Raising Horizons lands in Cairns
A Nautilus Aviation helicopter stole the show as it flew over AFL Cape York House and descended onto the football oval, where more than 100 students from remote communities across Cape York and the Torres Strait were waiting below.
The landing was part of Aviation on the Oval, the final event in the first Cairns delivery of Raising Horizons. Delivered by the Gunggandji Aerospace Foundation in partnership with AFL Cape York House, Raising Horizons gives First Nations students direct experience of the many careers, workplaces and people that make up aviation and aerospace.
The helicopter captured the students’ attention, but it was never the whole story. Around it stood pilots, engineers, Defence personnel, educators, employers and aviation professionals who had come to share their work and help students explore where their own interests could take them.
“It is the industry saying: we came to you. You matter to us,” said Daniel Joinbee, Founder and Managing Director of Gunggandji Aerospace.
Following the successful Townsville pilot in 2025, Cairns is the second Raising Horizons hub established in Far North Queensland.
Seeing aviation from the inside
For many of the students, aviation is already part of everyday life. Across remote communities, it connects people to healthcare, education, work and family. But being surrounded by aviation isn’t the same as being able to see yourself inside the industry.
We all know you can’t be what you can’t see, but young people can’t see what we don’t show them. It’s difficult to imagine yourself in an industry you have never had the opportunity to experience. Raising Horizons gives students the opportunity to explore it for themselves. Across a series of activities scheduled over several months, students entered aviation workplaces and met the people working across the industry.
They walked through the Cairns Aviation Skills Centre, mapped training and career options with Aviation Australia, visited the Jet Aviation hangar and met the Australian Border Force Detector Dog Unit.
Students learned the phonetic alphabet and explored why clear, standardised communication matters in cockpits, Defence, emergency services and ranger operations on Country. They then used it to spell Australian aircraft registrations and their own names.
They also met Gullara McInnes, a Koko-Muluridji woman who uses drones to map and protect cultural heritage sites on Country while studying science and law at James Cook University.
Each experience revealed a different part of aviation, extending the conversation beyond the familiar roles of pilot and engineer and allowing students to connect what they were learning with their own interests.
Joseph, a student at AFL Cape York Boarding house, grew up in the Torres Strait, watching the aircraft go over. "There's lots of planes flying out that way," he says. "I got inspired by my grandpa, too. He used to be in the army, and when he used to talk to me about planes, he always wanted me to be an aviation engineer."
First Nations peoples remain significantly underrepresented across Australian aviation and aerospace, while the sector continues to face workforce shortages and challenges building a strong regional workforce pipeline.
"Those conversations cannot start at recruitment stage," Daniel says. "If industry is serious about building a more diverse and sustainable workforce, relationships need to begin years earlier, before young people make decisions about what they believe is possible for them."
When industry showed up
Aviation on the Oval brought the different parts of the program together in one place.
Nautilus Aviation, Cairns Airport, Aviation Australia, Rex Airlines, MAF International, the Royal Australian Air Force, the Royal Flying Doctor Service, the National Aviation Academy and Toll were among the organisations that contributed to the day.
Students were encouraged to move between activities following their own interests, speaking directly with industry representatives and spending time with the people, aircraft and technologies that captured their curiosity.
That freedom to explore is an important part of Raising Horizons, creating space for young people to be curious, ask questions and discover opportunities they may not previously have known existed.
Cairns Mayor Amy Eden, State Member for Barron River Bree James, and Royal Australian Air Force Group Captain Stewart Dowrie also attended, joining representatives from across aviation, Defence, emergency services, education and training. Their presence reflected the collective effort required to make opportunities more visible and accessible.
The Cairns program concluded with dinners at the AFL Cape York House boys’ and girls’ boarding colleges, bringing students and the Gunggandji Aerospace Foundation team together again after the lessons, visits and experiences they had shared.
For the Foundation, creating one memorable day is not enough. Meaningful pathways depend on trust, continuity and the willingness to remain present after the helicopter has left the oval.
“For us, building trust means being consistent,” Daniel said. “It means being present, building genuine relationships and continuing to show up.“
Choice comes first
Raising Horizons does not ask students to choose aviation. It shows them what is possible and gives them the exposure, relationships and information to decide for themselves what comes next.
Self-determination sits at the centre of the program. If a student decides to pursue something else, but does so with greater confidence and a clearer understanding of the opportunities available, that is still a meaningful outcome.
Joseph is already beginning to define what comes next. He is currently studying a Certificate II in Aircraft Line Maintenance with Aviation Australia. He entered Raising Horizons with an interest in aviation engineering, but the program allowed him to see the wider industry surrounding that pathway and the different directions an initial qualification could lead.
“You’ve just got to listen to the opportunities out there,” he said, “and then finally make a step to take that opportunity.”
The Cairns program concluded with dinners at the AFL Cape York House boys’ and girls’ boarding colleges, bringing students and the Gunggandji Aerospace Foundation team together again after the lessons, visits and experiences they had shared.
For Gunggandji Aerospace, creating one memorable day is not enough. Meaningful pathways depend on trust and continuity.
“For us, building trust means being consistent,” Daniel said. “It means being present, building genuine relationships and continuing to show up.”
Where Joseph’s pathway ultimately leads remains open.
“Hopefully it takes me a long way,” he said. “You just never know what will happen next.”
Watch 7NEWS Cairns’ coverage of Raising Horizons and Aviation on the Oval.