.com.au
David Bannell for accessible requirements: David.bannell@rex.com.au

GRIFFITH TAXIS
Ph 02 6964 1443

back to the top of the page

back to Matt's accessibility.com.au articles

back to Travelling and Getting Beyond The Front Gate