Her history: One FM breakfast presenter Terri Cowley has produced an audio documentary about an aviation accident that changed her family forever.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Terri Cowley was a child sitting at the kitchen table when her father first recounted the tragic mid-air plane collision that killed her paternal grandfather long before she was born. As a storyteller, she has always wanted to put the dark moment in Australian aviation and her family’s history on the record. Now the One FM radio host has done just that, in a touching audio documentary that will grace airwaves across the country.
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When she applied to take part in the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia’s National Features and Documentary Series, Terri had an important story to tell, and recordings of raw interviews with her extended family under her belt.
“I already had this project I needed to advance, but I lacked the audio skills — I needed a catalyst to complete it,” she said.
More than 60 years ago, trainee pilot Edward Cowley, 45, was one of three fatalities in a two-plane accident at Sydney’s Bankstown Airport.
Today his four sons, now aged between 78 and 90, still grieve the tragedy.
Terri’s uncle Ted witnessed his father’s collision as a 17-year-old and was one of the first on the scene.
Terri heard the sad tale told briefly many times growing up, and in recent years felt compelled to dig deeper, to capture the truth of what that day meant to her loved ones.
Terri sat down with extended family members one by one, to ask them what they remembered.
The result is a poignant audio story titled Pilot Episode, which weaves history and human emotion to go beyond an oft-repeated set of facts.
Terri says the response of her family to the documentary has been positive.
“I felt quite trusted, because they were quite vulnerable to me,” she said.
“They've all been really kind and come back and said that they really liked the way it was done.”
The documentary was made possible when Terri was awarded a place among producers from eight Australian community radio stations to take part in an annual training opportunity.
Education and mentoring from the Community Media Training Organisation taught the experienced print and broadcast journalist a new way to tell stories.
“The whole point is to skill up that community sector, and now these documentaries go out to the whole community network across Australia,” Terri said.
She plans to continue using her newfound set of skills at One FM, where she was supported to pursue further training.
